Schiit Freya +

[El Sergento]

I actually wrote to Schiit to ask them about their stock tubes. They said the stock tubes now are JJs and they are pretty good. Anyone combined the JJs for buffer stage with Sylvanias GTA or GTB for the gain stage?

I have combined stock JJ's on the buffer and Sylvania GTB's on the gain stage. Honestly, I didn't like it. Both the JJ's and the Sylvania's are very revealing and transparent, so it made for a rather bright sound in my room.

My favorite setup with the Freya + so far is RCA GTBs in the buffer and RCA VT 231's in the gain. I went crazy with NOS tubes, so I have to stop myself from constantly rolling, but this is what I have:

4X matched RCA GTB's
4X matched stock JJ's
2X matched RCA VT 231's (grey glass)
2X matched Sylvania GTB's
2X matched Raytheon GTB's

I will say this about the JJ's. They sound very good, but are by far the noisiest tubes I own, which is crazy since all my other tubes are from the 40's and 50's. 1 JJ quickly became microphonic and produces a consistent click that sounds like a record skipping.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Just wanted to pop back in and say that I have enjoyed my Freya+ very much, and especially with the JAN-CHS-6SN7WGT’s. Sylvania’s, I have had in. Had to wiggle them around a little bit and swap left side and right side once as I was getting some weird with the volume dial, but the pulling the tubes in and out and swapping seemed to cure that. Beautiful sound!

 

[krautmaster]

I liked my first Freya+ so much that I bought a second one for my office system. Best NOS tubes so far are mid 50's Sylvania GTB with lots of chrome on top. Modern Russian Tong-Sols are pretty good too, but I currently have a quad of the new Psvane Horizon CV181-AT (6sn7) tubes in the office that sound even better (holographic to no end) and a quad of Ray Select 6SN7 in the living room stereo which are the best tubes I've tried so far.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

I liked my first Freya+ so much that I bought a second one for my office system. Best NOS tubes so far are mid 50's Sylvania GTB with lots of chrome on top. Modern Russian Tong-Sols are pretty good too, but I currently have a quad of the new Psvane Horizon CV181-AT (6sn7) tubes in the office that sound even better (holographic to no end) and a quad of Ray Select 6SN7 in the living room stereo which are the best tubes I've tried so far.
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Cool! What power amps are you using?

 

[krautmaster]

Cool! What power amps are you using?

My living room stereo has a pair of Schiit Tyr monoblocks (200 WPC /55 lbs each), the office has a behemoth Parasound A21+ (300WPC/ 73 lbs)