[skiroe]

Well, wanted to respond directly to you both but I have to figure out the sequence with the quoting thing. So, until I figure it out..suffice to say yes,, I don't think asking to ship sans tubes and get credit is too much to ask esp in this situation. Customer base is the lifeblood of a company and customers satisfaction should be primary objective. At any rate, I won't keep going on about it. Anxious to hear what you come up with belgiangenius

 

[Jamiee]

With the right tubes my Freya v1 has been nearly dead silent, that said it has taken some fiddling around to find the right tubes to work with it. I'm currently using a pair ea. of Shuguang & Psvane CV181 treasures.

I do look forward to receiving the Freya + (scheduled for delivery tomorrow) and can't say I feel forced into the upgrade, after all with the right tubes, Freya v1 does sound great! I do welcome the new features though, which should make Freya an even better preamp.

I will agree that a "no tube" option should have been available at the time of ordering - taking into consideration existing Freya owners, but at the end of the day, I don't mind having an extra set of NS TUNG-SOL's on-hand.

 

[belgiangenius]

Well, wanted to respond directly to you both but I have to figure out the sequence with the quoting thing. So, until I figure it out..suffice to say yes,, I don't think asking to ship sans tubes and get credit is too much to ask esp in this situation. Customer base is the lifeblood of a company and customers satisfaction should be primary objective. At any rate, I won't keep going on about it. Anxious to hear what you come up with belgiangenius

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it! I have always loved Freya - it's a great preamp, and now it should be literally awesome. I'm just a bit annoyed I had to buy it twice to resolve these fairly obvious shortcomings with the first revision.

I'll probably just Ebay the original one to recover whatever cost I can.

 

[Mondo Caliente]

It's clear the Freya was problematic for some owners (although of course I have no idea what percentage of owners that would be, and my "original" version works virtually noiselessly with every tube I've stuck in it) who experienced hum issues, and if in some cases Schiits response to dissatisfied customers was less than what customers expected, clearly, that's never a good thing these days. However, to utterly redesign the Freya into two products that seemingly addresses directly the quibbles of those dissatisfied users is kind of amazing, and I've never seen anything like that. Good Schiit.

 

[Jamiee]

Got my Freya + today..... First Impression.... NOT a fan of the new "fastenerless" chasis design.

Why? Because my unit shipped with a loose LED light lens (clear plastic piece) for the buffer/Gain selector LED's (It was rattling around inside the chassis). This is a new design from the previous v1 Freya and has the LED's surface mounted direct to the board with the lens hovering above, transferring the light to the front panel. Interesting design, but trying to get the lens (which appears to be held in with friction) back into place was a pain... Would have been waaay easier if I could have opened up the chassis - is this thing glued? . Ultimately I had to place a drop of krazy Glue inside to keep the lens in place (also not an easy task considering there are buttons in very close proximity to the lens, one small drop of glue in the wrong spot and you've got a stuck button).

Anyway, with that done I just finished plugging everything in and will let it warm up for a while before having a listen.

 

[Jamiee]

So here's my initial impressions of Freya +



A) Looks like a Freya... Other than the lack of a few chassis assembly screws along the top and an updated identification sticker on the back, it looks virtually identical to Freya v1.

B) Front pannel LED lights... Because of the new LED light configuration (mentioned in my previous post), the LED's appear less bright and have a very subtle yellow tinge to them. My previous Freya v1 and current Yggdrasil A2 have brighter & whiter LED's. I do like the Dimmer look of the Freya +, though it doesn't quite match my Yggy A2 now.

C) Hot Hot Heat... Freya + is definitely warmer than Freya v1 by some margin in tube gain mode. Not quite burn your hand hot, but very close!

D) Sound (Tube Gain)... Using my previously run in Tubes (Shuguang & Psvane CV181 treasures) - the sound is more different than I was expecting. Mid range is warmer, a touch more rounded and not quite as forward and with less bite compared to Freya v1. Top and bottom ends seem smoother. Overall the sound is more natural - I quite like what I hear so far!

E) Volume... It seems I have to turn the volume up a touch more compared to Freya v1 to get to similar levels. Turning the volume all the way down does not fully mute the sound - I can still hear some output of the material being played (similar to Freya v1).

F) Volume Knob... The new volume pot definitely has more resistance to it (read: harder to turn). Also, it's a redesigned pull-off / push-on type with no set screw to hold it in place. If you used to use the set screw as a tactile indicator of the volume position while in a dark room environment, well... it's gone

G) Mute... Yes, finally! depressing the mute button actually mutes the volume 100%.

H) Tube noise / Hum... Can't say I notice any significant difference so far - at least with the tubes I'm using. Though I will say the "click's" from adjusting the volume are noticeably less pronounced through my speakers compared to Freya v1.

 

[Thenewguy007]

Any changes so far with more burn-in time?

Seem like the + is just a warmer version of the v1 so far?

 

[TheSnafu]

You can hear attenuator clicks through speakers ?

