Lake People G103-S Mk II vs Schiit Asgard 3

Short answer

  • More power: the Schiit Asgard 3, with 3.50 W into 32 Ω; the Lake People G103-S Mk II has 1.00 W. The Schiit Asgard 3 drives 1 headphone to 100 dB that the Lake People G103-S Mk II cannot (Symphonium Titan).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: no headphone here hisses audibly on one and not on the other.
  • Price: the Schiit Asgard 3 costs $71 less and gives up nothing on power, output impedance or hiss against the 567 headphones here. Whatever the extra money for the Lake People G103-S Mk II buys, it is not these three numbers.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $350 against $279.

The Schiit Asgard 3 reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Lake People G103-S Mk II on 566.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationLake People G103-S Mk IISchiit Asgard 3
Power into 32Ω1.0 W3.5 W
Power into 150Ω804 mW972 mW
Power into 300Ω580 mW600 mW
Power into 600Ω340 mW300 mW
Output impedance0.1 Ω0.2 Ω
Output noise6.15 µV1.5 µV unverified
Price$350$279
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
566567

Where each power figure comes from

LoadLake People G103-S Mk IISchiit Asgard 3
32 ΩPublishedPublished
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩPublishedPublished
600 ΩPublishedPublished

Both makers publish a power rating. Lake People G103-S Mk II publishes at 32 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω; Schiit Asgard 3 at 32 Ω, at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

The two publish at the same loads, which is the one case where the rows of this table can be read straight across.

What the labels mean.

The headphones that tell them apart

1 headphone reaches 100 dB on the Schiit Asgard 3 but not on the Lake People G103-S Mk II — Symphonium Titan.

566 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both.

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the Campfire Audio Andromeda 2020: Schiit Asgard 3 has +28 dB of headroom there against +18 dB. 10 dB is about 10 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Schiit Asgard 3 because that maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsLake People G103-S Mk II headroomSchiit Asgard 3 headroomLake People G103-S Mk II hissSchiit Asgard 3 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+38 dB+48 dB30 dBnot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+18 dB+28 dB10 dBnot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+32 dB+34 dB8 dBnot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+30 dB+30 dB4 dBnot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+20 dB+27 dB3 dBnot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+24 dB+24 dB-3 dBnot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+19 dB+20 dB-7 dBnot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+14 dB+16 dB-9 dBnot published

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Lake People G103-S Mk II costs $71 more than the Schiit Asgard 3, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the Lake People G103-S Mk II handles and the Schiit Asgard 3 does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper Schiit Asgard 3 drives one model to 100 dB that the Lake People G103-S Mk II does not.

Only published figures count here; blank axes are counted separately.

Both pages in full

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