2. amps-preamps
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Schiit Saga+...What’s the point of the tube?

Just wondering about this. I bought one used because I wanted a passive preamp with 0 gain and remote control. It functions fine and doesn’t seem to color the sound of my inputs at all whether I have it in tube buffer mode or not. 

So then why is there a tube? To sell more units b/c of supposed tube sound? It came with 5 tubes, several NOS American made ones from the 50’s-70’s and some of recent manufacture. I rolled them all and none of my listeners (4 including myself) could hear a difference. 

I’m not into tube voodoo after rolling these tubes and engaging tube buffer mode vs. “normal” mode. Makes me question the value of tube rolling in general. 

I know half of the replies will be bad puns on the Schiit name, but if anyone has a serious reply, I’d be grateful to read it. 
larshepping

Showing 1 response by jallan

jallan's avatar
jallan
339 posts
 
Lots of folks here blovulating with zero understanding, kinda scary.

 I have the original Saga, the Schiit literature clearly discusses that it is a tube buffer on top of a no gain device. 
The tube thus has a variable impact, depending upon the input impedance of your amp as well as the usual other variables in any system. Used in my case with three different amps, two SS and one tube, in all cases to me it sounded fuller with better 3 dimensional shaping of instruments and the soundstage when using the tube buffer.

It is a very clean sounding device with more resolving power than my Audio Research SP6B preamp. It does not have the natural 3-D soundstage nor sound as natural and effortless as the SP6B, but I wonder whether it was fully burned in when I was comparing it. I think it has hugely improved the sound of my bedroom system (Adcom GFA535II and ATC SCM7’s). Tremendous product! 
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