Schiit Saga Thread

Discussion in 'Preamps' started by HitmanFluffy, Feb 2, 2017.

  1. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    I'm still curious about trying Freya to compare with Saga, both using passive mode, to see whether running my Gungnir Multibit or Holo Spring balanced on Freya vs. single-ended on Saga would yield any improvements. I realize tube buffer would be quite different between each for sure, regardless of bal vs SE. I quite like passive mode on Saga in my system (speakers).
     
  2. PTS

    PTS Friend

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    I agree, it really is one of the best preamps around. My point was that the stock tube isn't "bad" by any stretch of the imagination, and for some people it will be the right tube. I feel there will be some Saga owners who buy up a bunch of expensive tubes and will ultimately be disappointed, but everyone's mileage will vary. Which tube did you end up picking for your Saga?
     
  3. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Late 40s and early 50s Sylvania 6SN7s as well as military tubes. I have some great JAN VT-231s from 1952
     
  4. Lasollor

    Lasollor Friend

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    Am I the only one having trouble finding 6SN7 tubes that doesn’t buzz in the Saga?
    Out of 15 6SN7 tubes I have only 3 is completely silent. Namely a red base RCA 5962 and 2 smoked glass RCA VT-231s.
    The other tubes buzz enough that it is disturbing in quiet passages but I can’t hear it with the music playing. The higher the volume on my amp, the louder the buzz gets.
    All 3 6SL7 I have are completly silent and all 6922 tubes with adapter as well.
     
  5. JK47

    JK47 Guest

    Sorry, but my Dad and myself have owned between us, the Freya, Lyr 2, Mjolnir 2, Vali 2 and not a single tube from Schiit has been good. Every single one has either tested as severely poorly mismatched triode wise, or had horrible microphonics in one or both of the tube's triodes.

    I've even ordered 10+ Russian tubes at a time of various NA equivalents on my own from Russia, and over 70% are crap. I'm half Russian, so I can be bias to a degree, but lot's of old Russian tubes are garbage and need to be sifted through heavily to get the cherry's.

    My dad has even sent crap tubes back to Schiit and got shit back. Schiit has been good about providing replacements, but they are not something to rest your laurels on. Getting rid of the stock tube in a Schiit product should be THE FIRST thing you do, because it will hold back the awesomeness of said product !!!
     
  6. batriq

    batriq Probably has made you smarter

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    I have liked Sylvania 6SN7WGTA, Tung Sol 6SN7GTB, or CBS and RCA 5962 tubes. I have two Sagas, one in the speaker system and one in the headphone system, and using CBS 5692 and the TS GTB respectively.

    The Saga in the headphone system feeds a Vali 2 and Joti.
     
  7. MattRG

    MattRG Facebook Friend

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    I had good success with the new production Psvane 6SN7. It is expensive but was completely silent in operation while also being better than the stock Schiit tube. Since I sold my Saga that tube is currently for sale so let me know if anyone is interested in it.
     
  8. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    I'm glad it's not just me who feels that way. The stock tube with my Vali 2 might be the worst tube that I've ever heard- if a fly farted in the next room, you'd get a microphonic version. Pretty much any tube I put in there was an upgrade from stock.
     
  9. Pyruvate

    Pyruvate Friend

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    Ran across a hiccup and if anyone can help me, I'd be ecstatic.

    I have a Saga into a power amp and it's been working flawlessly, but today I added a Vali 2 into the second output of the Saga. However, if I have the power amp off, the Vali 2 is essentially inaudible. But when I turn on the power amp, the volume is normal. But leaving the power amp on just makes listening to headphones pointless lol.

    Right now I'm listening by just unplugging the rcas feeding the power amp, but does anyone experience this problem? Any way around it? Thanks!
     
  10. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    Sounds like your power amp shorts its inputs when switched off. So it presents a super low resistance load to the RCA outputs of the Saga, which are in parallel, and so hogs all the current away from the Vali 2. I wish the outputs on Saga/Freya were switched for that reason.

