Wout: Thanks for the reply. have you heard either one of these? impressions?
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I'm still waiting for my Freya to be delivered. Ordered end december. Expected to be delivered next week, but not sure yet. Will let you know my impression. It is going to replace my old Quad 44 pre-amp This will be my 4th Schiit audio gear on top of Mani (phono pre-amp), Sys and Gungnir Multibit (Gumby) DAC. That last one will never go, or it must be replaced by a Yggdrasil (Yggy) from the same company. And when Vidar will come available in several months that will probably be the next item to replace my Quad 520f |
Update on compare. Transcendence has headphone out. If you need this Freya is NOT your product, you should look at another Schiit product like Mjolnir 2 or Jotunheim for $ 399. http://schiit.com/products/mjolnir-2 http://schiit.com/products/jotunheim Or is you only need SE input and output see Saga for $ 349 http://schiit.com/products/saga Freya has 5 inputs,2 balanced, 3 SE, Transcendence only has 4 SE Freya has 1 balanced and 2 SE outputs, Transcendence only 2 SE outputs |
Have had a Freya for about a week now. Never heard a Van Alstine Trans 10RB. Bought the Freya mainly to have a balanced, solid state pre. Didn’t really want tube output but at least it didn’t have a DAC or phono pre. I wanted those less. Initially one of the tubes was microphonic. Schiit provided a replacement set but in the interim I listened to it in passive mode: Gungnir DAC>>Cabledyne Copper Ref. XLR>>Freya>>AQ Columbia XLR>>Taranis amp>>Totem Forests. Things sounded excellent. WAY better than I expected from passive. None of the thin, bleached-out sound sometimes associated with passive. A few days later, got the replacement 6SN7 tubes installed. Immediately struck by a delicacy and refinement to the sound compared to the 6H30 tubed preamp I’d been using. There’s more detail but no harshness. On female vocals performed at higher volume, a kind of hardness I’d sometimes hear with the other pre seems gone. I am very pleased. From new, out-of-the-box, the sound has opened up. Nice air. Have been listening only to tube mode since they arrived. The unit is very quiet. Between tracks it’s like somebody shut off the system. Tap the unit with volume up, nothing. Ear up to speaker with volume up and nothing playing, dead silent. Very pleased. Seems like a very good value for just $700 bucks. Schiit does have a 15 day return policy (less 5% restocking fee). I do not hesitate to recommend auditioning Freya. Like wout, I got a couple other pieces of Schiit (Asgard 2 as well as the stock Gungnir). Guess you could say I'm a fan of Schiit. |
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