I have the Freya but not the Vidars. The Freya Goes into Emotive XPA-100 Monoblocks.. I had Tekton Pendragons up until 4 weeks ago.. had a financial crunch and the Pendragons[and SVS Sub] sold before the Guitar Amps I had for sale. Would rather have sold a few of the Amps but I was in a close time window.I mostly use the Freya in JFET or Passive mode but for some Music,Acoustic,Jazz etc,the Tube part of the Freya sounds good. have to be carefull when you go to the Tube section cause it really has loads of gain! |
I also sometimes run the Freya into a Primaluna Prologue 5 two channel amp. Not when I'm playing Heavy Metal to be sure! |
Anyone running Schiit Audio Freya preamp and a pair of Vidar power amps? What speakers?
Sounds/looks to me like the best "new" bang for buck setup one can get, and from what I saw inside the Vidar's, they look to be able to be increased in capacitance of the power supply by at least double, I'll keep a look out for these on the used market. Cheers George |
As far as sound quality, a single Vidar should sound better than a bridge pair if the single is doing it comfortably wattage wise, although you don’t have the wattage with a single, than you do with bridged pair.
Negatives with bridging amps: 1 More distortion 2 Less damping factor (higher output impedance) "bass control" 3 Less current ability 4 Not able to drive as low impedance as non bridged.
Positives with bridging: 1:More wattage
As for speakers if you look at the above, single or bridged Vidars For inefficient (<85db) speakers, that have an easy'ish impedance load (>4-8ohm) go with the bridged Vidars For efficient speakers (>85db) that are a not so easy load (2-4ohms), go with a single Vidar.
Cheers George |
Freya has been back order with a Vidar for quite sometime...looking forward to KEF R1 using balanced vidars passive Freya balanced Yggy (A2). Currently Magni 3 driving single Vidar....too much gain...but beautiful sound and deeper bass than should be possible from a stand mount sans sub woofer |
I've had a Freya since last November and I think it's a giant killer of a preamp. Mine doesn't have some of the things people quibble about with these, it's utterly humless, the stock tubes aren't microphonic, and I hit the LEDs with some green magic marker to dim them (my only quibble, and trust me, a pain to remove the lid and get it back together with the LEDs lined up properly...man...). I did replace the stock tubes with NOS Sylvanias and it's simply a great sounding preamp with more inputs, balanced and otherwise, than most out there, and a flawless 128 step volume control system...for 700 bucks. I use it with a 12 watt per side single ended tube amp. |
Where l can buy Schitt Freya tube Preamp? If someone know please let me know.My email address is daihan49@hotmail.com |
Vu Nam please let me me know where I can buy Schitt Freya Tube Preamp..I am a Vietnamese too......my email address is: daihan49@hotmail.com Thanks |
Love my Freya too. Using it with a Vincent SP-331. Can't imagine a better $700 pre-amp new, with warranty. Service is excellent too. @vunam- go to schiit.com
Tom |
Audio Nirvana full range 8" |
I have been running Freya and 2 x Vidars since the Vidar first came out. In a nutshell, they are excellent. A lot of people have a tendency to qualify that statement with “for the price”, as if to imply that there is some deficiency or compromise for which you are settling. The price only makes the value that much sweeter, as this combo stands on its own as an exceptional piece of kit, at any price. I get the “upgrade” itch at least once every couple of months, not because I need to upgrade, but because I have the audiophile disease. Nothing that I have auditioned or researched, especially in a reasonable price range, has dislodged the Freya/Vidar combo from my main rack thus far.
The combo is voiced very well together, sharing identical frequency ranges that dig down to 3Hz and have exceptional THD and SNR. I don’t use an uber expensive power conditioner, opting for a more pedestrian APC H15 with Pangea power cables, not because I buy into power cables changing the sonic characteristics of the gear, but because I buy into the science of well shielded power cables reducing EMI and Crosstalk in the Analog interconnects and Ethernet cables that invariably end up running parallel to the power cables at some point in their journey from power to component. Even with this mundane power setup, the noise floor is subterranean and the system is dead quiet.