    There's no easy solution. You can physically disconnect the power amp as you have been doing. Maybe a Sys is a slightly less painful way of doing this than by hand? Or if you have extra outputs on a dac you could feed Saga and Vali 2 in parallel from there. But then you can't choose between multiple inputs for the Vali 2...
     
  11. Pyruvate

    Pyruvate Friend

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    Thanks for the reply. It's a big bummer. Not sure if the SYS will work, I tried using a Y splitter, but that didn't help. And I can't use the extra DAC outputs (not like mine has them anyway), because I was hoping to switch between my analog and digital chains.

    I'll just continue plugging and unplugging cables I guess.
     
  12. monacelli

    monacelli Friend

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    I think @Garns' suggestion of using a SYS is a good one (convenient and cost effective). But you'd want to run it backwards with the volume pot all the way up. So the output of the Saga would go into the output of the SYS, and the SYS "inputs" would go to the Vali 2 and power amp, respectively. You'd use it as an output selector rather than an input selector. This is a bit like the Y-splitter you tried, except the outputs are never in parallel. Essentially you'd be adding the output switching functionality that the Saga lacks (just external to the preamp).
     
  13. Pyruvate

    Pyruvate Friend

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    Thanks all. I’m considering a SYS now haha (too bad I sold mine about a year ago). I really wanted to cut down on the number of schiit-boxes I have lying around, but I really want that remote control for the headphones.

    Based on what I experienced above with the two amps, I’m guessing you have both the Vali 2 and Joti switched on?
     
  14. bengo

    bengo Friend

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    Resistor around 5k in series with the power amp op could work, you could hide a small one inside the RCAs. Might be worth cutting up an old interconnect to try it anyhow.
     
  15. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Should join the Saga club in about a week. Setup will be lynx>Yggdrasil>saga>s7r.

    My current preamp has way too much gain, the speakers are on the lowest gain setting and still i can only use 7 out of 99 steps before it's louder then preference.

    Going SE and having no gain in saga should give me more range.

    The whole chain will be silver colored, should look cool.
     
  16. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    Anyone have any experience or thoughts on using Saga to drive balanced equipment?

    I have the Freya which I do like a lot, but since my strong preference is for the most neutral of the tubes I have, I am wondering if the more transparent Saga would be preferable. However my monitors have only balanced inputs. Maybe I could do Saga -> Jensen -> speakers, but do I just lose in the transformer whatever transparency I gain with the Saga?
     
  17. alubis

    alubis Acquaintance

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    I'm actually in the process of doing this as well. Unfortunately, my saga hasn't arrived yet. I have ordered the rca male to xlr male (canare l-2t2s with amphenol rca and xlr connectors).

    Currently, using freya xlr into ATC SCM19A (which replaced the atc SCM40 passive). The freya tube mode is nice, but I notice some loss of transparency compare to passive mode. Source is mostly Yggdrasil or SFD2 mkII.
     
  18. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    I'm using Saga to drive my Quested S7R's with a phono to balanced cable i made and it works perfectly. Difference between passive and tube buffer mode is slight to my ears, just a touch of tube magic here and there, perhaps a bit more forward or louder. I used instrument cable with low capacitance from Sommer called The Spirit, relatively cheap per meter and very good specs.
    I wouldn't use adapters personally it's another point of failure and it might but probably not hurt transparency.
     
  19. monacelli

    monacelli Friend

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    This thread started by @Luckbad might be of interest [Link to XLR -> RCA thread]. Good discussion about the differences between adapter cables and transformers in a similar context
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2017
  20. bengo

    bengo Friend

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    Based on my experiences with the SYS, if transparency is what you are after then it would be better to avoid transformers altogether, just use a simple cable. Most likely the first thing your monitors are doing is summing the inputs into a single-ended amp anyway. Ragnarok or other wacky designs where it really matters will have single-ended inputs.
     

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