Schiit Freya + and S Impressions - Stream of Consciousness

Leaning towards a monoblock aegir setup, I believe you have the same? I love the Aegir but I just haven't much left on the volume on my Freya OG with my Scansonic mb2.5 speakers. So, probably I do want that touch of colouration to get that "original" aegir sound even in monoblock.

 

I've had Freya S in my house for a few days. It's kinda eye-popping experience. Motivating enough to bear laziness and post a few early impressions now.

First, picture or didn't happen.



As a disclaimer, I am totally a pre-amp noob. More accurately speaking, a long time skeptic of active preamps. I believed adding active preamps to the rig do more harm than good. Furthermore, most passive attenuators are cheap. I thought JBL nanopatch was everything I needed for controlling input levels for power amps. Well, while I was not 100% wrong, I was LARGELY so.

Regarding current gen Freyas, I've been interested since project Thunderdome was announced. But the BAD beliefs described above made me resistant pull the trigger. I had to convince myself strongly in that there are good amount of functional merits even in the worst case (sonic loss): (1) BAL to SE or SE to BAL converting, (2) remote controlling, and (3) easier gear comparisons.

In the first day with Freya, however, it didn't take long to know how silly I was.

Let me go straight to the points.

• Does it omit/lose some signals from upstream? Yes.
• Does it commit some signals to downstream? Possibly yes.
• Does it sound worse compared to passive pres? To me, BIG NO.

Indeed, Freya benefits ANY combinations I throwed in -- containing two dacs (Bifrost 2 and Modius), two different upstream connections (RCA unbal and XLR bal), two power amps and one headamp (Aegir, Accuphase clone, and Asgard 3), two speakers and one headphone (M3, Vela, and Verite).

When I didn't hear carefully, I thought there wasn't any loss. But there is. Delicate gradations lost a little, Timbre tiny bit less natural. Such is more evident with 'already great' Bifrost 2 than 'at best decent' Modius (actually I think Modius do these poorly to me. Not much to lose from the beginning). The best analogy explaining this could be software-driven post processing of raw images. I am no longer an extreme purist by any means. So, not a serious deal breaker in the end.

On the other hand, everything touched by Freya got better structured and organized. It prunes back some extra info that I don't care and arranges what remains in more easily comprehensible ways. I could perceive a bunch of positive traits listed below:

• More holographic staging -- a little narrower but meaningfully deeper
• Better separation both in dynamics and across similar instruments
• A little blacker background
• Digital disjoints largely reduced
• A little more meatiness and heft
• Increased liveliness and yet reduced distractions
• Better textures

Impact varies across gain options (4x > 1x >>>> no such benefits for passive) and configurations (speakers > headphones; modius > bifrost 2; bal > unbal in). And it's differently done when same or similar improvements occur in dacs -- there is kinda "law of information conservation". I believe Freya deltas akin to smart rearrangement while better dacs (e.g., OS multibits) resolve higher order information better .

Freya did a wonder to Modius particularly when connected via xlr bals. Distinctly and independently so from Modius bal magics: confirmed this by examining rca-xlr deltas for both dacs (assuming bifrost a gold standard of zero delta between bal and unbal). Freya more directly addresses shortcomings I bothered with Modius. But will investigate this more when my 2nd Aegir arrives. All I can say at this point is with the aid of Freya, Modius can survive in my primary rig otherwise not.

That's it for now. More to come.

 

I've thought about buying Freya+ for the JFET mode. I have the OG Freya, built just prior to retirement to Freya+, and really like tube mode. The passive and JFET modes aren't compelling in my setup (Yggdrasil, VPI, 2 Vidars, Harbeth) - I'm wondering if the JFET mode in Freya+ has improved.

 

I just received my Freya S this afternoon and am loving the musicality of the Bifrost 2 and Freya S. The clarity is amazing to these ears.

Question I have is I have routed single ended outputs from the Freya into my Jotunheim so I can use it as a headphone amp. I’m not getting any sound from my headphones. I’m using the balanced headphone output on the Jotunheim. The XLR outputs on the Freya are driving powered monitors.

Has anyone tried this setup? Thanks.

 

My hunch is that you're connecting the balanced outputs of Bifrost 2 to the preamp and running Freya S in passive mode. Is that correct? Freya S uses active circuitry to convert balanced signals to single-ended (and vice versa), so when you run in passive mode it's not capable of performing this conversion. Try switching into Nexus mode (either X1 or X4) and see if that makes a difference for you. I would expect that both outputs of Jotunheim are active irrespective of whether you feed it single-ended or balanced inputs.

 

I was running in Nexus mode.

I suppose I could go straight from the Bifrost 2 into the Jotunheim via SE inputs and bypass the Freya completely. It sort of defeats wanting to hear the music from the Nexus though.

I'll have another go at it tomorrow using the SE 1/4" headphone jack in case that makes a difference.

Thanks for the helper.

 

Jotunheim converts SE to balanced and vice versa, so there's no reason swapping which headphone output you're using should solve the issue.

Super basic step 1 troubleshooting, but have you checked to make sure you're going into the Jotunheim's SE inputs and not the SE outputs? I only bring this up because I had a similar issue a little while ago (powered monitors on the rca inputs instead of outputs) and felt real dumb when I figured it out.

 

Does the 12 dB tube gain true for both the BAL and SE outs?

 

Step 2 would be to also confirm that the switch on the front of the Jotunheim is on the proper input. I've never used one, but remembered seeing it. Per the manual:

"1 Input Switch. If the name wasn’t clue enough, this selects the input. All the way up for the internal card (DAC or phono), middle for balanced input, bottom for SE input. Hint: if you don’t have a card installed, you won’t hear anything when the card is selected."

