Schiit Freya+ Pre-amp Review

[Here2Learn]

How does discovering a website.. make you lose your interest in tubes?

Maybe a website with naked ladies in interesting positions could do it. But not ASR, that's just kinky.

 

[Doodski]

Maybe a website with naked ladies in interesting positions could do it. But not ASR, that's just kinky.

Somehow the subjectivists could argue about that versus the objective!

 

[Kevinfc]

As I mentioned up thread... Tube equipment usually (hardly ever) will not measure well compared to good SS

There’s even one instance that it has?

 

[BR52]

CE without tube cover?

 

[majingotan]

Maybe a website with naked ladies in interesting positions could do it. But not ASR, that's just kinky.

ASR is not ASMR ya know

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

How does discovering a website.. make you lose your interest in tubes?

I came to understand that most (if not all) of tubes' "magic" is just insanely high distortion numbers with specific characteristics.

 

[sofrep811]

I’m noticing a trend. Is it almost impossible to get positive data on anything with tubes based on the inherent distortion that come with them? Is this why some tubes are ridiculously expensive? Because they cut down on the distortion? See where my logic is going here?

 

[rwortman]

I just think active and passive mode should essentially sound the same - and ideally, both put out 4Vrms unless gain is controllable (it might be, could have missed that if it was mentioned, but doesn't look like it from the output graph).

Passive mode will only pass through whatever the source voltage is.

Regarding other comments. The SS active mode is meant to be a unity gain buffer. The tube mode is a gain stage. Different choices. Why? Because the designer thought people would like to have those options.

The SS buffer showed slightly less than .005% distortion. Only in ASR world is this considered “a lot of distortion” in a preamp.

Neither is it established anywhere that this “sounds different” than the passive mode.

 

[egellings]

Tube sound is in the eye as well as the ear of the beholder.

 

[NiagaraPete]

What I don't get is why?? Why put distortion factories in a product in 2022. They have to know that no matter what it's going to be shite.

 

[Doodski]

I’m noticing a trend. Is it almost impossible to get positive data on anything with tubes based on the inherent distortion that come with them? Is this why some tubes are ridiculously expensive? Because they cut down on the distortion? See where my logic is going here?

Sometimes the hours of operation of tubes is unknown and so we could be getting test results from worn out tubes.

 

[bboris77]

What I don't get is why?? Why put distortion factories in a product in 2022. They have to know that no matter what it's going to be shite.

Because it sells.

The question then becomes: "Why does it sell?"

I can only answer it from my own point of view, because I went through my own tube phase.

- I simply wanted to experiment to see what all the hoopla was about.

- As a guitar player, the distortion that various tubes add to your tone used to be better than solid-state distortion. So, by some weird analogy, I assumed tubes would add a bit of that magic to my music.

- I bought into the whole nostalgic and mystical aspect of tubes. Firstly, there is their alleged robustness (they can survive a nuclear war lol). Secondly, there is the fact that they were popular in the 50s and 60s, the era in which EVERYTHING was better and made to last forever.

- I also bought directly into this marketing line that the owner of Schiit still uses about tubes: "These really exist in their own world. They are the only device that literally has no physical connection between their grid, anode, and cathode." While this statement is factual, the implication here is that they are special and magical in some way.

- I liked the fact that you could change the sound of your amplifier by changing tubes. Ironically, this is the main reason why I got out of the tubes because it is a huge rabbit hole.

At this point in time though, I really do not see myself going down that path again because my experimentation satisfied my curiosity. The conclusion was that tubes did not bring any additional enjoyment to my music listening experience past that initial honeymoon phase.

Once you cannot hear the noise floor and audible distortion, the only thing that made a difference for me in terms of increasing my level of music listening enjoyment was getting better speakers/headphones and acoustically treating my room.

 

[Jimster480]

We should be skeptical of any measurement.

Skeptical how? Audio is literally science. There are certain things which we may not be measuring yet or not measuring as effectively as we could but we will only discover those things in time. Amir is always improving the testing especially as some devices have reached the top of the chart already.

 

[Here2Learn]

ASR is not ASMR ya know

You never know how some people might react to hearing "Hello, Amir from Audio Science Review here...."

 

[Jimster480]

You never know how some people might react to hearing "Hello, Amir from Audio Science Review here...."

Now that would be a cult LOL

 

[DMill]

I like a lot of things that Schiit stands for. Unfortunately, based on measurements, I couldn’t give this anything more than, “not terrible”. Good review, meh preamp. Sad thing is, aside from balanced in/out, all their other preamps outperform it.

 

[DMill]

I’m noticing a trend. Is it almost impossible to get positive data on anything with tubes based on the inherent distortion that come with them? Is this why some tubes are ridiculously expensive? Because they cut down on the distortion? See where my logic is going here?

Tubes are expensive because of supply and demand. The war in the Ukraine has increased prices on current tubes. As far as NOS tubes, I’m tired of chasing that BS. Sure, old tubes may have been manufactured better cause that was the thing 50 years ago. But it’s probably a pretty small difference when measuring gear. When my only surviving tube amp dies, I’m planting it in the garden and sticking some of those whirly fans in the tube sockets.

 

[Here2Learn]

Neither is it established anywhere that this “sounds different” than the passive mode.

One can enter some of these distortion levels in to software created by another member and see for themself: https://distortaudio.org/

Certainly on the related thread, there are comments as to preference/audibility of distortion levels of H2 and H3 lower than this.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...test-distort-audibility-of-distortions.10163/

 

[amirm]

Sometimes the hours of operation of tubes is unknown and so we could be getting test results from worn out tubes.

This unit was purchased 4 months go so pretty new.

 

[audioeclectic]

This unit was purchased 4 months go so pretty new.

Would be interesting if you measure again but with the Solid State Tubes named LISST
Your Choice of No Tubes
Freya+ also offers our LISST “solid state tube” option, which replaces your tubes with depletion-mode MOSFETs in tube-like cans.