Schiit Freya S Preamplifier Review 2

[Laserjock]

Worked 4+ years ago, so fingers crossed.

Freya +, the wine of preamps..

 

[watchnerd]

Freya +, the wine of preamps..

It turns to vinegar over time?

 

[mhardy6647]

My Freya+ has been sitting in a box for a few years.

I should see if it still works.

Why wouldn't it?

 

[Laserjock]

It turns to vinegar over time?

Lol, isn’t that a myth?

 

[watchnerd]

Why wouldn't it?

shit happens

 

[watchnerd]

Lol, isn’t that a myth?

Yes

 

[redjr]

You are more than welcome to order a unit and send it to Amir for testing. I have no idea who you are but if the unit doesn’t measure as advertised, I will refund your entire purchase.

I know this an old thread, but I'm considering this unit. That's a policy/offer not many manufacturers offer. Hats off to Shiit for stating so. It's good for the consumer and company.

 

[Laserjock]

My Freya+ has been sitting in a box for a few years.

I should see if it still works.

Did you have a go at it?

 

[redjr]

This type of service is worth more than some people understand. My Bifrost 2 first suffered the early batch capacitor issue (not Schiit's fault, but their supplier and Schiit sent me an entirely new unit) and now a minor tolerance issue with my Bifrost 2 RCAs and KLE cables that resulted in socket damage (likely my fault) and my tickets went from submitted to a real person to RA form and return instructions provided within minutes. I don't know of any other audio company providing this level of service for their products. Perfection doesn't exist, but the effort and service speaks for itself (not to mention the subjective audio quality) and I'm not sure I can get that experience anywhere else.

That kind of service needs to be lauded. Rare in todays world.

 

[watchnerd]

Did you have a go at it?

Not yet.

I've been too busy playing with my new integrated amp.

 

[redjr]

Correct. The effective 6 dB gain is introduced by the SE/bal stage topology.

That said, using a $599 preamp just as a pure SE/bal converter seems like a waste - there has to be some sort of less expensive option for what ultimately amounts to a mere handful of electronics.

My Freya+ has been sitting in a box for a few years.

I should see if it still works.

Anyone have a Freya S sitting in box ..... ?

 

[Helicopter]

Anyone have a Freya S sitting in box ..... ?

Schiit does... they are back in production, along with Saga S.

 

[redjr]

This is a perfect item for my collection of things that I bought because I wanted them but not actually needed.

 

[redjr]

Schiit does... they are back in production, along with Saga S.

Freya S = Santa
FedEx to deliver Friday 12/24.

 

[redjr]

Hey everyone, I would like to inform of a potential issue with a Freya S I got earlier this week.

Prior to setting the Freya up, I unplugged my whole system to re-arrange the connections and clean everything up. Currently I'm using two of the Freya's single ended inputs only, one for analog (turntable > schiit Mani > loki mini > Freya > Vidar) and one for digial (CCA > Bifrost 2 > Freya S > Vidar) Once everything was set up and connected, I turned the Freya on for the first time and to my surprise the volume coming from my speakers (ELAC Debut Reference, 86 db sensitive) with the dial at about 2pm in passive mode, was surprisingly low. I then realized I was only getting sound from the left channel and the right speaker was not outputting any sound. I turned everything off, connected and reconnected everything again, turned it back on and both channels were working fine.

Next morning, I started streaming some music and after a while I strated noticing an intermittent loss of signal on both channels where one channel would go mute for a few seconds, then come back and then the other channel would go mute for a few seconds as well. After a couple of minutes of normal volume output from both channels, I noticed a different issue where the volume in one of the channels would go super low, being barely audible only when putting my ear next to the speaker, while the other channel was normal, then come back and then having the same thing happen on the other channel. At this point, I thought it could either be my interconnects - although they've been working fine for the last 6-8 months, or the Freya, which was the only new piece of gear inserted into my signal path. What seems weird to me is that the issue happened on one channel first and then the other, never on both at the same time or overlapping at some point and I doubt something as seemingly "logical" or orderly as this could be caused by faulty interconnects.

At this point, I emailed Schiit explaining the issue and asking about the returns policy in case I needed to use it.