Apologies if you tried this already @GoodSchiit, just throwing it out there.

 

You were right that I had not switched it to the SE inputs. I have mostly used USB and XLR inputs.

Thanks for the helper.

 

Hi,
I am a new member here and hope to seek information regarding the compatibility of Freya S with power amps of other brands. My current amp is the Pioneer A-400 integrated which I bought almost 30 years ago and am considering moving to separates for the very first time. I would consider myself a noob in the world of separates, so apologies if my questions seem trivial.
I am looking for a preamp that is less than USD700 and has at least 3 analogue inputs but where I live, is difficult to find one. Fortunately, there are more variety of Power Amps here and I am currently eyeing the Keces S-125 (https://www.audioemotion.co.uk/keces-audio-s125-power-amplifier--monoblock-21995-p.asp) which I am able to audition in the near future and for which good reviews are written. As for preamps, Google has led me to Schitt's products and that is how I got here.

My questions are:
1) Will Freya S be compatible with the S125? Will there be a mismatch in electronic performance in any way?

2) In simple terms, what does passive mode, gain X1 and gain X5 setting means? (These are the 3 listed in the product page). Will there be a particular setting/s that will not work with the S125?

3) The product page says SE inputs is converted to Balanced input, does this mean that for example, if we have a RCA output from a CD player connected to the RCA input of the Freya, we can then use the Balance Output of the Freya to connect to the Balance input of the power amp?

4) If the answer to 3) is "yes", will the signal after being converted from SE "lose out" to a signal which is originally Balanced ?

FYI, the price of the S125 here is equivalent to about USD850.
There is no distributor for Schitt products here, so will have to buy if directly from Schitt USA. Total price including duty and freight charges I expect be around that figure too.

Thank-you very much!

 

1. Should be compatible. Input impedance on the amp is similar to Schiit’s power amps. If you want Schiit’s “seal of approval” (not really, just an opinion) before ordering you could ask their opinion as well.

2. Passive means all that’s happening is the volume control can control the level of the amplifier, but it can’t make it louder than the max output from your source (e.g. CD player). On that amp, although it doesn’t list the gain specification, I suspect the max output from your source would be super loud on it, so likely no issue with that mode. Some power amps have low gain and won’t get loud enough at the maximum volume setting in passive mode (which is where the 4X mode comes in).

1X is basically the same from a volume control perspective as passive, except that it is going through some active circuitry (Nexus) that changes the sound a bit, but can also drive longer runs of cables to your power amp. Many people prefer the sound of the 1X over passive, even without longer cables. 1X will also give you a proper differential balanced signal from the XLRs, (don’t worry what that means, it’s just preferred).

4X means it will output 12dB more gain than the maximum your source can put out (e.g. CD player), so essentially it can get much louder than the other modes. Many people also prefer the sound of the 4X mode the best as well, but that may be a preference thing. Even if you don’t need the 4X mode to make you volume louder, you can still use the 4X mode and just keep the volume knob lower than the other modes, and you’ll get the (possibly better) sound qualities from the 4X mode.

3. Yes it will go from RCA input to XLR output.

4. Yes it will convert it from a single-ended signal to a balanced signal (via the XLR outputs)

 

Thank-you very much for your quick reply @rlow .

I felt my question 4 is not worded properly ; I meant to ask if SE input converted to Balance Output is better than Balance Input to Balance Output.
I also just discovered that the Parasound Zpre3 preamp (has tone controls) https://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PAZPRE3 is available in my region and has what I am looking for in the number of RCA inputs. Do you think this is better than the Freya in terms of sound quality/signal production?
In USA, the Parasound and Freya S is retailed at USD449 and USD599 respectively but for me importing the Freya would cost almost double the price of the locally sourced Parasound.
If Freya is the clear winner, I am willing to purchase it despite the higher cost for me.

Thanks!

 

Funny story. I bought a Freya S three weeks ago. When I got it the Nexus stage was noticeably defective, very loud noise and hiss. The passive mode sounded amazing. Schiit agreed to send me a replacement Freya S. I got the replacement today and it is a Freya +. I was pissed when I saw that white box with "TUBES" written on it lol. I just really don't like dealing with tubes and the inevitable tube nervosa that comes with it.

But here is the thing, since I didn't really get to hear Freya S in Nexus mode I spent a week with it in passive mode. It was outstanding. I obviously tried the Freya+ out in tube mode first and it was very good and maybe I'll fall in love with it in time. But the JFET mode... I can't even tell the difference between it and passive, it is that transparent. Given that the Freya S I was expecting today was probably going to be in passive mode 70% of the time, I guess he Freya+ with its transparent as f**k JFET mode has a new home.

 

Aside: I was impressed with Freya+ jfet and was my fav, passive seemed weak --> helped us handily hear this DLIII (no ordinary DLIII) crush an RME dac --> Anyway get your freya S. The tubes don't do it for me here at least on this system, it was just too much.

You are in the perfect position to really compare and know.

 

^^^Considering that the Freya S is going bye bye soon I am seriously considering sending the plus back in for the S. I can get a Freya+ whenever.

I don't think tube mode is too much for my system I just didn't find it immediately better than the passive or JFET modes notwithstanding the extra gain.

 

JFET mode and passive are actually the same. Jason wanted to keep the cases the same between the Freya’s to keep the costs down and he had the extra LED between passive and tube mode to deal with, so he flicked on the light when you hit the mode switch, but everything else stays the same. He knows audiophiles and how their mind can tell them things have changed when things light up, so he knew they wouldn’t figure it out.



In all seriousness, they are sort of similar, but as a new F+ owner myself, the main thing I find about JFET mode is it has more balls and more bite than passive. But the overall tonality is very consistent.