Schiit Freya + Class A in Stereophile

I just swapped out the Freya+ for a PrimaLuna EVO 100 preamp. But that aside, I just wanted to mention that I do subscribe to Stereophile primarily to see what the reviewers use for their music testing and to discover new music from the back section of the magazine. I find it helpful to listen to what a reviewer used for testing and to see if I can't hear what they heard as well. 

I noticed when I rolled in some NOS Sylvania tubes the Freya + sounded much better. It sounded very good with the stock tubes, but the NOS tubes improved performance noticeably. It replaced a SS Parasound preamp which was no slouch. In terms of overall sound quality, I rated the Parasound a 6 out of 10 and the Freya was an 8.5 out of 10. I must add I don't buy really expensive audio gear simply because I can't afford it and I have a ceiling amount I am willing to pay for any piece based upon practicality and reasonableness. So I find the Freya a very good audio preamp for the price.

For a newbie, could any of you please list the exact tubes you've upgraded to that have been a really nice upgrade?  (also which tube position they are?)

@eljif or anyone else:

……,are these the CBS Hytron 5692 tubes you are referring too? And you put two on the input side? (Which I’m not sure which side is which!?

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.