Maybe tube preamp

PS - wish I’d added this to my earlier post.

I am NOT saying there is anything wrong with Freya’s sound using quiet 6SN7 tubes (new production TungSols seem popular on HeadFi). Just that, for me, if I don’t need the gain that tubes provide, I am very happy with the sound when running it in JFET buffer mode. Other than the gain, I’ve not yet heard a huge sonic advantage using tubes. Small differences, yes, maybe. Again, that’s with the tubes I’ve tried. I also want to stress folks over on HeadFi are reporting much bigger changes going to tubes from passive mode and seem to strongly prefer tube mode.  Okay...done now.

Have had a Freya for almost a year now. It is well worth the money especially in regards to functionality, flexibility and good sound quality (low distortion to my ears). I personally also like the form factor. It does have a few quirks. Freya replaced a very nice tube rectified 6H30 Opera Consonance Reference 50 preamp. I thought the sound with the Freya was more refined and relaxed; greater detail without any hint of harshness or "etch".

I use it mainly in JFET buffer mode. I suggest tempering expectations regarding its virtues as a tube pre-amp. I’ve run the stock 6SN7s, some upgraded Russian 6SN7s from Upscale, new production EH as well as NOS (early 50s) RCAs. To me, the sound with any of these tubes did not change all that much. I don’t find it to have any sort of classic tube euphony - at least with my gear and to my ears (though I do associate that quality more with choice of power tube). There’s a major increase in gain (14 db) with tubes to be sure; this can be advantageous but, as well, this level of gain will highlight noisy tubes, esp. in the gain stage.  There’s a lot of discussion about Freya and tubes over on HeadFi.org. I’m in the minority there w/respect to my view on the tube sound from Freya.

Do not take this the wrong way. I am NOT ripping the Freya. I really like it. Sold off my tube pre-amp. My purchase of Freya was largely driven by wanting something passive and with balanced input/output options. You may have a completely different experience w/respect to running it in tube mode. I’m sure I’ve barely scratched the surface of NOS 6SN7 options not to mention the various 6SN7 variants that will work in Freya.

Good luck to the OP finding something excellent for their system.