[Siigari]

The Rag is a good preamp (input selection, volume control), excellent head phone amp and a good small power speaker amp. With it you do not need anything else to drive headphones, powered monitors or speakers.

The Freya is an excellent pre amp. It does not have a head phone amp nor a speaker amp.

You can use the Freya in front of the Rag (after the Gumby) to add some tube sound but if the tube sound was that important to you the Rag may not have been the best purchase.

The Mjolnir 2 is an excellent tube head phone amp that has preamp outs that can drive power monitors. It does provide volume control but does not have input selection.

Hey man I feel terrible, I actually had the Mjolnir 2 coming. It's here now!

Tuuuuuubes!

Headphones get here friday, SO EXCITED!

Oh, and this: https://gfycat.com/CoarsePerfumedAlaskankleekai

Diggin' the crisp output from the Gungnir.

 

[US Blues]

What options would you get?
Low noise, Matched, Balanced Triodes, High Gain.
https://tubedepot.com/products/tung...uChc6FdNlaHo0BqPczWW4bvkquccMDHY4DxoCH3vw_wcB

Low noise, matched, balanced triodes. I got mine from these folks, Platinum grade: https://www.upscaleaudio.com/collections/preamp-tubes/products/tung-sol-6sn7gtb

 

[acguitar84]

Hey man I feel terrible, I actually had the Mjolnir 2 coming. It's here now!

Tuuuuuubes!

Headphones get here friday, SO EXCITED!

Oh, and this: https://gfycat.com/CoarsePerfumedAlaskankleekai

Diggin' the crisp output from the Gungnir.

Still using winamp I see! Me too. I've tried to get JRiver to sound as good, but just can't get it to work right.

 

[Siigari]

Still using winamp I see! Me too. I've tried to get JRiver to sound as good, but just can't get it to work right.

Yeah, I like Winamp. I don't see any problems with it, but I've been using it since the mid 90s, and I just can't see myself adapting to something new after over 20 years of use.

 

[winders]

Where is the Freya in all of this?

 

[Siigari]

Where is the Freya in all of this?

There isn't one, I was asking if I should get one.

 

[US Blues]

There isn't one, I was asking if I should get one.

But of course!

 

[Thouston]

At one time the Schiit owners manual was wrong about the Freya tube location. Where should I install the two high end tubes that I have ordered (Right, Left, Front, Back)? I have had the Freya for two months, and I have not listened to it yet. I am waiting for a Vidar to install it in my second system.

 

[winders]

The left tubes are the output buffer stage and the right tubes are the gain stage. Put the good tubes on the right!

 

[Thouston]

The left tubes are the output buffer stage and the right tubes are the gain stage. Put the good tubes on the right!

Thanks man.

 

[winders]

So, I have a hum in one of the Sylvania 6SN7GT "Bad Boy" tubes I received. If I put the tube in the front gain stage location the hum is in the left speaker. If I move it to the rear gain position, the hum is in the right speaker. I have been playing music through the tube continuously for over 24 hours to see if it would lessen or go away. It hasn't gone away but it may have gotten slightly quieter. Otherwise, the tube sounds fantastic!

With my powered monitor setup I can deal with the noise. I lower the volume on the speaker and use Freya to control the volume. The noise loudness does not change when changing the volume control on Freya. It changes only when the volume is increased on the speaker. In other words, Freya's volume control does not attenuate the hum.

My concern is when I change over to a two Vidar amp monoblock setup with passive tower speakers. Will the Vidar amp play the hum loudly like when the powered monitors are set at full volume with no way to attenuate it?

 

[cskippy]

It depends on the sensitivity of the speakers being used. If you have a 250W power amp into sensitive speakers vs 100W or 50W, the noise will be much more apparent. It's kind of trial and error but I'm sure there are calculations you can do to figure out how much gain is going to be added by the power amp.

For example, Freya to my 250W power amp to my 84.5 dB (dB/2.83v/1M) sensitive Philharmonic Audio AAMs, which are not that sensitive, have a noticeable hiss or noise floor present at all times. Freya to my Jot there is no such hiss on any headphone at normal listening levels.

 

[winders]

The speakers I am looking at are a 4 ohm design and claim:

98.82dB 2.83V@1m sensitivity

At 4 ohms, a Vidar amp in monoblock mode has 400 watts of power.

The powered monitors are:

87 dB (2.83 V/1 m)

They are 4 ohms at 100 watts

It sounds like the hum is going to be loud!

 

[cskippy]

Yeah, it might be significantly louder. The only other thing that can affect the noise level is impedance matching between components. Again, I'm not sure how it translates to preamps and power amps but I know there is an effect.

 

[winders]

Yeah, it might be significantly louder. The only other thing that can affect the noise level is impedance matching between components. Again, I'm not sure how it translates to preamps and power amps but I know there is an effect.

All of my audio components are plugged into a basic TrippLite power strip which, in turn, is plugged into a Topaz 2.5kVa .0005pf isolation transformer. So, there should be no power or ground loop issues. The issue follows the tube and most tubes are silent.