Yesterday I spent 6 hours listening to music and doing some testing to see if the issue came back and then try to isolate it. I listened to music through both the analog and digital chains for about 3 hours each, changing the sound mode (passive, buffer, gain) on the Freya S about every 40 minutes and the issue never appeared. From time to time I would give the interconnects a whirl and a twist to see if anything happened.

Has anyone experienced something similar with any of the Freya models? Could this have been a matter of component break-in during the first 24 hours of operation?

I seriously hope the issue doesn't come back as I love the looks and the performance of the Freya so far

Regards,

If that symptom is part of 'breakin', I can only say, "Luuuuuuuuuucy(Schiit), you have some splain'n to do."

 

[redjr]

Thanks a bundle!!

Update: Tom from Schiit reached out and the exchange process has been started

Can't ask much more than that. I know waiting isn't fun, but at least you have a remedy.

 

[redjr]

Since we're all talking Schiit in this thread... I have to share my recent experience with them.

My main listening system will be undergoing some upgrades over the holidays. I will be needing a new preamp and I've been going back and forth between the Topping pre90, and the Freya S. So, naturally I turned to ASR to get the unvarnished measured performance of each and the comments from their respective owners. After reading all the posts, weighing the pros/cons of each and what I ultimately wanted to use, I decided on the Freya S and bought it.

After making the decision yesterday (Tuesday 12/21) I placed an online order. I have been familiar with Schiit, their product line and had bought a couple of their smaller pieces over the past few years. It was about 5:00 EDT when I placed the order, so 2:00 PDT - west coast time. I decided to upgrade the shipping, and included a note with the order requesting if they could ship it that same day. I didn't hear anything via email, other than my order had been received. When I checked my email early this morning I noticed a 'shipped' notification timed at 8:00am along with the FedEx tracking number! The delivery was scheduled for this Friday, 12/24. Wow.

I think this type of service demonstrates that Schiit does listen and responds to their customers - going above and beyond - to deliver exceptional service along with great products. I was hoping they would get it out in time to be delivered within the FedEx 2-Day service window. And apparently they did. I couldn't be more pleased at their response and action they took to make this rather large $$ value purchase happen.

I'm excited to hook it up and test with my new active speakers that will show up under the Christmas tree. It will indeed be a nice 'audio' Christmas.

 

[Pillars]

Since we're all talking Schiit in this thread... I have to share my recent experience with them.

My main listening system will be undergoing some upgrades over the holidays. I will be needing a new preamp and I've been going back and forth between the Topping pre90, and the Freya S. So, naturally I turned to ASR to get the unvarnished measured performance of each and the comments from their respective owners. After reading all the posts, weighing the pros/cons of each and what I ultimately wanted to use, I decided on the Freya S and bought it.

After making the decision yesterday (Tuesday 12/21) I placed an online order. I have been familiar with Schiit, their product line and had bought a couple of their smaller pieces over the past few years. It was about 5:00 EDT when I placed the order, so 2:00 PDT - west coast time. I decided to upgrade the shipping, and included a note with the order requesting if they could ship it that same day. I didn't hear anything via email, other than my order had been received. When I checked my email early this morning I noticed a 'shipped' notification timed at 8:00am along with the FedEx tracking number! The delivery was scheduled for this Friday, 12/24. Wow.

I think this type of service demonstrates that Schiit does listen and responds to their customers - going above and beyond - to deliver exceptional service along with great products. I was hoping they would get it out in time to be delivered within the FedEx 2-Day service window. And apparently they did. I couldn't be more pleased at their response and action they took to make this rather large $$ value purchase happen.

I'm excited to hook it up and test with my new active speakers that will show up under the Christmas tree. It will indeed be a nice 'audio' Christmas.

Enjoy your Freya S. I really like the passive and active modes for the different sound plus it's a fantastic performing kit.

 

[redjr]

Since we're all talking Schiit in this thread... I have to share my recent experience with them.

My main listening system will be undergoing some upgrades over the holidays. I will be needing a new preamp and I've been going back and forth between the Topping pre90, and the Freya S. So, naturally I turned to ASR to get the unvarnished measured performance of each and the comments from their respective owners. After reading all the posts, weighing the pros/cons of each and what I ultimately wanted to use, I decided on the Freya S and bought it.

