With stock tubes I only get a bit of noise that I only can hear at the speaker ( a foot or so away). Polk LSi15 from a Adcom GFA-555(which is now died so I’m ampless).
Usually the load, speakers in this case, is what kills the amp, especially if you lost one channel. You need to be sure that your speakers are okay before you hook up another amp to them. A
Well I had a pair of Vidar’s on order but after a month and then said to be a month or two I canceled my order. Had other places the money needed to go. Everything was fine till I hooked up my Yggy to the Freya and then the Adcom died. I did it with balanced connections from the Yggy to the Freya.
You shouldn't have too much trouble finding a nice set of NOS 6NS7 that are quiet in that application. But it's not realistic to expect total silence from a tube pre-amp stage.
So the general consensus is that the Freya can be very noisy in tube gain mode, even with very good tubes? Thankfully Schiit has a return policy so I can test it out and return it if I don't like it. One of the main reasons I am interested in the Freya as a preamp is because in tube gain mode it converts a SE signal into balanced, which is how I'd use it primarily. But I hate high noise floors, and I don't want it to degrade the audio signal from a Chord Hugo 2 or to a HeadAmp GS-X Mk2. Does the Freya sound right for me?
As several people have already said, No, that is not the consensus.
I can only hear the barest of hums, if my er is withing 3-4" of my speaker, J. M. Reynaud Twins, about 88 sensitivity. and I also have tubes (5963s or 12AU7s or 6829s) in the input stage of my amps.
I use new, remakes of Tung-Sol 6SN7GTBs in all 4 spots; I also use all XLR (balanced) cables as inputs to the Freya and as output.
You shouldn't have too much trouble finding a nice set of NOS 6NS7 that are quiet in that application. But it's not realistic to expect total silence from a tube pre-amp stage.
I agree.
I don't think it's totally necessary to find NOS tubes, but a set of Sylvania NOS 6SN7TB tubes from the 50s have also worked for me in my system.
Usually the load, speakers in this case, is what kills the amp, especially if you lost one channel. You need to be sure that your speakers are okay before you hook up another amp to them. A
After he makes sure that the speaker(s) didn't kill the amp!
Any amp designed in the last 25 years or so is made to protect itself from shorts, opens, weird impedance loads, and inept users. If the speakers caused a modern amp to fail, it would be highly unusual.
Any amp designed in the last 25 years or so is made to protect itself from shorts, opens, weird impedance loads, and inept users. If the speakers caused a modern amp to fail, it would be highly unusual.
Even many older ones were "supposed" to protected. It's always worth checking, besides, I really haven't kept up with Adcom amps over the years. Back in the day I never heard one that had dimensionality. I always thought it had to be due to the capacitors they used because it's hard to imagine Nelson Pass designing such an amp, but I never did recap one, so it's still just a theory. Anyway, I pretty much dismissed them after figuring out that that was the common factor in the systems I heard that lacked dimensionality.
Schiit Lokis are so cheap everybody should have one, and mine (usually "out of the loop" as they say) is a great way to test for hum or hiss from tubes or anything else. Unless you need balanced capabilities, the Loki is sort of a gift.
Question for you guys experienced using the Freya with LISST. What's the sound difference between using 4 LISST units vs 2 clean tubes + 2 LISST units on the drive side?
I feel shamed for not paying more attention to the benefits of socket savers. I'd not kept up with this thread after I got my Freya(s) last year. I'd tried a number of NOS tubes and they all ended up being microphonic, especially my Kenrad VT-231's which seemed to have the best tonality. Anyway, I kind of stopped paying too much attention to tube rolling and mainly used JFET mode with positive, but slightly bland results. A couple weeks ago I read back through some posts in the past few months and read positive things about socket savers remedying microphonic tubes in Freya. I got them in today from Tube Monger and low and behold, my microphonics and noise have disappeared. I turned the pot to max and I couldn't hear anything. That had never happened with my Freyas. I thought something was wrong momentarily! But yes, they're running that quiet in my system now. I've swapped in 4 VT-231's, 2 Bad Boys and 2 Chrome Domes with 2 Kenrads in the follower position, and they all sound silent. It's doubtful I'm going back to JFET, but it's a certainty I'm buying another set of SS's and getting them into my second Freya!
I feel shamed for not paying more attention to the benefits of socket savers. I'd not kept up with this thread after I got my Freya(s) last year. I'd tried a number of NOS tubes and they all ended up being microphonic, especially my Kenrad VT-231's which seemed to have the best tonality. Anyway, I kind of stopped paying too much attention to tube rolling and mainly used JFET mode with positive, but slightly bland results. A couple weeks ago I read back through some posts in the past few months and read positive things about socket savers remedying microphonic tubes in Freya. I got them in today from Tube Monger and low and behold, my microphonics and noise have disappeared. I turned the pot to max and I couldn't hear anything. That had never happened with my Freyas. I thought something was wrong momentarily! But yes, they're running that quiet in my system now. I've swapped in 4 VT-231's, 2 Bad Boys and 2 Chrome Domes with 2 Kenrads in the follower position, and they all sound silent. It's doubtful I'm going back to JFET, but it's a certainty I'm buying another set of SS's and getting them into my second Freya!
Hey guys, shameless plug but you Freya owners want to roll tubes I'll do $196 total shipped with Paypal (or $186 gifted) for all three tube pairs below. USA only for the special.
I just received my Noval tube savers ($17 from China with quick delivery) and I was wondering how in the heck do I remove them from my Freya? Do I have to take the cover off of my Freya?
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