Schiit Freya + Class A in Stereophile

Yes I can attest to the comparison between the LS50 and Wilson speakers.  I had been running some LS50 for a few months moving them around from room to room as I was doing some remodeling.  I thought wow these rooms really sound bad, hopeless for audio.  I got a deal on some Wilson duettes and put them in the system that had the LS50 in on of the rooms and OMG what a massive difference. We need to re do the alphabet if LS50 and Wilson are both considered class A.  

I am pretty happy overall with the sound of my Freya + and when you read that it's considered to be in the same ballpark of sound at the 16K Audio Research pre then I think why bother.  

Hi Brunomarcs.  I was thinking of trying the Rogue RP7 to upgrade the Freya +.  I am really wondering how much improvement it's going to be and maybe not worth the trouble.  I like all the features of the RP7 or 9.  I really like the Freya + in tube mode best and I have upgraded my tubes to the CBS Hytron which cost almost as much as the preamp.  The tubes made it a lot better I thought.  I didn't go back and forth a lot but my initial impression was wow.  You might try some better tubes there is a lot of info on tube rolling in the Freya + out there.   

I also own the Benchmark LA4 which is really good too right up there with the Freya.  The Benchmark is a cleaner leaner sound. I still overall like the tube mode on the Freya slightly best.  I was thinking there has to be some big bad tube pre Lamm, CJ, AR that is going to be a lot better than this little guy.  

Anyway amazing and lucky we can get such a great product at a low price.  Good job Schiit 

The tube stage is the thing I agree with the Freya, the reason for being.  I put some CBS Hytron tubes in the input stage side and it really made the preamp a whole lot better.  I wonder how it would compare to an expensive preamp.  I was really thinking hard about trying something like a high end VAC or even Rogue RP 9 or CJ maybe but all the accolades I keep reading about the Freya and even from users that haven't experienced how much better it can sound with better tubes makes me think it might not be worth the bother.