Saga/Freya vs Mani

Hi guys,

I am in the process of buying a phono stage preamp and I have been looking at a few optiosn including Schiit. I would like to try out a tube preamp, however I'm not sure if Saga/Freya would be a matching choice for a turntable output. I also noticed that Mani is marketed as a phono stage for both MM and MC cartridges, while Saga/Freya not.

My primary concern is RIAA equalisation - if Saga/Freya is presumably designed for a flat signal from say a DAC, how can it handle a RIAA signal coming out of the TT? I'm a little bit confused here.

The cartridge I'm using is Ortofon 2M Black.

Many thanks for your thoughts
: )

 

Freya and saga can not be used as phono preamps. They are line level preamps.

 

Saga and Freya both require an external phono stage in order to connect a turntable to them. That phono stage will provide the necessary gain from the cartridge output and apply the necessary RIAA EQ curve and then provide a line-level output to feed either of those pre-amps:

Turntable -> Mani -> Saga/Freya

 

You have money for a 2M black but don't know how phono stages work?

 

Eh, given that many people refer to line level and phono preamps with the same terminology, I don't blame someone for thinking that all preamps are phono preamps, and then getting confused when they look at the specs of a line level preamp and see no RIAA EQ.

 

Great, thank you guys. Appreciate the clarification.