[golfbravobravo]

Looks like my brand new Freya will be looking for a new home.........

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

Have you been listening to me talking to Ms Jody? Who CLAIMS to have been an English teacher.......

OK she came from England, so what did she teach?

 

[mp29k]

Great article @Jason Stoddard, I Iike your take on the product development, and on making running changes to items. The Thunderdome idea sounds neat. Hopefully it goes well for you.

That being said the saga portion of your pre amp choices leave me wanting a bit more. I have a gen 1 saga with LISST, it would seem I have the best of both worlds aside from the motorized pot and alum remote.

Any chance you are considering adding relay a stepped attenuators and remotes to an existing headamp/preamp.

Maybe one that has a built in fully functional DAC (not a current modular card).

Think fulla 2 functionality but in an asgard 2 chassis or larger with a remote, and a built in modi multibit, with three digital inputs. Kind of a class A HP amp/preamp/with integrated DAC.

One class A analogue output stage, that the DAC signal feeds into.

Today wasn't for me, but that's ok, looking forward to what you have out next.

I think progress is good, and the motorized pot is a welcome addition, but I don't feel these products bring enough to the table for me to upgrade Saga. I really was hoping to see a Saga with proper tube gain, as in add a second 6sn7 and provide in addition to the passive mode and tube buffer, a proper gain stage. A Balanced Saga also would have been cool. I can say the changes to Freya + do make it a more attractive product, but still with the limitation (to me) of being a 4 tube product. I am going to go out on a limb and predict that none of the 4 new products will outsell the original Saga and Freya, because they didn't add enough/change enough to make existing Saga and Freya owners upgrade. Could be wrong, I guess that is what makes this company so cool. They are willing to try things and move on if they don't work out.

 

[Derrick Swart]

Yes, well I am paraphrasing Jason Stoddard, who said basically the same thing. If you like what they offer, fantastic. If you want something else, there are many other options.

With more options now but i did not see HT bypass on the new pre amps

 

[Robert Padgett]

I think progress is good, and the motorized pot is a welcome addition, but I don't feel these products bring enough to the table for me to upgrade Saga. I really was hoping to see a Saga with proper tube gain, as in add a second 6sn7 and provide in addition to the passive mode and tube buffer, a proper gain stage. A Balanced Saga also would have been cool. I can say the changes to Freya + do make it a more attractive product, but still with the limitation (to me) of being a 4 tube product. I am going to go out on a limb and predict that none of the 4 new products will outsell the original Saga and Freya, because they didn't add enough/change enough to make existing Saga and Freya owners upgrade. Could be wrong, I guess that is what makes this company so cool. They are willing to try things and move on if they don't work out.

It appears that the original versions are no longer listed for sale, and like any upgrade or new product doesn't diminish the value or performance of the version you own. If the Freya sounded great yesterday, it will sound the same today. New products seem to target new purchasers, and I doubt if they would re-introduce the "old version" if the new ones do not sell well.

Likewise, I have been pondering a Freya purchase for some time, and the extra $200 to get the "+" version seems reasonable, and a "used" Freya market may develop at a value price. I would consider a used "old" Freya as it would do what I would want it to do--feed mono Aegirs.

 

[golfbravobravo]

OK she came from England, so what did she teach?

Well, she taught children, of course. And she comes from San Diego, so she taught American.

 

[Voxata]

Also, hence our new promise to you: no more silent changes. No more running revisions. If we change a product, we’ll call it out. It’ll become a “+” or something like that. Of course, we’re still going to have to make minor tweaks as resistors change or a part becomes obsolete, but we’ve heard you. No more uncertainty.

Now this is a solid promise and much appreciated.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Hey all,

Just a few notes:

1. Saga+ is available in black and silver right now, the others not quite yet. I'm sure there will be some black for all of the preamps, so if you want black, hold on for a bit.
2. Nothing's in danger of selling out for a while. The runs we do are quite large. And the ones that run out first are gonna be first out of the Thunderdome. So don't stress about "order now or miss out!"
3. You should see Ragnarok 2 next week. I just held it back a bit so we could get the preamps going. Of course, that could slip another week, you know us...
4. We finally have usable platters for Sol, which completes the parts we need to build. Now we just need to wait for production of the usable platters, but you should definitely see Sols this summer.
5. Before Sol, you'll see a couple more new things...

Oh yeah, and per our own definition (which may not be your definition), all the preamps have "HT Bypass." From https://www.schiit.com/guides/choosing-amps-preamps :

Home Theater Integration, $0. Okay, all you "home theater bypass" guys. All of our preamps offer true home theater bypass. Just plug in your processor's front channels to any input, select Passive mode, and turn the volume all the way up. Presto! 1:1 home theater bypass, with only a relay in the signal path.

Understood if that doesn't work for you. Sorry, I still haven't figured out a great way to press a button and have this happen, without adding more inputs (which don't fit on Freya--balanced inputs are BIG). Honestly, I'd be more interested in a processor loop, now that I've figured out how to do a balanced EQ with Nexus. But that's the same problem--where the hell do you put the extra balanced I/O? Probably best to stick the EQ after the preamp, if you want one. The noise floor is low enough to do that.

All the best,
Jason

 

[kumar402]

can I use balanced out from Freya + with single ended DAC like chord Qutest.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

Well, she taught children, of course. And she comes from San Diego, so she taught American.

Understood that in one try but why is she called an English teacher?

 

[RickB]

Understood that in one try but why is she called an English teacher?

In the USA, the predominant language we speak is called "English" and teachers of that language are called English teachers.

Edited to clarify status of English.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

can I use balanced out from Freya + with single ended DAC like chord Qutest.

Yes, it will convert to balanced in buffer and tube modes.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

In the USA, the predominant language we speak is called "English" and teachers of that language are called English teachers.

Edited to clarify status of English.

That's wrong on two fronts.
1. It states that the teacher is from England and not what she teaches.
2. If partly correct the language se teaches is American English which surely is not British English so that distinction should be made.

Of course we all know this is one of the most common errors most people make in all languages...

 

[RickB]

That's wrong on two fronts.
1. It states that the teacher is from England and not what she teaches.
2. If partly correct the language se teaches is American English which surely is not British English so that distinction should be made.

Of course we all know this is one of the most common errors most people make in all languages...

I never said it was correct, just explaining the way it was/is.

 

[Brubacca]

Jason,

Congrats on a great launch. They all seem like solid products that should address a large market.