4 New Schiit Preamps (Saga and Freya variants)

Discussion in 'Preamps' started by rlow, May 28, 2019.

  1. jexby

    jexby Posole Prince

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    ^-- slight addition this morning after some fresh ears listening:
    Freya+ with tubes can place some components 1 step further back on stage when directly compared to 3F.
    mostly noticed on bass guitars and vocals.
    track dependent and still subtle.
     
  2. hifiandrun

    hifiandrun Almost "Made"

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    My mouth is watering on the YggyA2 (unison usb). :)
     
  3. Soups

    Soups Sadomasochistic cat

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    Below are my impressions of the Freya S loaner. Thanks to SBAF for the chance to try it out.

    Used it exclusively with speakers: Yggdrasil A2 -> Freya S -> Aegir (Monoblocks) -> Tekton Moab (Be Tweeter)

    First, I guess there's no hiding that I'm a fan of Schiit gear. At least those components in my chain play incredibly well with my recently acquired speakers, and I'm enjoying music listening at home more than I ever have.

    Normally the JBL Nano Patch+ is pulling balanced preamp duties, so that'll serve as my primary point of comparison.

    TLDR - If you want a balanced pre, and don't care about a kiss of tubey sound (without tubes), pleasant aesthetics, or having a remote or multiple SE/XLR inputs, just get a JBL Nano Patch+ and then buy yourself a year's worth of Popeye's chicken sandwiches with the savings.

    That said, over and above the Nano, the Freya S gave me an even deeper and wider soundstage, thicker mid-bass and punch, and a pleasantly forward tubey sweetness to the mids in Nexus x1 mode (everything became painfully shouty in Nexus x4 mode with my speakers).

    Otherwise, what the Freya tooketh away (in both passive and Nexus x1 modes) was some of that transparency, and with it some of the plankton, clarity I became used to. On a related note, I also felt like there was a reduced sense of microdynamics with the Freya. The worst side effect was that treble sounded a tad bit harder running Nexus, and my setup sounded a little bit fatiguing for the first time. An important caveat here (and really, i'm not trying to be a pompous ass) is that my current setup is the most resolving one I've ever owned, and the sins of omission or tonal shifts became really apparent with the Freya S in the chain. This may not be an issue at all, especially on less efficient and less resolving transducers.

    So, while I'm passing on the Freya S, I'm hoping that in the next Thuderdome we'll see something like it, but with an even greater level of transparency and the next iteration of Nexus, which I think sounds really promising but hasn't quite crossed the line for me.
     
  4. Boops

    Boops Friend

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    I spent some time over the weekend with the Freya S loaner, comparing it to a Goldpoint SA-1 passive. I was interested in Freya for it's remote and the ability use the balanced outs from Gungnir Multibit into a stereo Aegir vs. the Goldpoint which is remote-less and has to rely on Gungnir Multibit's SE outs. Speakers are Klipsch Forte 3, btw.

    Listening to the Freya (both passive and Nexus high-gain mode), as others have said, there is a step down in transparency, microdetail, plankton.

    Freya is still very good overall. It's sins of omission are not so great as to be an obvious drawback in isolation. It is still satisfying to listen to on it's own. For my particular tastes, it glosses over enough of the low-level details to make it worth sticking with the remote-less Goldpoint box instead.

    On a cosmetic note, it would be nice if the finish of the metal on the remote matched the finish of the Freya. It's odd that they are not the same.

    Thanks SBAF for the loaner!
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2019
  5. Muse Wanderer

    Muse Wanderer Friend

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    I believe Bentaudio supply remote kits for Goldpoint stepped attenuators. May be worth a try.

    http://www.bentaudio.com/index2.html
     
  6. Cakecake

    Cakecake Guest

    Anyone with experience on Saga OG vs Saga+ vs Saga S?
     
  7. tranq

    tranq Friend

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    I have an OG saga with LISST, so one could say I have both saga S and saga plus. :)

    But in all seriousness I can't imagine too many OG saga owners are buying one of the new Sagas unless they are buying for a second set of gear.
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2019
  8. squishware

    squishware Friend

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    I am currently using my Asgard 3 with Multibit card as a preamp SE feeding a Rolls Promatch Pro-level Balanced into my JBL 3 Series LSR310S sub then out to my pair of MKll powered monitors. I really like the way the sub integrates with the monitors. I just set the volume to half on everything and it sounds seemless. I would like to add some tube sound and a remote as I live in an apartment and use this for movies and frequently get neighbor bothering volume spikes while watching. I am/was thinking of getting the Bifrost 2 and Freya+ and perhaps trying to sell the multibit card. Has anyone compared Lyr 3 to Freya+ as a Preamp? Bonus points if out of a Bifrost 2.

    Thanks in advance.
     
  9. Baten

    Baten Friend

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    Hmm was this a limited run? Black Freya S/Freya + would be really sweet but looks like everything is Silver
    [​IMG]

    here's to hoping black returns :)
     
  10. Baten

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    This quarantining is driving me mad. I guess Freya S in black is not coming any time soon. Ordered a Saga + instead, the only pre-amp still available in black finish. I suppose Freya would have been overkill for my use case anyway.

    I guess my personal 6SN7 tube hoarding will commence now, I've got time :D was looking at the legendary ECC32 but these just sold https://www.ebay.com/itm//362896889319 at the price of a Saga pre-amp.. guess I'll stick to 6H8C/6SN7! Upscale audio is selling some very interesting tubes...

    If anyone has a Saga S or Saga + already, I would love to hear how everyone's Saga has been doing in their system!
    Cheers. Happy isolation, all~
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2020
  11. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    I had a saga into 2 Vidars (one channel each driving woofer/tweeter) for the longest time.

    With my SCM19s and late Bifrost MB, I liked it with RCA tyuoobs.

    Ultimately switched to Freya S so I can just monoblock them for simplicity and not worrying about burning tubes, since this system is in my bedroom and also plays music while I sleep, so that I *can* sleep.

    Now it's different, but not necessarily better; BF2 was the real improvement.

    Saga/+ is a fine little preamp, remarkably transparent.

    Don't spend money on rare tubes, you can tweak the sound with them but they don't affect the sound that much - paying more than 30-40 bucks for a saga tube is pointless.
     

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