shiit Freya+ muffles the base? Recommendation for preamp please

Lol,

 I still have an Audio Research SP-9mkll (89-90) on what is now my second system and it’s still sounding great to me!

All the best.

JD

@ronboco @curiousjim 

I bought the speakers second hand. You'd think it's broken in. but you never know if the previous owner put enough power into it...

all said, I tried XLR cables and it made a big difference! If I rate the bass at 7 when the system goes from DAC to Amp,  I probably got 4 with Freya+ in the middle (with single ended cable). with XLR cable from Freya+ to Amp, the bass is 6 or 6.5 but now I got the tube color. So interesting...

I am in market for a good tube preamp now. but at least the system is not enjoyable. 

thanks all!

plus 1 @azmixr 

How many hours does everything have? 

Doesn’t the Freya have both a solidstate and a tube output  setting? How does the it sound on the ss setting?

All the best.

JD

@azmixr 

Are your speakers broken in? My Avior ii speakers were light on the bass when they were new and at about 300 hours I was able to hear a big difference. Good luck! 
 

Ron 

Van Alstine Transcendence RB 10 tube preamp!

I compared my Freya+ with my CODA 07x and Benchmark LA4. I liked all 3 but loved the 07x and LA4 and sold the Freya+. The LA4 and 07x are vastly different sonically. For the B&W speakers I would use the warmer CODA 07x.

Yes, try using balanced connections. And it’s likely you need a preamp with a large power supply.

@lowrider57 & @pesky_wabbit thanks for the recommendation

@djspinner thanks for the pointer. yes i use single ended... will try XLR and report back!

@noske I am new to audio and no expert here. that said, it's not a comparison of 804S to other speakers. there is a huge difference with or without Freya+ in the middle. if you say the perfect bass scores 10 and 804S is 6, then when i have Freya+ i got probably 3 or 4... anyway, now i took Freya+ out and am decently happy with the bass (till i hear something better...). 

I'm not a huge fan of Schiit's stuff.

I think you pretty much have a complete mismatch going there...

I have always liked the sound of B&W. So I recently upgraded my speakers to 804s.

...Strangely, the bass was not satisfying or full enough for me, even though it is a big speaker.

...Again, here, the bass was the weak point.

...it was the deeper bass that was lacking.

...if more bass is desired, add a nice subwoofer.

....It was only at very loud levels that the bass finally shone through.

...the only area I found lacking was the bass output,

{Editors note- The 804S does not have a lot of distortion in the low frequencies, and depending on what one has listened to in the past, the 804S’ lack of bass may just be a lack of distortion. }

But what the heck, it must be the Freya that is at fault because of reasons and "I have always liked the sound of B&W.".

After all, Freya’s specs are only 3Hz to 200KHz -3dB in tube mode.

Edit - I haven’t seen any test how Freya+ output impedance behaves at low frequencies. I think - and I am happy to be corrected - that this may be an issue with tube pre-amps in general, but depending on design.

Are you using balanced or single ended connection?  Those two may be a mismatch, given the impedance matching:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/amp-preamp-impedance-matching-can-anyone-explain

Check the specs, but I think if you use XLR connection you should be okay?

"muffles the base"

That's interesting. But how is the bass?

ARC, Supratek, EAR, Atmasphere…

Try rolling in some better tubes. NOS 6SN7's have a more extended low-end.

http://www.audiotubes.com/6sn7.htm