Schiit Freya + Class A in Stereophile

Mr_bill...yes, all 4. I even have a few extras and they last a very long time at least relative to power tubes. 6SN7GTB. Stereophile rated the Freya + "Class A" even though it has lots of features...

My elder Freya with NOS GEs is absolutely on par with other far more pricey preamps as I proved (to myself and a few friends) by group listening tests comparing it to some ARC preamps and others a few years ago when it was new. In the tube mode it's utterly excellent. I proved this fact to myself further when I recently bought a Pass XA-25 that would doubtless shine light on the flaws of a sketchy preamp...it's even better than I thought, and needs great tubes to shine...new Tung Sols and JJs just didn't cut it for me, GEs and a few other NOS vintage tubes did.

lanx003: The Class A rating was in an issue where the Freya + was actually reviewed, but you likely know that. I've had the original version of the Freya since it first came out years ago and have raved about it, and noted that I'd compared it to much more expensive preamps (including my own). It's utterly a steal even today, and somehow the thing had really never had much audio geek press (in the audio mags I read anyway.)  I bet the reviewer would have appreciated the tube stage if it had better tubes (I stuck some new Tung Sols in mine and thought they weren't nearly as good as NOS GEs). The Topping seems fine but the Freya still does far more...including tubes. It will likely always suffer from being too inexpensive for some.

I've had an original version Freya for years and it astonishes me with how great it sounds every day...NOS GE 6SN7GTBs boogie my sneakers away.