I use the Vidar monoblocks to drive Focal Electra 1028 Be speakers at 8ohms (that is 400W of power from the Vidars to each Focal). The Focals are not difficult to drive at 91.5dB and are spec’d to be driven by up to 300W. The Vidar 400W gives me plenty of headroom and I find that nothing ever struggles. I tend to play at both low and high/very volumes and have never had difficulty with detail or soundstage at low volume or clipping/distortion at high volume.
The Vidars are cooled with passive heat radiators, so they are dead silent, and the radiators are plenty efficient enough the keep things cool in an open AV rack like my Bello AT 306. It is true that the Vidars are not rated for 4 ohm loads in mono, but from discussions with other Vidar owners and Schiit engineers, the Vidars will handle all but the toughest loads at the highest volumes, and if it becomes too much the protection circuitry kicks in, shuts it down and saves your gear to play another day.
The Freya is a great compliment to the Vidars and offered a multitude of inputs and outputs, both SE and Balanced, through a fully balanced analog pathway. With 2 x Balanced XLR and 3 x SE inputs, I have more than enough inputs, but the special thing is the 1 x Balanced XLR output and 2 x SE inputs, that all output by default. I run two subwoofers, 1 x HSU VTF-15H and 1 x SVS PC-4000, and the two SE outputs give me outstanding flexibility. The tube gain sounds great, full and rich, and you can adjust the sound to your taste by rolling the tubes. My only complaint was that you could not turn the tube stage off while running passive or jfet, but Schiit has fixed that with the release of the Freya+ and FreyaS (solid state with two gain buffers if you don’t want tubes).
I know I sound like a Schiit fan boy, but I am not. I just like good gear. I ran a Mytek Brooklyn DAC + and a Bifrost Multibit side by side for a while and prefer the Mytek by a wide margin.
Bottom line. This is a great bit of kit. The fact that it won’t bankrupt you is just icing. |
I have an Freya and mono block Schiit Audio Aegirs running Zu Audio DW Omens and have a pair of Klipsch RP600M and they both sound great in my bedroom. I’m going to sell the Klipsch since I’m keeping the Omens. I’m my office I have a a pair of Schiit Audio Vidars with a Freya S (no tubes) playing my Magnepan LRS. I run a pair of REL t7i subs with the Magnepans since I’m an audiophile bass head. I love both systems. I use a Schiit Yggdrasil DAC in the office and waiting on a Denafrips DAC for the bedroom to take the place of my little Schiit Audio Multibit DAC. I dig both systems.
I firmly believe Schiit offers as much performance for the buck as I’ve found and I’ve been playing audiophile for 50 years. |
I firmly believe Schiit offers as much performance for the buck as I’ve found and I’ve been playing audiophile for 50 years. Totally agree, I’d go further "best bang for buck ever in the history of audio." And I asked and they haven’t discounted the possibility of a good CD transport coming from them. Cheers George |
With 2 x Balanced XLR and 3 x SE inputs, I have more than enough inputs, but the special thing is the 1 x Balanced XLR output and 2 x SE inputs, that all output by default. @markcdaniel how do the mono vidars behave given a single end input to the freya with xlr to the vidars? Looks like the schiit freya manual indicates SE to balanced conversion only with the tube gain stage? |
The current Freya S and Freya + do conversion in both active gain stages. |
I don’t have the Freya or twin Vidars, just one with their Saga pre. This combo has holographic, in-the-room imaging that even now is jaw dropping to me at times, with good recordings. But even lousy ones sound far better than they used to.
They've recently upgraded the Freya and Saga, and I'm pretty sure that they're even better sounding than my model. It's a great time to be an audiophile. |
Anyone interested in a Schiit audio Vidar & Freya s thats 4 month old ? Mail me ppeter.o@att.net. |
Pdo, you need to list it for sale here |