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Old Preamp: Older Django passive TVC Preamp from DIY Hifi Supply
Amp: W4S ST 500
Speakers: Magnepan 1.6s with a heavily modified crossover
DAC: Schiit Gungnir Multibit
Interconnects: Neotech NEI-3004 Balanced Deep Cryo
Speaker Cable: Solid Silver Homebuilt
Power Conditioner: PS Audio UPC-200 (does not improve sound)
Music: Classical with lots of choral music
Player: foobar
Listening position: Nearfield
Volume: The softer side of moderateGoing from a stock (non-multibit) Schiit Bifrost to the multibit Gungnir made a big difference in sound, having more detail and clarity. This doubled my listening pleasure!
Now for the Freya: The volume control makes a clicking or buzzing sound in the preamp, not in the speakers, but this is really no big deal. What is a bigger deal is that the passive and active JFET buffer outputs cannot be used with balanced interconnects (edit: this is not true. All three modes can be used with balanced cables). Moreover, the tubs are active (lit up) in all the output modes.
I could not make comparisons between the three output modes because when I removed single-ended interconnects from Wired 4 Sound amp, the RCA cap broke off. This is the second time this has happened, and I believe this is a problem with these amps, although the manufacturer claims otherwise.
In listening to classical music, the Freya was impressive in that the tube output had a sweetness, a greatly reduced digital sound, and improved vocals that increased my listening pleasure by about 20-30%!!! I also listened to a few non-classical tracts. Led Zeppelin's "Achilles Last Stand" was a bit of a disappointment, but it was a very early recording that was never re-mastered. I also listened to Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" and loved the detail. I was never privileged enough to use high-end stuff, but I would be willing to bet that the Freya performance is excellent in comparison to its cost!!!
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"Humility is the true mark of genius. Just get used to it."
-Anonymous
Edits: 01/11/17
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Topic - First impression of the Schiit Freya - scruffy_ 10:23:57 01/09/17 (30)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - Rockethead26 14:50:32 01/16/18 (0)
- I emailed Shiit Audio about the Freya... - GregS 16:13:33 01/10/17 (0)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - Utley1 19:39:41 01/09/17 (16)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - scruffy_ 15:33:06 01/10/17 (14)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - Utley1 15:41:51 01/10/17 (13)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - scruffy_ 03:37:01 01/11/17 (12)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - Utley1 04:30:00 01/11/17 (11)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - scruffy_ 13:31:08 01/11/17 (10)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - AbeCollins 19:31:27 01/11/17 (9)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - scruffy_ 13:23:29 01/12/17 (8)
- Thank you scruffy_ - AbeCollins 11:19:04 01/14/17 (0)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - GregS 14:40:57 01/12/17 (6)
- I was an idiot! - scruffy_ 01:53:51 01/13/17 (5)
- RE: I was an idiot! - GregS 15:57:43 01/13/17 (0)
- RE: I was an idiot! - Greg Cz 03:36:24 01/13/17 (3)
- RE: I was an idiot! - Utley1 06:10:35 01/14/17 (2)
- RE: I was an idiot! - Greg Cz 12:24:54 01/14/17 (1)
- RE: I was an idiot! - Utley1 13:59:02 01/14/17 (0)
- Let me take a closer listen - scruffy_ 03:24:30 01/10/17 (0)
- regarding xlr not working on passive and Jfet - GregS 19:26:55 01/09/17 (2)
- Never mind, just saw it in the manual...but - GregS 19:37:48 01/09/17 (1)
- Yes, both inputs and outputs are XRL in my setup - scruffy_ 03:15:13 01/10/17 (0)
- Bummer - Awe-d-o-file 18:54:06 01/09/17 (0)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - GregS 16:40:35 01/09/17 (6)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - Lou S 03:28:59 01/08/18 (0)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - Utley1 19:37:10 01/09/17 (4)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - GregS 20:06:19 01/09/17 (3)
- RE: First impression of the Schiit Freya - Greg Cz 03:25:05 01/10/17 (2)
- And with the Saga - msa 06:12:00 01/10/17 (1)
- RE: And with the Saga - Donivey 06:27:14 01/11/18 (0)