Balanced tube pre's other than Freya?

[ekkamai12]

Doesn't seem like Freya + has much competition at its price point.
Am I missing any other options ?

 

[damacman]

C1100 is fully balanced ... but I think it’s a tad more ...

 

[RossW]

Yeah, not much at the price point. Audio Research, Balanced Audio Technology, etc. all have balanced tube (or hybrid) options but even used prices are significantly higher than the Freya.

 

[justjed2]

I think, at this price point, they're pretty much the only game in town....

 

[rothwellaudio]

There's no great benefit in having balanced inputs and outputs and doing it with tubes adds a lot of extra circuitry and expense, hence its unpopularity in the tube world. I'm not aware of any others at a similar price to the Freya.
BTW, that preamp has a lot of surface mount ICs, so it;s debatable as to whether it really is a "balanced tube preamp".

 

[RossW]

From their description it sounds like the differential buffer stage is SS. Remote controlled volume and source selection is going to require some ICs, so no surprise there. No harm in surface mount.

It's an intriguing set of features at a fairly reasonable price.

 

[E-Stat]

There's no great benefit in having balanced inputs and outputs and doing it with tubes adds a lot of extra circuitry and expense, hence its unpopularity in the tube world.

The designers at companies like Atma Sphere, Audio Research, Audio Note, BAT, Lamm Industries, McIntosh, Nagra, PS Audio, VAC, VTL, etc. would disagree. Ralph Karsten often observes that using balanced cables minimizes the LC effects of interconnects.

Indeed such does not come inexpensively.