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Schiit Freya S Preamplifier Review

Rottmannash

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The problem is the present test's are somewhat meaningless and unrealistic, as they reveal nothing about the attenuation characteristics, or how the product being tested reproduces actual music at lower volume settings. As example Jan Garbarek's Dresden has incredible depth of recording to particularly Manu's drums.

Hand's up anyone who always listen's at full volume? , and hand's up anyone who never ever listen's to music as we know it, with such or similar equipment ?

Whereas listening at a low to comfortable level then measuring at that same level, indeed would reveal if this product should be considered or recommended for purchase.

I suspect a moment where measurements at lower levels, will conflict with what is being heard, & may surprise and I am hoping may lead to a reevaluation, of how tests on this type of equipment, is done in the future.
Just listened to the drum solo very loud for just a few seconds-even my dog woke up and looked around. I have the Freya+ on passive mode and this recording sounds great, at low volume and at moderate to high volume. Did not hear any distortion at any volume level.
 

Rottmannash

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The Freya+ would be of interest too.

Russ
I wish I could part with mine for several months for Amir to test but, alas I cannot-the joy it brings me is worth more than seeing beautiful SINAD graphs.
 

Rottmannash

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Not sure what you mean? I am using the preout of the avr to pass the sound to the schiit freya (which is a tube amp) to use that instead. I have had it working now for awhile and it really does sound great with the crown amplifier. This drives the front 2 standing speakers for stereo and so far everything works great.

thanks.
I have a similar set up-Onkyo AVR for home theater and the Freys+ for 2 ch. Works flawlessly.
 

Rottmannash

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To me, the Schiit seems completely superfluous, because you are not using it instead of the AVR, but in addition to it. You could feed the AVR output directly into the power amplifier. Why add the distortion of a tube preamp?
He may be doing what I did. Feed the streamer into the DAC then into the Freya+ along with TT and CD player for 2 ch listening.
 

Rottmannash

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He may be doing what I did. Feed the streamer into the DAC then into the Freya+ along with TT and CD player for 2 ch listening.
Or not. Just read more of his posts. I wanted a separate, cleaner signal path for everything except 5.1 listening. It is an odd set up 4 sure but didn't want to spend multi-thousands on a dedicated HT processor.
 

gvl

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So what would be the better purchase? The Topping Pre 90 or the Freya S…

Better how? If it must be black then it must be the Pre 90. Otherwise it seems the Freya is a safer choice wrt input impedance and post sales support, the performance differences likely have no bearing on sound.
 

Pillars

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Freya for sure I think. It's more widely compatible and I love the nexus gain modes. The Topping is measurement focused and there is compatibility issues with some gear (impedance). The Freya is perfectly transparent and the stepped attenuator is nice.
 

ohnonate

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Better how? If it must be black then it must be the Pre 90. Otherwise it seems the Freya is a safer choice wrt input impedance and post sales support, the performance differences likely have no bearing on sound.
The reason i am asking. In Australia the Topping Pre 90 Is $900.00 AUDand the Freya S is $1,100 AUD

I just want to get my money's worth and was needing some assistance in making sure i get a good quality product for my money.

And by the looks of the impedance differences is

PRE 90
maximum gain +16 dB
Input Impedance
Balanced - 2,000 ohms
Unbalanced - 10,000 ohms

Output Impedance
Balanced - 20 ohms
Unbalanced - 200 ohms

FREYA S
maximum gain + 12dB

Input Impedance

Balanced - 10k ohms
Unbalanced - 10k ohms

Output Impedance
Balanced - 200 Ω
Unbalanced - 200 Ω
 
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gvl

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Yes AUD. The source is a denafrips Ares II DAC

Denafrips Ares II DAC
Unbalanced at 2.0 Vrms (1.2K Ω)
Balanced at 4.0 Vrms, (2.4K Ω)

Those impedance values are double what’s on the Denafrips website. I’d reach out to Denafrips and ask what they think about connecting the Ares II to a preamp with 2kOhm input impedance over balanced. If they ok it then the Pre 90 is likely a better deal where you are. If memory serves I read something to the extent Denafrips do not recommend simultaneous RCA and XLR connections to be used at the same time as this may worsen the performance, which indicates the DAC can be sensitive to low impedance loads. Ideally you want to have at least 10x impedance ratio input/output, it is rare but lower ratios may lead to performance degradation.
 

gvl

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Another thought, Gustatd P26 is probably what you actually want.
 

Snafu

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Better how? If it must be black then it must be the Pre 90. Otherwise it seems the Freya is a safer choice wrt input impedance and post sales support, the performance differences likely have no bearing on sound.
yeah, right. when i had problems with original tube Freya i got long list of possible faults in my system why Freya sounded like s*it. "wrong kind of cables", "something wrong with your house electricity", "stock tubes are bad get new ones", "you have placed Freya too close to other equipment", etc etc (these directly from schiit customer service)... so i just returned it and reseller from England said it was faulty unit. Schiit never answered further questions.

i'll never touch another schiitt again
 

Kal Rubinson

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Sounds great. will you be getting your hands on both ?
I have. Actually, I have a Freya+ which is a Freya S with a tube option that can be disabled.
 
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gvl

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yeah, right. when i had problems with original tube Freya i got long list of possible faults in my system why Freya sounded like s*it. "wrong kind of cables", "something wrong with your house electricity", "stock tubes are bad get new ones", "you have placed Freya too close to other equipment", etc etc (these directly from schiit customer service)... so i just returned it and reseller from England said it was faulty unit. Schiit never answered further questions.

i'll never touch another schiitt again

I’m sure there are exceptions but I think there’s enough evidence Schiit takes reasonably good care of its customers.
 

Rottmannash

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Remembering it is a pre amplifier/ passive attenuator that is being measured, not a amplifier. End users would likely never use full volume at all with levels of 4V, not even at a Black Sabbath reunion party. :D

It can be seen full volume tests with 4v in and 4v out, mainly just tests the devices wiring that it has in place input to output, and indeed you would expect, as seen in the graphs, excellent distortion figures are the result, being a wire and a RCA plug or two and a attenuator full on and fancy gear measuring.

What is needed then in the future , is measurements indicative of actual use as a volume control, over many levels as this is how the product,if its an attenuator is going to be used by consumers.

IMO, measurements for evaluation of passive attenuators needs to occur much lower, and I would suggest 50mv to 500mv is more indicative of actual output levels occurring in consumer source equipment when playing regular music. The times I have measured AC music signals from the output of a CD player I have not seen any at all above 290mv

If I am wrong with this, does anyone have a voltage graph, to show min to maximum voltage ranges, of a standard CD player playing lets say Getz /Gilberto ? ....er how did they get such a good recording - particularly the vocals.

The exception though might be Oldfield's Amarok that momentarily fully tests a CD players output ability, and certainly higher levels can occur momentarily perhaps to 1.5v over a second or two's duration with such pieces of music, but these moments on CD's are very rare indeed, inferring level testing should IMO be much lower.
I have the Freya+, and in passive mode, driven by Topping D90SE via XLR through the Freya+>VTV Purifi via XLR to F208's I listened to a live recording of a Joe Bonamassa concert at full volume and it was loud but not painfully so and I listened at this level for about 5 minutes. So it is possible, and indeed probably some will listen at full volume depending on source and other components in the chain.
 
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