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.
Preamps
I'm not unhappy with the Jeff Rowland Corus preamp, but I don't know what I don't know. I'm currently looking for a solid state preamp with HT bypass to compare to my Jeff Rowland Corus preamp. I would like suggestions below $15K new list price to listen to. I have a Jeff Rowland 625 S2 amplifier, Antipodes DS GT music server and Chord Dave DAC.
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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. |
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. |
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 |
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 |
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). |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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 |
@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. |
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 |
Nonsense. I also have a large collection of 6SN7GTBs and they're dead quiet in my Freya, and the thing is as quiet as any SS preamp I've owned over the decades...or quieter. I guess I got lucky! I have a Loki EQ in the path and it's usually off, but a good test for noise is to crank the highs in the Loki and put my ear right at the tweeter horn on one of the Heresy IIIs...no tube noise at all, and really a very quiet, virtually noiseless preamp. I'll note the obvious that microphonic tubes are THE TUBES, not the amp, and to claim a preamp itself is responsible for tube noise issues from microphonics is strange indeed. I toss noisy tubes in the bin, so to speak. |
wolf_garcia do you agree with this you have one??? "@georgehifi Freya is a great piece of equipment but a horrible tube amp. I have a collection of best 6SN7 ever made. Noiseless in my other preamps. Same tubes in Freya make noise. Same with microphonics. The thing somehow picks up all vibration in the room and directly transfers it to tubes. Great JFET buffer. I use it between sources and studio monitors, but as tube preamp, it’s worthless." Cheers George |
@georgehifi Freya is a great piece of equipment but a horrible tube amp. I have a collection of best 6SN7 ever made. Noiseless in my other preamps. Same tubes in Freya make noise. Same with microphonics. The thing somehow picks up all vibration in the room and directly transfers it to tubes. Great JFET buffer. I use it between sources and studio monitors, but as tube preamp, it's worthless. @ricred1 Long time ago I quite caring about HT bypass on preamps with a little box from Luxma, the AS4 RCA selector between preamp/processor and the AMP. About 100 bucks shipped from Japan. About as transparent as components can be. Probably quieter than a relay in a preamp. Now, you do have to get up and press a button. Save yourself some money, buy a Don Sachs preamp for $3K with all the options and have him install a large second coupling cap for subwoofer. I have both his preamp and a LS28 from ARC and both are about as good as it gets. |
So, before I do anything with equipment I decided to invest in improving my room. I currently have GIK Acoustics, but decided to contact Vicoustic Resources. I already paid them to provide recommendations based on the information I sent to them. I will go through my local dealer to purchase the recommended room treatment and have it installed. |
Georgehifi is wrong about the Schiit Freya...it has five inputs and THREE OUTPUTS...2 single ended and one balanced. What a stunningly horrible misstatement, rendering me horrified and utterly saddened, reduced to a mere shell of a man...*sniff*...https://i.stack.imgur.com/4RK6O.jpg Shattered!!! |
georgehifi, ricred1,4425, It was very hard to find on the AR website but this is the link. Odd though that the AR rep didn’t know this... This also kills my plans for using a tube preamp. http://www.audioresearch.com/ContentsFiles/The%20Thorny%20Math%20of%20Impedance(0).pdf |
But since the subs are self powered I don't see how the preamp output impedance can affect the sub. The AR preamp with output coupling cap, has to drive not only your main amp input impedance, but also the 10kohm of your subs amp even though there are 2 outputs, and this could be the problem, the output cap in the AR "may" not be big enough as explained in my last post, and cause a premature rolloff of the low frequencies, so the sub may not go down low enough. Cheers George |
georgehifi, ricred1, Thanks for the information. But since the subs are self powered I don't see how the preamp output impedance can affect the sub. Also, the JL subs have a mic/calibration system, that would seem to me it would compensate for any possible low bass rolloff. Now, if having the sub connected affected the performance of the main amps then I would be concerned. ozzy |
ozzyricred1 OP I can understand "they" may have, as AR pre’s being tube are output capacitor coupled, are used to seeing tube poweramps of up to 100kohm input, and many subs have a very low input impedance 10kohm You need a big output coupling cap if you want to get down flat to 20hz with 10kohm input, and they may not be big enough. And I just looked your sub is 10kohm input!! Cheers George |
4425, I appreciate your concern. Unless I come into a lot of money I'm definitely not replacing my JR 625 S2. The verdict is still out on the Corus and it really depends on what I hear relative to the cost of changing preamps. I may hear some preamps that are different, but not worth changing from the Corus. |