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Schiit Freya +

I've been enjoying my Freya+/Yggdrasil combo for over a year now and have no complaints. Absolutely silent "black" background is a good description. I use balanced connections between the Freya+ and the Yggdrasil, a AES/EBU connection from my streamer (Pi2AES streamer) to my Yggdrasil and I swap between balanced outputs to a Purifi 1ET400a amp and unbalanced outputs to my Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum. I go back and forth between amplifiers and speakers, but the Freya+/Yggdrasil/Pi2AES combination is here to stay as my low level signal chain.
Honestly, while trying different amplifiers, I have been the most impressed by a Marantz 2245 that I refurbished recently with a recap and transistor refresh. Again, silent background, crisp, detailed highs and solid low end output. PLUS the ability to tweak the bass/midrange/treble when needed, rather than rolling tubes. Despite the obvious differences between output power between these three different amps, I may stick to the 2245 in the end. For me, the Freya+/Yggdrasil/2245 combo is hard to beat.
 
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sunvalleylaw said:
Took delivery of mine today. Impressed so far, with no real burn in time. Expecting things to go up from here. AND I have some upgrade tubes coming.

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Also, I have a Hafler DH-110, MC modded (older mods) with outboard power supply, coming as well. One of these pre’s will end up with the XL-280 pictured, and one will end up with my P225 (both of which will get mods at some point in the upgrading process). And I will try both pre’s back and forth between amps to see which matches up better with which amp now, pre-mods. As by now, the amps may be out of spec in some respects. But both sound dang good as they are. And yea, I quoted myself to tie my thoughts together.
 
Metamodern said:
What tubes did you end up putting in?? That black colour is super sharp!!
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JAN-CHS-6SN7WGT’s. Sylvania’s. I did not hate the stock sound, but this seems even better, and better yet as they start to burn in. Only about 5 hours on them so far. Have to head out for the weekend, so more burn in time next week, We are having a bit of an energy crunch in Idaho right now on the grid, so I am not comfortable just leaving the unit on over the weekend for a good long burn in. Plus, I would not be around to check in on it.

And yeah, I like the look. Most of the pieces in my two best systems are black (Haflers, Nakamichi’s, other stuff), and I kinda like thumbing my nose at the silver face crowd. ;-) Kidding, . . . Kinda.

The new look of the office system where the Freya+ is. One thing I like is the lifelike feel I get from the lower volumes I run there some/most of the time.
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Home system. The pre-amps might get swapped out once in a while. And this PS Audio is getting replaced by a used DH-110 with Musical Concepts mods (older) I found cheap, so I may try a bit of a round robin at times.
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sunvalleylaw said:
JAN-CHS-6SN7WGT’s. Sylvania’s. I did not hate the stock sound, but this seems even better, and better yet as they start to burn in. Only about 5 hours on them so far. Have to head out for the weekend, so more burn in time next week, We are having a bit of an energy crunch in Idaho right now on the grid, so I am not comfortable just leaving the unit on over the weekend for a good long burn in. Plus, I would not be around to check in on it.

And yeah, I like the look. Most of the pieces in my two best systems are black (Haflers, Nakamichi’s, other stuff), and I kinda like thumbing my nose at the silver face crowd. ;-) Kidding, . . . Kinda.

The new look of the office system where the Freya+ is. One thing I like is the lifelike feel I get from the lower volumes I run there some/most of the time.
View attachment 2273207

Home system. The pre-amps might get swapped out once in a while. And this PS Audio is getting replaced by a used DH-110 with Musical Concepts mods (older) I found cheap, so I may try a bit of a round robin at times.
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Wow you went full fat with the Sylvanias. I have some Sylvania 6sn7 GTB’s myself. It would be an interesting exercise to do an A/B listening test!!

Please update when you’re able as to your listening impressions.
 
Metamodern said:
Wow you went full fat with the Sylvanias. I have some Sylvania 6sn7 GTB’s myself. It would be an interesting exercise to do an A/B listening test!!

Please update when you’re able as to your listening impressions.
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Curious as to your description of “full fat”. Please describe what you mean? I am pretty new to tubes in audio gear, as opposed to guitar amps, where I am more familiar.
 
I am thinking of picking up Freya+ but on the last Schiit talk...was hinted of a new Tube product. I would go right into NOS CBS-HYTRON 6V6GTY, KEN-RAD Black Glass 6V6GT/G.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
Curious as to your description of “full fat”. Please describe what you mean? I am pretty new to tubes in audio gear, as opposed to guitar amps, where I am more familiar.
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Oh, so if you read enough regarding Sylvania 6SN7’s you’ll see that some are held in higher regard. So yours being WW2 Military Grade (JAN), would make them the top of the heap or “full fat”. I’m pretty jealous as I have the GTB version made in the late 50’s, and are specc’d for church organs so they have low microphonics.
 
