Schiit Freya S Preamplifier Review

[LTig]

It's something I'm frequently asked about by customers but simply can't give an answer because we just don't have the data.

A call out to to ASR readers to send in their pre amps

Or build their own ...

 

[LTig]

His measurements are over ppm. Apx555 here has distortion harmonics of near -150db which is 30db less than ppm. Any precision analogue designer knows that sub ppm is a completely different world.
Even then, Douglas self has stated in the amplifier design book that feedback resistors of the amplifier are extremely important because of the voltage coefficient. Any voltage division will have voltage coefficient in the equation.

Yep. And it's easy to fix: just use several resistors in series; it reduces voltage over each resistor which reduces distortion accordingly.

Just let amir measure -3db or so attenuation and see how the harmonic goes. I predict it will increase to around -130db or even -120db instead of the -150db mark without any attenuation.

I don't think so. @amirm did measure with attenuation of -6 dB in low gain. He should remeasure at max volume (and maybe -6dB input voltage?) to see if THD goes down.

 

[Kw6]

Damn 9db is alot. Poor QC. I wonder if other units are better? Seems like good value.

 

[Mnyb]

It’s,s bougth used so how old is it really .? So one channel is probably broken ?

How robust are preamps can you destroy them by shorting an output for example .

Are the rca output broken in a similar way ?

 

[March Audio]

We will have to agree to disagree. If we view listening tests as unproductive and usually misleading, evaluation of equipment is then quite alien to our actual capability to discern and make choice, which includes enjoyment.

Dwelling in a world of measurements and visual treats alone, Yes is informative to a degree and looks very impressive, but should always be, IMO secondary to actual listening experience.

Listening tests are absolutely fine, it's performing them without controls and sighted which makes them unproductive and misleading. Measurements don't suffer from bias etc.

Your personal "enjoyment" is irrelevant to anyone else and the actual equipment performance.

Measurements will always be more informative than sighted uncontrolled listening.

 

[Davelemi]

Thanks for the recommendations. These don't appear to have multiple ins though?

Schiit Sega?

 

[JohnYang1997]

Yep. And it's easy to fix: just use several resistors in series; it reduces voltage over each resistor which reduces distortion accordingly.

I don't think so. @amirm did measure with attenuation of -6 dB in low gain. He should remeasure at max volume (and maybe -6dB input voltage?) to see if THD goes down.

First one yes. It does help. But the difference between good and mediocre resistor can be tens even hundreds. So using 2 or 3 pretty good not best resistors is pretty good choice.

Second one, i think I meant passive path. Active path tho, who knows what schiit does to the signal. It's too large of distortion to even begin to discuss at this level.

 

[amirm]

How is this for measurement at different gains? Input is at 4 volts (XLR; will use 2 volts for RCA):

 

[amirm]

It’s,s bougth used so how old is it really .? So one channel is probably broken ?

How long as this model been out? I don't think that long.

And no, it is not broken. It is just out of spec, if there is a spec.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

That channel difference makes me wonder about Schiit QC....

Not me. I already know the answer to that one.

 

[stereo coffee]

For 6 high level sources the LAP-2 by Funk Tonstudiotechnik is a very good product, but not really cheap (starting at ~ € 1100). It measures almost perfectly.

In your opinion is it similarly perfect , when tasked with reproducing music ?

If its not perfect reproducing music, can you contribute why that might be - and can you possibly identify if you have time, which part of the schematic is causing that disagreement with measurements then countering listening experience.

 

[GeorgeWalk]

Thanks for the recommendations. These don't appear to have multiple ins though?

I have a Parasound New Classic preamp that works great. A lot less than $2000

https://parasound.com/200_Pre.php

 

[March Audio]

How is this for measurement at different gains? Input is at 4 volts (XLR; will use 2 volts for RCA):

View attachment 46430

Perfect

 

[stereo coffee]

How is this for measurement at different gains? Input is at 4 volts (XLR; will use 2 volts for RCA):

View attachment 46430

If you have time, what are the distortion measurements at low to medium listening levels, with normal consumer audio sources- if possible please ?

 

[gvl]

How is this for measurement at different gains? Input is at 4 volts (XLR; will use 2 volts for RCA):

View attachment 46430

Looks good. Sadly lowering the volume doesn't seem to help. One use case for a Freya could have been to avoid using digital volume control on the DAC. You set the DAC to 0dB and then control the volume on the Freya. But this kind of performance sort of defeats the purpose, one will be better off using the digital volume control on the DAC. Except maybe the passive mode, but it could lead to other issues. Not that the performance is unreasonable, but not a good match for the recent DACs we've seen that reach 120dB SINAD. If one needs to switch several inputs some are balanced I guess the Freya delivers a decent performance-feature/price value. It also converts between balanced and SE in both directions which can be useful.

 

[stereo coffee]

I have a Parasound New Classic preamp that works great. A lot less than $2000

https://parasound.com/200_Pre.php

Does its measurements also reflect as 'works great " in its ability reproducing music - if so can you describe what you think is good about it relative to other preamps and other forms of attenuation, that you have tried.

 

[gvl]

It is just out of spec, if there is a spec.

Seems so

 

[yodog]

So i guess skip this as a purchase?

 

[restorer-john]

How is this for measurement at different gains? Input is at 4 volts (XLR; will use 2 volts for RCA):

That's good Amir.

Reviews of amplifiers and preamplifiers used to give worst case noise figures and comment on where in the volume pot range that occurred. i.e. was noise worst at typical input/output settings and whether it increased or decreased towards the full volume position.

As proper preamplifiers typically had a 150mV for rated output, this tendency to use a high input voltage (4V) will either overload some preamplifiers from the past, or give them artificially better S/N at low-med volume settings than they would otherwise achieve. For modern preamplifiers with lower gain and rated 2V or greater inputs, fair is fair.

Pretty much all my preamplifiers are 150mV sensitivity for the line inputs (SE). Even so, they can easily take up to >10V without overload in many cases, but they are rated and all their specifications are based around 150mV for line.

 

[majingotan]

So i guess skip this as a purchase?

If you're not comfortable trying your luck to get a good measuring unit on both channels skip it