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.
