Preamps

Ayre or Rega, or Audible Illusions pre.

Hattor or Khozmo passive preamp is my next preamp. You can get a remote option as well. The shunt resistor Takings electronics out of the signal path is attractive to me. 

Hi 
i have owned many Jeff Rowland preamps
and power amps.
First they are designed to be played in balance mode.
i currently have a Jeff Rowland Concerto line stage mated with Ayre V5xe amp.with
great results.
Also cables,I used Cardas,and Mojo Audio 
top interconnects.

Like I've already said, I'm not unhappy with my Corus preamp, but I'm curious to hear other preamps. I run my JR 625 S2 with the Corus in balanced mode connect with Wireworld Platinum XLR series 8 cables.

I use a tube pre an lp27a by inspire (dennis had).  It will run mains and 2 subs no problem and has 2 sets of outputs.       It replac d one by graaf which  was also excellent and had no issues running mains and sub

For those that have the Freya:

Can you please comment on the transparency in the passive mode of the Freya ...

...versus without the Freya, with source(ie oppo 205) direct to amp.

Is it noticeable?

Thanks

How about the new Rogue Audio RP-9? Uses the Russian 6H30P tubes.

I have the RP-1 and really like it, wish I could afford the 9 :). Rogue is a great company to work with. http://www.rogueaudio.com/Products_RP9.htm

@wolf_garcia Of course you can blame the preamp for microphonics. Same tubes in Don Sachs preamp are silent. The tubes are Super Line grade VT231s from Andy at VTS. The chassis on Freya just picks up a lot more vibration than other preamps I've experienced.

As to noise, I'm not the only one complaining. The forums are full of Freya complains. It's unbearable into both pairs of my studio monitors. It's better into a pair of hifi speakers. 

Audio Research LS28 is a silent tube preamp. Stick your ears next to tweeters, nothing. In Freya, the tubes are a fun afterthought with $8 dollars worth of coupling caps. Like I said, amazing, transparent volume control with JFET buffer, but a tube preamp it ain't.

So many good reports out weigh the few bad to me, about noise with the Freya.
Sure for those kind of low dollars ($699) you get cheap 6SN7 or 6H8C tubes with it, and there are going to be the odd bad noisy one, but I was told by owners they send out asap replacements if you do get that.

And spending $7,500 on the Audio Research LS28 will get you, matched selected 4 x tubes, but it’s also costing >10 X the amount and some reports that it’s nowhere near worth the money when compared to the similar 4 tube Freya.

Cheers George

A Freya is simply not inherently more vibration prone than any other preamp so that ain't it, sorry. You can hit this thing with a stick and it's still quiet...Also, the stock 6H8C tubes provided for my Freya were also dead silent, just less interesting sounding than other options. Of course there are others "whining" about Freyas, as well as ARC preamps and every other brand out there as that's what people on forums do, but the Freya is a huge hit in spite of forum critics as the vast majority of owners seem happy with 'em. I suggest astelmaszek simply send his back as the warranty is likely still valid.

Some just can't accept that something for $699 can compete with $$$K preamps, just because it doesn't have the million dollar glitzy looks, doesn't mean it can't sound it, it's got what it takes under the hood.

Cheers george 

@ricred1 there’s another similar thread about preamps that you are aware of and you are also aware of my recommendations for Mola Mola which based on European prices would certainly be within your budget.

Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffat aren't about to sell a crappy product that effects the great reputation they've developed over the years. The Freya is a huge hit simply because it's well engineered and sounds great, costs FAR less than most other preamps in its class (although it has far more features than most), and they listen to customer's suggestions for improvement. The "newer" versions of the Freya have less of a gain gap between the tube and other modes, they've added new Tung Sol 6SN7GTBs as an option, and they certainly listen to anybody who asks about things, and replace faulty items. 

Freya and LS28 are not even playing the same game. I've got a ton Schitt gear (Freya, Saga, Gungnir MB, Yggy), I've got a ton of AR gear, I've got a ton of Luxman gear. I've had the Schiit integrated. I've replaced it with a Yamaha AS1100 for the same price used. Schiit doesn't even play in the same game as the Yamaha. Connect the Freya preamp to AR REF75 and the soundstage collapses both width but especially depth wide and even in JFET mode is more noisy. Same with Saga. They make great gear at a fair price, but to say it sounds as good as gear costing 10x is BS. Sure you can get a great preamp for not a lot of money, but it ain't Freya. It's Don Sachs model 14. Better or as good as LS28 for not much more $$$ than Schiit gear. The coupling caps Don uses cost half as much Freya does. Freya uses coupling caps that are $2 bucks a piece. You can't cheat when it comes to coupling caps in tube gear. You just can't.

