Schiit Freya Preamp Review (Episodic)

Discussion in 'Preamps' started by purr1n, Jan 14, 2017.

  1. drfindley

    drfindley Secretly lives in the Analog Room - Friend

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    I heard the HR4 at The Show in Newport and they sounded awesome. One of the few speaker setups I liked at the show.
     
  2. OJneg

    OJneg The Most Insufferable

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    Yep, I imagine it would only improve when bypassing the built-in D/A
     
  3. Big D Design

    Big D Design RIP 2021

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    Aklegal,
    Thanks for the info. I don't know much anything but my own research. Yes... paying a little sounds like a good thing for something that comes out good right out of the box. You have saved me a lot of wasted time. The net is filled with so many that won't spend a penny for software. Unfortunately most of my CD collection in back in NJ in a storage container (420 CDs) and I'm here in Florida. It just gives me incentive to go buy some new CDs off Amazon. Is there a better place to buy CDs. Heck, I might as well ask. Thanks again, you guys are very nice. And I have been out of the loop for a little while.
     
  4. Big D Design

    Big D Design RIP 2021

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    I spent about an hour yesterday watching a couple of video interviews with the man behind the HR4 and the new HR4S and wow. They would really be a great application in an Open Floor Plan home if you were a bachelor or had a cool woman. You could play it and hear it good from anywhere in your large space. Very interesting closed loop stuff. I lived in an Oceanfront Condo about 4 years ago for 12 months that was enormous. It was kind of a honeymoon holiday for me and my lady. The HR4 would have done justice to that space. Most of the time there wasn't anyone home within 100ft of my Condo, so I could blast the stereo that came with the rental.
     
  5. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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  6. Perot

    Perot Facebook Friend

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    Anyone else not able to consistently get one volume click(one click is .5db right?) per knob turn or one press on the remote with the Freya? Nearly impossible with the physical knob and about half the time with the remote I get one button press one relay click. I can get the volume I'm looking for just takes a few tries.
     
  7. Big D Design

    Big D Design RIP 2021

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    @Perot
    Yes.... I know what you mean. Volume control takes some getting used to, that's for sure. The benefit of low volume listening with the resistor type volume control is quite amazing. I guess we will have to live with a liitle bit of quirk to eat our cake. I liken the control to wrestling something back into it's little box.
     
  8. Big D Design

    Big D Design RIP 2021

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    Still testing Freya.

    I think I could use a couple more cables to test all angles. My problem is that I just love the tube output of the Freya. It makes my Martin Logan ESLs shine like they were built for. My Martin Logan Sub is a Dynamo 1000. It's a great sub that is sealed without port and you can feel the bass strings when setup properly. The gain from the sub with SE output is less than the balanced tube output. I have to turn up the sub to full to get it to sound right. That is unacceptable in my book. There has to be some kind of headroom left with that volume control. Also, it is not quite right. I have had this sub at it's best before and know what it capable of.

    What I am doing now is trying many different ways to get the gain of the sub higher. If my sub only had high level speaker inputs like the REL subwoofer systems I would be in audio nirvana already. The REL would come off my balanced amplifier and it would be perfect output. But that's $1,200 I don't have for a REL T/9i sub. I have bought 3 different items to raise the gain. And a bunch of cables to do it 9 different ways. So far I have tested one gain increasing unit with doing it 2 different ways. One way works to my satisfaction. But I think that I can do much better.

    If I only had the money for the REL S/5 ($2,400)....... Life would be a bowl of cherries... that's the sub that I dream about. 12" with 12" passive radiator. Speaker level inputs................. done!

    Review to come. My lady is in hospital, so there will be a delay in review. Not long though. Just a 4 or 5 extra days.
     
  9. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    Does your power amp have any attenuation built in? Also, isn't this what an active DI was built for?
     
  10. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Best wishes for a speedy recovery man!
     
  11. Big D Design

    Big D Design RIP 2021

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    @cskippy
    I wish my NuPrime had a gain control. I actually hooked up my 1st Active Gain enhancer wrong at 1st. I was tired at the time (just got back from the hospital). And what I did was put the Active unit in the path of the Modi Multibit to the Freya preamp. That yielded some amazingly good results with increasing gain of everything. My problem is I didn't want to do the Active unit that way, and also I didn't have enough AudioQuest Evergreen cables to get the whole loop of things done. I had to use an inferior cable in the chain. And I'm anal, but putting the full DAC signal thru a professional Active gain enhancer should be done with a consistent good cable that is the same.

    So, I wiped my tired eyes and re-wired the Active unit to just the Martin Logan sub..... not happy with result. If my sub only had high level speaker inputs this would not be a problem for me at all, Having to turn up the sub volume all the way and it still needs a pinch more is a problem. Once again, didn't have AudioQuest Evergreen to go all the way thru the chain. So I tried the XLR to RCA patch cables I have. Sounds much better now and I can actually hear bass plucking again. Can it get better? Yes.... I know it can..... I have had this equipment for 5 years and know what it is capable of. I have 2 more professional Active gain units to test. These 2 are hopefully not going to be needed, because I'm ordering another AudioQuest patch cable for the Active unit I'm using now. I bet that is my hole in one. But I plan on playing with all the Active units and XLR stuff all over the place in the chain of connections to see what I can do with it.

