hifinutt
25-12-2018, 18:13
just a few thoughts on the Schiit freya pre amp which costs about $700 new . So having had the excellent Schiit saga [courtesy of jerry] I got the higher model some months back and been comparing the two pre amps in 2 systems .
its a reasonably weighty pre amp with a volume knob that clicks when you turn and has a remote control , the manual is quite colourful and this is a flavour
IN NORSE MYTHOLOGY, Freya is a goddess associated with love, sex,
beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death.
LEAVING ASIDE THOSE LAST THREE, THAT SOUNDS PRETTY COOL.
SHE ALSO APPARENTLY HAD CATS. YEAH.
WE DON’T RECOMMEND YOU LET YOUR CATS SLEEP ON FREYA,
BUT WE’RE NOT GONNA COMMENT FURTHER.
and
Plug the end of the supplied IEC cord in
here. You can also use fancy audiophile
types, but they won’t really do anything—
what about the thousands of feet of crap
copper cables in your walls, huh?
it has xlr in and out and a number of rca inputs and output , it has 3 modes i.e passive , JFET buffer or tube gain .
Using the pre amp mainly in tube mode which i prefer i had to replace the stock russian tubes after one started getting noisy and put in tungsol and been pretty quiet in use . Using this with fairly sensitive impulse taus horn speakers modded by RFC and the well known firebottle hybrid monoblocks . these are a very neutral amp and using stock tubes in these .
At first i preferred the slightly warmer presentation of the saga but quickly found that the Freya had a slight edge in terms of resolution and bounce . I can`t put into words very well but the Freya is very linear in presentation , my modwright DM 36.5 had a beautiful midrange but the freya is completely linear . It sounds very very LIVE and vocals are beautifully reproduced and electronica is very holographic .
Using XLR from the dac into the pre amp gives gain and more slam but i prefer the rather more gentle RCA input as the Ta`us are fairly big beasts and its very slightly warmer presentaion with RCA perhaps
I have compared it to the Bel canto pre 3 vbs with the msb class A amp and its more transparent than the bel canto , just like a music first pre amp fairly high up the scale too . But the bel canto has so many strengths that i like to use that , i.e HTB and individual volume to each channel
So just a few thoughts to suggest an alternative to the very many expensive pre amps out there , the freya is highly commended . you will ask if i have tried the other modes , well yes briefly but the don`t have the `bounce` and verve of the tube output
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4876/32588647758_bdece3329a_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/RDKkBd)P1060454 (https://flic.kr/p/RDKkBd) by [/url], on Flickr
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1866/43673206794_8c04c6d650_k.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158267783@N02/)P1060387 (https://flic.kr/p/29xfAQ3) by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/158267783@N02/], on Flickr
its a reasonably weighty pre amp with a volume knob that clicks when you turn and has a remote control , the manual is quite colourful and this is a flavour
IN NORSE MYTHOLOGY, Freya is a goddess associated with love, sex,
beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death.
LEAVING ASIDE THOSE LAST THREE, THAT SOUNDS PRETTY COOL.
SHE ALSO APPARENTLY HAD CATS. YEAH.
WE DON’T RECOMMEND YOU LET YOUR CATS SLEEP ON FREYA,
BUT WE’RE NOT GONNA COMMENT FURTHER.
and
Plug the end of the supplied IEC cord in
here. You can also use fancy audiophile
types, but they won’t really do anything—
what about the thousands of feet of crap
copper cables in your walls, huh?
it has xlr in and out and a number of rca inputs and output , it has 3 modes i.e passive , JFET buffer or tube gain .
Using the pre amp mainly in tube mode which i prefer i had to replace the stock russian tubes after one started getting noisy and put in tungsol and been pretty quiet in use . Using this with fairly sensitive impulse taus horn speakers modded by RFC and the well known firebottle hybrid monoblocks . these are a very neutral amp and using stock tubes in these .
At first i preferred the slightly warmer presentation of the saga but quickly found that the Freya had a slight edge in terms of resolution and bounce . I can`t put into words very well but the Freya is very linear in presentation , my modwright DM 36.5 had a beautiful midrange but the freya is completely linear . It sounds very very LIVE and vocals are beautifully reproduced and electronica is very holographic .
Using XLR from the dac into the pre amp gives gain and more slam but i prefer the rather more gentle RCA input as the Ta`us are fairly big beasts and its very slightly warmer presentaion with RCA perhaps
I have compared it to the Bel canto pre 3 vbs with the msb class A amp and its more transparent than the bel canto , just like a music first pre amp fairly high up the scale too . But the bel canto has so many strengths that i like to use that , i.e HTB and individual volume to each channel
So just a few thoughts to suggest an alternative to the very many expensive pre amps out there , the freya is highly commended . you will ask if i have tried the other modes , well yes briefly but the don`t have the `bounce` and verve of the tube output
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4876/32588647758_bdece3329a_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/RDKkBd)P1060454 (https://flic.kr/p/RDKkBd) by [/url], on Flickr
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1866/43673206794_8c04c6d650_k.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158267783@N02/)P1060387 (https://flic.kr/p/29xfAQ3) by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/158267783@N02/], on Flickr