After making the decision yesterday (Tuesday 12/21) I placed an online order. I have been familiar with Schiit, their product line and had bought a couple of their smaller pieces over the past few years. It was about 5:00 EDT when I placed the order, so 2:00 PDT - west coast time. I decided to upgrade the shipping, and included a note with the order requesting if they could ship it that same day. I didn't hear anything via email, other than my order had been received. When I checked my email early this morning I noticed a 'shipped' notification timed at 8:00am along with the FedEx tracking number! The delivery was scheduled for this Friday, 12/24. Wow.

I think this type of service demonstrates that Schiit does listen and responds to their customers - going above and beyond - to deliver exceptional service along with great products. I was hoping they would get it out in time to be delivered within the FedEx 2-Day service window. And apparently they did. I couldn't be more pleased at their response and action they took to make this rather large $$ value purchase happen.

I'm excited to hook it up and test with my new active speakers that will show up under the Christmas tree. It will indeed be a nice 'audio' Christmas.

Update…. It arrived on Christmas Eve as scheduled. Hats off to all involved. Despite the supply chain issues we’re still dealing with during this lingering pandemic, everyone from warehouse workers to delivery drivers, Schiit and FedEx made it happen.

Merry Christmas!

 

[redjr]

Enjoy your Freya S. I really like the passive and active modes for the different sound plus it's a fantastic performing kit.

My son and I have been testing and configuring the new stuff I got from Santa. I hate to gloat, but the new items consisted of a, FiiO K9 Pro DAC, the new Schiit Freya S pre, and a pair of Elac Navis active speakers. With all 3 pieces, there's a ton of adjustments that can be made to tailor the sound (and room) to your liking.

The first order of business was to get the Navis setup using all the default switch settings. We then hooked up the Freya running XLRs to the Navis. The first source was the K9 using XLRs to the Freya S. We started to listen to some of our favorite 'goto' tracks for testing. Everything sounded fine/good, but something was off. It didn't sound like I expected it to. Not bad, just different. Compared with my previous system, the sound was softer. More warm, but a bit cloudy sounding. We played with the passive and active gain adjustments on the Freya to hear the difference they would make. We could tell the difference but only in loudness level. The sound never got much better in this configuration. I did preferred the active 6dB setting over the passive. The dynamic range just didn't seem as articulate and transparent as I was use to hearing. However, as I mentioned above I was using balanced cables from the K9 DAC to the Freya S.

The next day I had been listening off and on, still playing with the gain adjustments on the Freya using several of our hi-res tracks. Later in the afternoon day, my son came down and we spent more time listening and changing things. Mostly, revisiting the passive/active switches - using both CD quality tracks and hi-res tracks. I was just not happy with what I was hearing though. He also noticed the sound was softer and warm. My first thought for the difference in sound was largely due to the AB and Bash amps used in the Navis speakers. I was coming from a SOTA class D amp listening through my Uni-Fi UB 5 Elac speakers. The sound across my entire library was superb. So naturally I assumed some of the sonic differences were due to the change in class of amps. My son on the other hand preferred the balanced connection.

I suggested we hook up the Navis with SE cables and give that a try. We did, and voila. For the most part the sound I was use to hearing came back using the 6dB active setting. We played multiple tracks going back and forth between balanced and SE connections, and the SE clearly sounded better to me. The dynamic range was back, and clarity and execution of the notes had returned. BTW, the bass on these speakers is incredible. There's still a lot more listening I need to do to flesh out the optimum setting of all the difference pieces of kit. For now, the Freya suits me using the 6dB active setting for my digital music and may need another setting for vinyl. The Navis has several switches on the back for LF, MF and HF EQ, and a HP filter for a sub. We haven't touched any of those yet. And, we have not added my 15" sub in the mix yet either. The bass out of the Navis is so good I may not need it. Further adjustments may still need to be made the more I listen. Haven't done a lot of vinyl listening yet, but have played a few of my more quality pressings. The sound so far is great.

So based on preliminary listening and testing the new gear seems to integrate well, and work together very nicely - especially with the ability to listen to difference modes, connections, EQ, etc. There are a few little quirks with the Freya S, that I wish they had done better, but for me they are not deal-breakers. The biggest one being that fact that you have to always cycle through the inputs and gain settings in a forward direction. There is no ability to backwards, or use direct-access on either of those functions. The second is the lack of finer resolution with the stepped volume control. A little display showing input selected and volume level would be nice too. But all of these would have increased the cost, and maybe Schiit had to hit a target price point. Maybe Freya S V2.