213, I think you hit the nail on the proverbial head. I have over 600 hours listening to the Freya+ and could not agree more. In my case, the Freya+ exposed my lack of room treatments. Most of what I listen to is High Res from Qobuz and once I began to fully hear what was present in the material, it was easy to make needed corrections.
Schiit Freya+(Plus)
Freya+ users:
For me, sending DAC input through tube output clearly adds warmth, bloom, punch, musicality, presence.
However, when used with analog inputs (TT, FM, cassette), the tubes (current stock JJ 6SN7 supplied with the unit) sound too lush, rather over the top, sometimes frankly bloated. I mean at equal volume (not volume SETTING).
Despite balanced output to power amp, the SS buffer stage sounds inferior to pure passive mode. So it's tubes with
DAC, passive with analog, SS buffer with nothing.
Questions: (1) does my experience sound typical?
(2) should I experiment with rolling Tung-Sols or other recommended upgrade tube?
(3) does any of this bespeak some peculiarity elsewhere in the chain?
Advance thanks for diagnoses/suggestions.
For me, sending DAC input through tube output clearly adds warmth, bloom, punch, musicality, presence.
However, when used with analog inputs (TT, FM, cassette), the tubes (current stock JJ 6SN7 supplied with the unit) sound too lush, rather over the top, sometimes frankly bloated. I mean at equal volume (not volume SETTING).
Despite balanced output to power amp, the SS buffer stage sounds inferior to pure passive mode. So it's tubes with
DAC, passive with analog, SS buffer with nothing.
Questions: (1) does my experience sound typical?
(2) should I experiment with rolling Tung-Sols or other recommended upgrade tube?
(3) does any of this bespeak some peculiarity elsewhere in the chain?
Advance thanks for diagnoses/suggestions.