This is a review and detailed measurements of the Schiit Freya S balanced preamplifier. It was kindly loaned to me from a member who bought it used. The Freya S costs US $599 from the company plus shipping cost.
The design language is identical to other Schiit product although in the widescreen format looks more attractive:
The volume control is stepped attenuator and you hear the chatter of the relays as you adjust them. A gain switch toggles between passive, active with "0 dB" gain and 14 dB of again. There is a mute button and input selector. A remote control is provided which I did not use.
There is good bit of connectivity is provided:
I performed all of my testing with balanced input, and balanced output.
I know this is like all other Schiit products but sure would be nice in this case to have a power button in the front, than in the back. I do turn my pre-amp on and off and would hate to reach in the back to do so in my main system. It is one thing to have it this way in a desktop product but for a stereo system, it is not convenient.
Preamplifier Audio Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard, feeding the unit 4 volts and measuring 4 volts out in passive mode (volume set to max):
Performance is exceptional because it is what my Audio Precision analyzer can do. Distortion products are at or below -150 dB. What is left is a bit of noise which reduces SINAD to 122 dB. Speaking of that, here is the signal to noise ratio:
I was surprised when I selected "0 dB" active mode and it produced fair bit of gain at max volume. So I had to dial that back to still get 4 volts out:
Sad to see one channel lagging so much behind the other. You can see this is due to second harmonic difference. This persisted throughout the testing. To wit, here is the "12 dB" gain mode:
Signal to noise ratio takes a hit in higher gain mode so avoid it if you can:
Intermodulation distortion and noise relative to level gives another reason to avoid high gain mode:
There is little frequency dependency here which is good:
Frequency response is flat in all three modes:
But note that in passive mode, the output impedance will depend on volume position and can change the frequency response of the power amplifier after this unit.
The stepped attenuator does its job in producing superb channel matching relative to volume position:
Conclusions
If you can live with passive mode, you get superb, transparent performance with a very accurate volume control. Active low gain mode, if operated as good as the better channel would also be excellent. Alas, one channel is worse there to the tune of 9 dB. I wonder if Schiit has a specification for channel differential and would fix this under warranty. You should not need the high gain mode if you are fronting a DAC with proper output levels.
As it is, the Schiit Freya S is good but given the channel distortion issue, I can't fully recommend it. If that is resolved, then it is a very good preamp and one that I could recommend.
EDIT: a second sample was sent in by the company which fixed the channel distortion discrepancy. See: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s/schiit-freya-s-preamplifier-review-2.11543/
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
There are many people in the world that need money but none are like me, craving great sushi in winter due to colder water temps that makes their fat ratio higher and hence tastier! Sadly good sushi is expensive so please donate what ou can using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The design language is identical to other Schiit product although in the widescreen format looks more attractive:
The volume control is stepped attenuator and you hear the chatter of the relays as you adjust them. A gain switch toggles between passive, active with "0 dB" gain and 14 dB of again. There is a mute button and input selector. A remote control is provided which I did not use.
There is good bit of connectivity is provided:
I performed all of my testing with balanced input, and balanced output.
I know this is like all other Schiit products but sure would be nice in this case to have a power button in the front, than in the back. I do turn my pre-amp on and off and would hate to reach in the back to do so in my main system. It is one thing to have it this way in a desktop product but for a stereo system, it is not convenient.
Preamplifier Audio Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard, feeding the unit 4 volts and measuring 4 volts out in passive mode (volume set to max):
Performance is exceptional because it is what my Audio Precision analyzer can do. Distortion products are at or below -150 dB. What is left is a bit of noise which reduces SINAD to 122 dB. Speaking of that, here is the signal to noise ratio:
I was surprised when I selected "0 dB" active mode and it produced fair bit of gain at max volume. So I had to dial that back to still get 4 volts out:
Sad to see one channel lagging so much behind the other. You can see this is due to second harmonic difference. This persisted throughout the testing. To wit, here is the "12 dB" gain mode:
Signal to noise ratio takes a hit in higher gain mode so avoid it if you can:
Intermodulation distortion and noise relative to level gives another reason to avoid high gain mode:
There is little frequency dependency here which is good:
Frequency response is flat in all three modes:
But note that in passive mode, the output impedance will depend on volume position and can change the frequency response of the power amplifier after this unit.
The stepped attenuator does its job in producing superb channel matching relative to volume position:
Conclusions
If you can live with passive mode, you get superb, transparent performance with a very accurate volume control. Active low gain mode, if operated as good as the better channel would also be excellent. Alas, one channel is worse there to the tune of 9 dB. I wonder if Schiit has a specification for channel differential and would fix this under warranty. You should not need the high gain mode if you are fronting a DAC with proper output levels.
As it is, the Schiit Freya S is good but given the channel distortion issue, I can't fully recommend it. If that is resolved, then it is a very good preamp and one that I could recommend.
EDIT: a second sample was sent in by the company which fixed the channel distortion discrepancy. See: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s/schiit-freya-s-preamplifier-review-2.11543/
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
There are many people in the world that need money but none are like me, craving great sushi in winter due to colder water temps that makes their fat ratio higher and hence tastier! Sadly good sushi is expensive so please donate what ou can using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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