I've paired my Freya with an ARC REF75 amp and it sounded astonishing, with none of the alleged soundstage issues described, so I can only surmise some people simply live on another planet. I brought it into an "audio salon" and the sales dudes were shocked at how good it sounded, even relative to some insanely pricey stuff. It's a quiet over-performer, with plenty of otherwise rational rave reviews supporting it.

I'd first try a Benchmark LA4 @ only $2.6k, specs wise it's SOTA, remains to be seen if you also like the sound (Benchmark offers 30 days in home trial). Compared to the transformer coupled Rowland i'm sure it's more transparent to the source. 

https://benchmarkmedia.com/collections/preamplifiers/products/benchmark-la4-line-amplifier?variant=1...

Closer to the stated price range I'd try the T+A P3000HV and the Chord CPA 5000 (since you have the DAVE).

Is it a good match from a technical point considering impedance matching between the amplifier(Jeff Rowland 625 S2 and the Chord CPA 5000?

The Corus has a 60 Ohm output impedance and the CPA 5000 has 100 Ohm, they would be indistinguishable impedance wise into the 625's 40kOhm input impedance.

I’ve paired my Freya with an ARC REF75 amp and it sounded astonishing

+1 for the Shiit Freya, a 3 in 1 Swiss army knife with the best mechanical volume control you can get.
Has to be the bargain ($699) of the decade, embarrasses many $$$$$$K preamps, it’s got what’s needed under the hood that’s why.
Probably not dazzling enough for the "glitz queens" though.

As for the questionable coupling cap statement (above), the Schiit freya uses Wima coupling caps, so do many others. like this 8K euro Acoustics Arts from Germany that got raved about in 6 Moons
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dYJpNC7cRxQ/VI4GXO11ogI/AAAAAAAAwu8/tz9_JDR7cIA/s1600/accustic_arts_monoII...

https://6moons.com/audioreviews2/accusticarts/1.html

Cheers George

Does anyone know why Don Sachs can't add a balanced output on his SP 14?

Why is this such a difficult task?

Another unit to check @ at the top of your price range would be the Levinson No. 523 (the same as No. 526 but without the DAC module); it would also match impedance wise with the 625. 

https://www.marklevinson.com/productdetail/~/product/no523.html

https://www.stereophile.com/content/mark-levinson-no526-preamplifier

the 523 is an awesome unit. i don’t want to denigrate JRDG because he’s a great designer and fine fellow. but in my system the ml 523 was considerably more satisfying to me than the corus BUT the systems were different. my sense however was that the ml was more finely detailed, transparent and very musical. and being a ml unit a true joy to operate and so beautifully built.  the only better ss pre that i’ve personally owned that might exceed the ml is the luxman c-900u but either one would satisfy almost anyone in my humble opinion. 
if you’ve owned a corus i don’t think you’ll be happy with good sound but lousy package. you’re going to want both.

Ayre is certainly not out of business.  I just (a couple of days ago) got my V1 amp back .....I thought I heard a brightness in one channel of my 15 year old amp....  When I got it back, EVERYTHING about the sound was many ways better than the old one.  The price was very reasonable...they replaced many, many parts to the current ones.  I can't say enough good stuff about them.  The man in charge of repairs is Gary.  If you call, he'll call back....or Email him.

I just couldn't deal with Vicoustics for room treatment due to what I deem poor customer service. I completed my order with GIK and should have everything sometime next week.

Was it the same process with GIK as it was vicoustics?  Did you just send them a video of your room?

try on your poweramp: Audio Note M5-M10, EAR 912, Ayre KX-R ,VAC.
Tubes are the best at that kind of amp. Speakers are of course very important.

I sent Vicoustics what I thought was everything 7 days ago. Everyday they sent me an email requesting something else. Despite sending them panoramic pictures, the next day they wanted a picture of my ceiling. I provided them measurements, but they seemed to have a new question everyday. They even wanted the specs on the GIK Acoustic bass traps that I currently have, but I told them I wasn't keeping them. A couple days later they wanted the size of my screen. Yesterday, I received an email stating that I'll receive the complete acoustic treatment proposal for the Hi Fi Room between March 20th and 27th.In addition, I had an online chat with their customer service and he said that I was complaining. After my conversation we customer service I decided to go with GIK. I already have some GIK acoustic products in my room, so I followed-up with them to complete my order. Initially I sent GIK the same information as Vicoustics. GIK has outstanding customer service and has already sent me an email with the expected ship date.