Dude, there is more to a preamp design than caps and transistors.......but you go right ahead thinking that's all there is to it.
Nelson Pass is Nelson Pass, Stan Warren, the S in PS Audio told me that Pass designed the cascode amplifier circuit which most base their amplifiers on. Jim Strickland working with another fellow innovated the TNT technology, but those people are few and far between. Most use cascode amplifiers because Pass never patented it, so it's public domain. On tube amplification you would be amazed at how many use the old "RCA High-Fidelity (Vacuum Tube) Amplifier Circuits" publication as the basis for "their" designs. That's why with very few exceptions these designs are not patented, they can't be because they have been in the public domain for decades, and often tens of decades. The Yggdrasil has software which I strongly suspect is protected, but most DAC manufactures use A P.D. algorithm, some will tinker with it, others not, but only an extreme minority start from scratch as I understand Moffat did with the Yggdrasil. So I seriously doubt the design is even remotely revolutionary much less patented. He took an existing design, and tweaked it, but unlike Parasound, for example, he is selling direct, has pretty much if not only word of mouth advertising, so he doesn't need to retail at 7 times cost. It makes a 10 or 15 thousand dollar preamp affordable. Yet as I said, what really differentiates him is that he is using some of the best of the best parts. You could find a good basic preamp and do about the same. The core, what makes it possible, is a sound platform, meaning a sound design to start from. So yes, I get that it sounds great, but I maintain 2 points, he didn't reinvent the preamplifier, and you can come very close with far less expensive parts. I used to use V-caps exclusively, then I used them and or Mundorf Supreme Silver Golds, espescially when using them in series. Now for a fraction of the cost I use Audyn True Copper caps more often than not. They aren't V-Caps, or Mundorfs, but they cost about 1/5th the price, and are darned good sounding. If I used Delunds, my cost would exponentially increase, the output would most certainly improve, but for most people the cost couldn't be justified. The improvements would be minor while the costs would be tremendous. So, as I initially argued, the Freya is a very good design, improve the components and if you could really tell a difference in a double blind test, at best they would be minor differences, and I wouldn't bet on which one wouild ultimately sound better, I strongly suspect that if a real difference could be heard, that it would be subjective, that there would not be a clear winner given a large sample of listeners, audiophiles all. If you believe that a circuit is more than a sound design and the sun of it's parts, for the most part, then feel free, but those who work on those circuits know better.