    2 of the pro Active units have a S/N ratio of 112db, and one or both will be working in XLR domain inside the circuits. And they will come out XLR if I choose to do that. I have a whole bunch of good cables.

    I don't know if you see where I'm getting at...... I will give you a tease

    Modi Multibit Balanced XLR into Freya Preamp with gain adjustment. Will it degrade the sound? It's a pro studio unit from one of the major players in the recording industry. It's usually a no-no to put something into the input chain that way, but it doesn't hurt to find out.

    More to come....
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2017
  12. Big D Design

    Big D Design RIP 2021

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    Thanks
     
  13. Scott Kramer

    Scott Kramer Friend

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    Hi @Big D Design

    How about running SE to the Amp for now, enjoy that for a bit. Then take your time researching a new sub (or my favorite, a pair :) ) , and get that ML sold...
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2017
  14. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    Has anyone compared the Mjolnir 2 and Freya/Saga?

    I did a bunch of combinations with my Hegel H360, Gungnir Multibit (Bal & SE)and Mjo2 with Amperex PQ 63'/64' 7308 tubes. Speakers are Totem Arros.

    I can write more if people care but I was surprised that differences were very subtle among all the combos I tried. Now I'm a little gun-shy on going Freya as I was hoping tubes would add more body and sparkle than what I heard from the Mjo2 and stock H360.

    If anything I'm even more surprised how the Hegel did. So either the differences were subtle because most of the differences were overtaken by the power amp section or the speakers aren't that revealing (which I kind of skeptical of, tbh).
     
  15. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Heh. Go for it, while explaining all the caveats you just did! I found Mjolnir 1 to be a pretty good preamp to the Crest CA1 years ago for driving HE-500, HE-05, etc. I have my own suspicions how this stuff would sound like, being familiar these components, but I am eager to hear your thoughts. However way it comes out, it's not about who is right or who is left, I mean wrong. It's about sharing and putting the pieces together.
     
  16. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Yummy. One of the items that I regretted selling. Thinking about picking up a T7 myself. Maybe even two T5s (smaller package).
     
  17. Regular Petey

    Regular Petey Facebook Friend

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    I would very much like to see a comparison of Mjolnir 2 (as a preamp) vs. Freya/Saga. Everything I've read about Freya and Saga seems very positive, whereas comments on using the Schiit headamps as the preamp in a two channel system, have not been very positive. To be fair to the headamps, I'm not finding much feedback from people regarding them being used as preamps.

    Using my Mjolnir 2 as the preamp for the speakers I have on order would solve several problems for me, but not if the sound out of it is noticeably inferior to what comes out of Saga/Freya, in a two channel setup. I can live without remote control.
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Freya Bitchisms

    No good review is complete without things to bitch about. Here we go.

    1. No power button in the front. The power switch is in the back. Not a big deal because I have everything plugged into Belkin power doo-dad.
    2. No turn off for tube circuit power. Would be nice to have JFET and passive modes turn off the power to the tube circuit. Not a big deal because I always use the tubes on the Freya.
    3. No unity gain tube buffer. The tube circuit has a lot of gain. This transmits noise to some high gain power amps with high-efficiency speakers. It also makes volume matched (or close to volume matched) comparison between the JFET and tube stages more difficult. The second scenario isn't a big deal unless you are an OCD type that likes to listen to how different circuits sound instead of music. Finally the gain makes tube mode susceptible to microphonics.
    4. Takes 20-30 seconds to turn on. Not a big deal. I have a ton of tube gear. I usually turn the tube amps on when I get home from work, and take a dump or something. When I come back, everything is ready. A potential issue: preamp comes on after the power amp, even with a power conditioner that has a short timer.
    5. Iconography is too small to read. Button layout is not ideal, e.g. mute button to the left of the mode switch which is to the left of the volume knob. The mode switch should be placed much far away from the mute button and volume konb.
     
    Last edited: Jun 14, 2017
  19. Garns

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    Your problem is that the signal to your mains is too loud relative to the signal to your sub, right? Do you have enough gain to passively attenuate the signal to the mains, rather than actively boost the signal to the sub?
    I thought Mjolnir 2 was not at all good as a preamp into speakers, even with LISST. Compared to a direct connection, clear loss of macrodynamics and microdynamics, less precise imaging and soundstage, flat and boring sound.
     
  20. EraserXIV

    EraserXIV Friend

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    This is a vestige of Schiit's desktop/headphone beginnings that needs to be addressed. I bought the argument about having it on the back with their desktop gear, but with the foray into 2-channel, the "deal with it" explanation doesn't really work anymore. It's like buying a Porsche and still having to pull a cord to start the engine.
     

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