Metamodern said:
Oh, so if you read enough regarding Sylvania 6SN7’s you’ll see that some are held in higher regard. So yours being WW2 Military Grade (JAN), would make them the top of the heap or “full fat”. I’m pretty jealous as I have the GTB version made in the late 50’s, and are specc’d for church organs so they have low microphonics.
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Yeah, OK. I did go ahead and decide to drop an extra couple Andrew Jackson’s just as I was looking at it and decided why not? As long as I was ordering.

I was thinking I’m going for something not quite as expensive for the left side, but was considering what that might be, as it would be fun to swap back-and-forth a little bit as well so maybe I would spend a little more if there is something with a little different flavor I might want to try.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
Yeah, OK. I did go ahead and decide to drop an extra couple Andrew Jackson’s just as I was looking at it and decided why not? As long as I was ordering.

I was thinking I’m going for something not quite as expensive for the left side, but was considering what that might be, as it would be fun to swap back-and-forth a little bit as well so maybe I would spend a little more if there is something with a little different flavor I might want to try.
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Hmmmm depending on your system, I might look for something that accentuates the bass. I just went with a full set of the GTB’s, and if my speakers didn’t have 2 10 inch subs each, I would say the sylvanias could use some help in the bass department.
 
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Metamodern said:
Hmmmm depending on your system, I might look for something that accentuates the bass. I just went with a full set of the GTB’s, and if my speakers didn’t have 2 10 inch subs each, I would say the sylvanias could use some help in the bass department.
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these are the speakers, in a small space. 10 inch advanced style woofers with 5 inch VIFA mid and 1 inch VIFA dome tweeter. A good amount of bass as long as they are supported. It was seeming to me that the new old tube helped saturate that support at lower volume, if that makes sense.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
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these are the speakers, in a small space. 10 inch advanced style woofers with 5 inch VIFA mid and 1 inch VIFA dome tweeter. A good amount of bass as long as they are supported. It was seeming to me that the new old tube helped saturate that support at lower volume, if that makes sense.
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Man its funny you should say that. It was my observation as well that those tubes kind of helped fill out something that was lacking in the upper bass region.
 
Sorry the OP had a bad run with the Freya. I’ve been running mine for about 4 months now and it’s perfect. No problems or issues. I run it probably 8 hours a day while teleworking. I replaced the JJ’s with new Tung Sol’s and it sounds fantastic.

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lokerola said:
Sorry the OP had a bad run with the Freya. I’ve been running mine for about 4 months now and it’s perfect. No problems or issues. I run it probably 8 hours a day while teleworking. I replaced the JJ’s with new Tung Sol’s and it sounds fantastic.

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That was two Freya+ and four sets of tubes...

Glad yours is working.

Went with a Topping Pre90. Wish it had Schitt's remote. The Topping remote is hardly up to snuff for the price of the unit.
 
Ross6860 said:
That was two Freya+ and four sets of tubes...

Glad yours is working.

Went with a Topping Pre90. Wish it had Schitt's remote. The Topping remote is hardly up to snuff for the price of the unit.
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Glad the Topping is working for you. It's funny you say that about the remote. I hate the remote on the Freya. It's tiny, you have to have it pointed EXACTLY forward at the preamp for it to pick up the signal, the buttons are so small it's hard to find them easily, etc. I really miss the remote on my Parasound 2100. That thing was awesome! A big old chunk of remote that fit perfectly in the hand with easy to use buttons. You could pick any input with one click, rather than scrolling through all the inputs like the Freya. And there's a button on the Parasound to back light the whole thing. Anyway, the Schiit irks me every time I have to use the remote. It's just a design thing, but Parasound really got it right with their remotes.
 
lokerola said:
Glad the Topping is working for you. It's funny you say that about the remote. I hate the remote on the Freya. It's tiny, you have to have it pointed EXACTLY forward at the preamp for it to pick up the signal, the buttons are so small it's hard to find them easily, etc. I really miss the remote on my Parasound 2100. That thing was awesome! A big old chunk of remote that fit perfectly in the hand with easy to use buttons. You could pick any input with one click, rather than scrolling through all the inputs like the Freya. And there's a button on the Parasound to back light the whole thing. Anyway, the Schiit irks me every time I have to use the remote. It's just a design thing, but Parasound really got it right with their remotes.
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I have a Parasound pre-amp in my main system. It came with two remotes. A big one, and a little one just for volume. No complaints about them, or the pre-amp. I'm very happy with my Parasound. If I wasn't so cheap I would look into their power amps. That pre-amp is the most expensive piece of gear I have, or ever had.

I actually liked Schitt's remote, at least compared to Topping's. The plastic top may crack after a couple thousand clicks on the volume.
 
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