No chip seen by me. Your perception is correct. Really good value for the money. I don’t think you can audition anywhere… and they are not comparable to McIntosh, Audio Research, Boulder and the like. Very safe bet for the money.
Does Anyone Buy Schiit for the Sake of Schiit?
Most of us I think when buying something where workmanship and materials are less critical than price will go to a discount store like Walmart of Target (I think we've all heard they about calling it Tar-zhay because it's classier than Walmart) or Costco - the sort of stores where what you buy is not the best but it's always good for what you pay for it. I'm wondering, is Schiit the audio equivalent of Target? That is, does anyone buy it because the Schiit gear is particularly good, or merely that it's good for the price? The only Schiit product that I've ever bought is the Asgard as a headphone amp, since I don't use headphones that often, and I wasn't going to put a lot of money into it. Actually, I tried the Vali 2+ at first, and that seemed rather inadequate, so I sent it back and got the Asgard instead. It seems good enough, though I don't have much to compare it to, but it seems to struggle a bit in getting to higher volume levels.