I have had this since 3 drops ago and have yet to have any issues as stated recently. Sorry to hear about them as the unit is a solid kit. I have a Mullard tube in mine but the stock is not half bad either for a Chinese generic tube. My day to day listeners are a pair of LCD-2's and this thing has no issues driving them but they are a 50 Ohm headphone so at the 12 o'clock position they are LOUD. One thing I did notice however is that the output power going to the tube is very low so impact from rolling to better tubes may be minimal. One thing to note about the solid build on my unit I am not getting any tube noise from disturbances to the unit. (when you tap the chassis with your finger you can hear it through the headphones) I have a schiit lyr where you can hear that so i am curious how i can duplicate the build quality to my schiit.
aelmoreJust a hint to dress up your Asgard 2. I got 2 black #18 rubber grommets from the plumbing section at Home Depot and stretched them over the volume nob. Makes it easier to turn and no heat on your fingers. Went to Staples and got small sticky back paper circles (no black). Colored one with a black permanent marker and put it over the indentation on the volume nob. You can now see where it is set. It actually looks like it came from the factory that way.