 

[QueYo]

I have a tube noob question about matched tubes on the Freya. If I am using the Single Ended outs on an original Freya, does that mean I am only using one of each tube's dual triodes? If so, does that mean I only need to worry about matching one of the triodes for each pair? And would that be consistent across the numerous tube testers out there, i.e. the numbers will always be given in the same order with respect to the one I care about?

I hope the questions make sense. Basically wondering if I find a couple 6SN7's tested at 1500/2000 & 1500/1000, would they be matched in Single Ended use.

 

[Jamiee]

Any changes so far with more burn-in time?

Seem like the + is just a warmer version of the v1 so far?

Better features, improved overall sound... it is what it say's it is.... A Freya +. Some might say it's what Freya should have originally been, but I'm not going to get into that argument.
So Is it worth the price of admission if you already have a v1 Freya? That's tough to answer and I suppose would depend on if you're happy with your Freya. Being Canadian I paid an arm, a leg, and both kidneys to get the Freya + here. All-in, I'm pretty close to $1,600 CAD delivered -- Yeah, OUCH!
Is it sixteen-hundred bux better than Freya v1.... no of course not. But it is better and I'm OK with that.

Burn-in time so far hasn't added anything significant to the mix. I will say the sound has become a little more settled - more even across the board. Pretty typical stuff for electronics & especially tubes. That said, I don't have a lot of hours on the unit yet.
I found Freya v1 to be a little edgy (slightly shout'y) at times with some material - which I mistakenly attributed to Yggdrasil. With Freya +, it's smoother and slightly more coherent, more natural sounding, with more air around singers and instruments.

You can hear attenuator clicks through speakers ?

Yeah, those relay clicks (especially on Freya v1) are loud enough to vibrate the tubes, and depending on how microphonic / noisy the tubes, I can easily hear the clicks through my speakers.
Very good low noise tubes are nearly silent, but I've had some that were anything but!

 

[nilov]

Hi.
How to understand what lisst tubes died?
I have few octal tubes in tried it in my preamp Saga, and and they have big disortion,and work only left channel in headphones (in buffer mode).
In passive mode and with tube tungsol with buffer mode saga work perefect.
Example yesterday im tried 2 octal tubes in buffer mode and it worked perefect,but today not.

 

[Lennym]

So here's my initial impressions of Freya +

C) Hot Hot Heat... Freya + is definitely warmer than Freya v1 by some margin in tube gain mode. Not quite burn your hand hot, but very close!

Is it so hot that it raises any concerns about the performance life of the preamp?

 

[Jamiee]

Is it so hot that it raises any concerns about the performance life of the preamp?

Schiit is aware that it runs hotter and they don't seem too concerned about it. Just be sure (as with the original Freya) to give the unit lots of breathing room, particularly if you're running it in tube mode.

 

[Mondo Caliente]

My Freya (original version) is well vented but gets pretty toasty over the transformers more than near the tubes, which of course have their own vents...never to any extreme though and I run the thing a lot...plenty of venting holes contribute to my not worrying about it but it certainly is a hot little preamp.

 

[skiroe]

I have a tube noob question about matched tubes on the Freya. If I am using the Single Ended outs on an original Freya, does that mean I am only using one of each tube's dual triodes? If so, does that mean I only need to worry about matching one of the triodes for each pair? And would that be consistent across the numerous tube testers out there, i.e. the numbers will always be given in the same order with respect to the one I care about?

I hope the questions make sense. Basically wondering if I find a couple 6SN7's tested at 1500/2000 & 1500/1000, would they be matched in Single Ended use.

I can't tell you which side of the triode is operating what channel or how it figures into single ended. What I can tell you based on my communication with Roger Kennedy who restores tube testers (He restored my Hickok 752A) is that firstly the kind of tube testers that we use --the most common kind --the ones that techs used to carry around with them are called "field testers" and really are not the definitive word or are capable of delivering professional results. These testers are capable in the best case scenarios of just being able to give a general impression of tube condition and as importantly you can't , for the most part, get a test reading from one brand and expect it to get the same number on another brand. If the other brand happens to give test results using the same formula (number results) then possibly it may be similar results although calibration of the testers has had to be done. The ancient testers like my Hickok and other similar testers need to be gone through by an expert like Roger Kennedy in order to at least perform their best for what they can do.

It has been said by more than one expert on these testers that its basically a test to weed out the really bad tubes. There are better and more accurate tube testers of course that will measure aspects of the tubes to more closely match -- like voltage gain.
what you are going to find out with the tubes you mentioned is more about any microphonics , or more tube hiss in terms of how good the tubes you mentioned are. I don't think those test numbers are going to make a difference --they are close enough. What will make a difference is voltage gain and these testers do not measure that. Hope this makes sense. I used to think the same thing as most people do---that these testers are the end all to knowing the condition of the tube.. This will be more helpful than my rant ... These testers primarily test for GM and more needed to accurately gauge how well tube will perform. check this article.
http://www.tubeaudiostore.com/tubmatdem.html