Schiit Freya Preamp Review (Episodic)

For shits n giggles, and a hilarious value assessment, it would be fun to compare Freya to Audio Research or Conrad Johnson devices.

 

My experience with the Freya has been nothing but positive. For the money, it is a bargain, I think.

I have done some A/B testing against my other preamp (Hegel P20), and in SS mode the Hegel wins, but then it costs about 3 times as much and has no tube option.

Currently using the Freya as a preamp between my Pavane DAC and Audio GD Master 9 headamp. It adds some tube goodness into the chain that works wonders for vocals. Really nice sound.

 

Hey @Marvey / @atomicbob any appetite to do some Freya measurements sometime? It'd be really interesting to compare modes and also with Saga. Time consuming I appreciate though.

 

Well, I'll soon be able to compare Freya with a Conrad Johnson PV12 if that helps

 

Ok, some very brief (my kids want to play Harry Potter Cluedo) bullet point thoughts on my Conrad Johnson PV12 preamp v a new Freya (tube stage only).

Unfortunately, my CJ power amp has some issues and is currently undergoing repairs, so I'm relegated to using an old Rotel RB-850 power amp, which is actually surprisingly not too bad, but the lovely staging of the CJ Premier 11A is missing via both pre-amps in this setup. Freya has noisy stock tubes, PV12 with Genelex Gold Lion ecc82. Speakers are Audio Physic Tempo 25.

-- Obvious difference is that the PV12 is more tubey, warmer & smoother, bloom, but not too far into mushy.
-- Other obvious difference is bass...Freya bass extends lower, hits harder and is tighter. No contest.
-- PV12 also loses loses out on dynamics, where Freya is faster, tighter, more impact.
-- PV12 is also less resolving and comes across as less detailed, not helped by some treble roll-off.
-- Freya treble is a bit rough, and midrange lacks body in comparison. I think/hope this is down to the shitty stock tubes. Unfortunately all the NOS 6SN7 I've tried have been mega microphonic so no other options yet.

It's a pretty clear cut difference between these pre-amps imho...PV12 is the classic tubey smoothie. Bear in mind the PV12 is one of the latter preamps with this sound signature from CJ before they adopted a more "modern" sound. Freya, not surprisingly, is in the "modern" camp...less (but still a little) tube warmth but retains a lot of the dynamism, taut bass and linearity of solid state.

I'm not gonna make a final decision on which to keep until I get my CJ power amp back...it'll be really interesting to see how that goes, but I'm leaning towards Freya so far.

 

Bum tubes shipped with Freya, while not a massive problem, isn't just an isolated case it seems. CJ up to the the 17LS series 2 is reported to have that really warm and "tubey" sound and man I'm still tempted!

I'm looking at getting a custom preamp built by Don Sachs with big 2uF Jupiter and Theta output caps to try out. Much more expensive than Freya mind you.

It seems like Freya and the ARC house sound seem similar. Which absolute demolishes ARC!

 

Yeah, if you're into the classic "tube" sound then CJ gear of this period is a good bet I reckon. Synergy is excellent with the range as well...the PV12 plays very nicely with the Premier 11A power amp I have, which is why it'll be interesting to compare the pre-amps again when the CJ power amp is back. With the stock tubes (Svetlana winged C) the Premier 11A brings a wide & deep stage and adds sweetness to the warmth of the PV12 pre-amp, balancing it out rather well. Still warm sounding, but less gooey. Will be interesting to introduce Freya to this setup.

 

Noob question for you Freya users, is it normal to hear music from the jfet or the tubes with the volume turned completely down?
I have to set my dac at -24ish db to completely attenuate the volume, now not a big deal with the m51 (still, preamping before preamping?), but I wanted to use my Gungnir Multibit as well and on that you can't adjust the volume. It reminded me a lot the taurus behaviour in this.
my amp is a perraux 100p, speakers kef ls 50. Thanks!

 

Yep, that's normal. I can even hear a little bit of signal when it's muted while warming up.

 

Hi again, this early morning I tried a couple of 6n9s (the guy sold them as "tested good") with no music, but as soon as I played with t the volume to hear if they produced any noise, the speakers started emitting some loud pops (not crackling noise, actual pops).
Now, being early and with the rest of the family still asleep I couldn't test the speakers but at very low volume, and they seemed fine, but I was wondering: what are the chances of damaging the drivers with some faulty valves? I suppose this may happens regularly, rolling valves bought on ebay. What is your experience?

update: I finally managed to try a few tracks and I can't hear any issue with my speakers, at above my normal listening volume. I'm really infatuated with this preamp.

 

Unless there's an actual short you should be ok. I have not had that happen over a bunch of tubes in a bunch of different amps. Very occasionally I have had tubes pop a bit in first few hours, but they soon settle in. If there's noise that doesn't go away, check if the pins are super dirty and if so, clean up with pure isopropyl alcohol and q-tips.

By the way, you probably know this, but 6n9s = 6sl7, which work fine in the Freya, but are not exactly what it's designed for (which would be 6n8s = 6sn7). But if it sounds good it sounds good!

 

Between Freya tube mode and Saga tube-hybrid mode which is taking away more from the source?
There floats claims about that Saga is more transparent than Freya, this is a bit ambiguous.
Reports like better soundstage depth would tell otherwise, for one.
Has someone made comparo and written notes down?
How about rezolushion?

 

Are you saying you like Saga better than Freya? Or does Freya do other things better than Saga?

 

Sounds like it can add that tubey character to my SS Bakoon. And also simultaneously use it for my future Vidar + speakers.

 

I was too scared to try them with some music, so I'm sticking with the 6n8s for now, anyway the ones included are really quiet and the sound is pretty good to my ears. I wonder if schiit is going to sell spare ones as well, I can't find them on their web site.

 

I just set up my third Freya in 5 weeks! I ordered a Freya to replace my 25 year old Bryston pre-amp that started to have some issues. Sounds was fantastic! Then after 3 weeks it died. Schiit was great about paying for the FedEx shipment and sending me out a new one immediately. One of the tubes didn't insert correctly and the bottom black plastic guide got wedged into the socket. Worse, I heard crackling sounds in the tube output mode.

Once again Schiit was great about sending out a new one, which I just set up and let's hope the third time is the charm. But, one very nice surprise with the new Freya. Instead of the small, cheap black plastic remote it came with a really nice, heavy, brushed aluminum remote! Don't know if this is the new standard or if it was a bonus for 2 dead Freya's in a few weeks.

So now the question is do I splurge and order a Schiit Vidar and go all-Schiit? Maybe two? Either case I can use balanced connections between the amp and pre-amp, which I've never been able to do before. And of course after that, I'll probably be thinking about an upgrade to the Yyggy so I can have an all-balanced path.

 

Here's a photo of the new Schiit remote: https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/mLtyVDNrVDZfTF7XH1SBQvtm6fKtasv6oOYqKHqLBtb

 

The only way to use XLR interconnects between Freya and Vidar is to have two Vidar amps and run them as mono blocks.

If you are using Freya's tube gain mode, I would suggest that Vidar is not the best amp choice. There is too much gain between the two. I would recommend an amp with less gain.

Edit: Okay, depending on the efficiency of your speakers, my advice may be flawed. What speakers are you using in your 2 channel setup?