Maybe tube preamp

I just bought a Schiit Freya, which I didn't need and hasn't arrived yet. It's so inexpensive I simply had to try one as no other preamp I've heard of has its features, and I wanted a tube preamp to go with my SEP power amp. It comes with one fancy knob.

My current preamp sounds absolutely excellent (Kavent S33…rare but amazing) but the Freya just seems like it has a "fun" potential (and more of my current fave 6SN7 tubes) so I simply hope it sounds good. Balanced, 3 modes, interesting volume control…we shall see. I’ve had a Schiit Loki long enough now to be sold on the Schiit quality control, and I think price can often be irrelevant to the sound of things as proved when I scored a lightly used Dennis Had "Fire Bottle" amp for 1200 bucks…the Aric stuff does seem pretty cool and handmade (my Had amp is utterly hand done and I open it up just to look at it sometimes) so please get one and report back!

My Freya shipped today so I won't have to wait long to see what's what. If it doesn't sound great it simply gets sent back. My experience with 6SN7s is mainly from that last several months of owning a "Fire Bottle" single ended amp that came with an Amperex USA 6SN7GTB (and sounds great)…the amp has only 4 tubes including the rectifier so it begs for tube experimentation. I bought another Amperex as a backup since I like the original one so much, and have a pair of Tung Sols (recent version) ready for the Freya since I had one already and bought another identical one…same test scores (!). The Amperex sounds better than the Tung Sol in my amp but not by too much. Both are very quiet and non microphonic. I can’t really say what the differences between 12AX7s and the 6SN7s might be as I haven’t had an amp that could swap ’em out…I had a pile of 12AX7s for my previous amp, a Jolida 502P, and recent version Gold Lions sounded best to me for that amp. I’ve also used 12AX7s in guitar amps since the 60s so there’s that…but guitar amps may be more forgiving anyway. It is interesting that the Schiit dudes love that 6SN7 tube so much, and the "octal" base is way more confidence inspiring when taking the tubes in and out of an amp than the easily bendable wires of a 12AX7…points just for that. I’d like to get a pair of 5692 "red base" (that's supposedly important) tubes just to check ’em out either in the Freya or the Fire Bottle as they seem interesting…pricey but cool.

The Inspire preamps aren’t remote controlled, and cost about twice as much as a Freya…I have heard of a remote version somebody talked Had into building recently so maybe in the future I’ll get one, but one thing about Inspire stuff is the utter randomness of Had’s builds and the "contact over Ebay" thing. It’s sort of like a club you join, and that’s OK. The Freya’s balanced design (my DAC has balanced outs), a hip volume control (so they say), and 3 operating modes appeal to me also, although my amp is single ended. I may change my mind and bug Had if the Freya doesn’t deliver the mojo I seem to want it to…next week it arrives so we shall see.

Great info there tubepower…after reading endless "headfi" posts about the Freya I'm very curious about the tubes they ship with. I've also noticed RCA "black plates" and they do seem less pricey, so based on your experience I may just get a couple of those…I'm absolutely certain that if the Freya passes the test to earn a place in my gear pile I'm going to go after lots more 6SN7s.

I did mean "Black Base"...oops...and saw several on Ebay last night. Any recommended sellers you might have used? Otherwise I'll go with the Ebay rating score.

Also to update, my Freya (original version) has been around here for a couple of years now and it's certainly the best 800 bucks I've ever spent on hifi gear. Various tubes have been tried, none including the original Russian something-or-others have been microphonic or noisy, and my current faves are NOS GE 6SN7GTBs...an amazingly transparent preamp that supplies zero motivation to replace it as it simply works perfectly and sounds beautiful. Or doesn't "sound" at all which is how a preamp should.