[Basil65]

After another weekend of listening, I'm even more impressed by the Kara. The imaging is excellent, however, the soundstage depth has its limitation, altough the width and height are very good. What I find I like alot is that there is an abundance of details, even in the high frequency region, all this without fatigue. Again, as with other Schiit product I have heard, I get this feeling of heft and fullness to the sound, wether it be in the low or high frequencies. Take my comments with a grain of salt as I have only heard the Kara paired with my Vidar 2. But at this price point, this is a great combo!

 

[Adam Balm]

Schiit Alert! A B-Stock Kara in black popped up on their site.

 

[adias]

After another weekend of listening, I'm even more impressed by the Kara. The imaging is excellent, however, the soundstage depth has its limitation, altough the width and height are very good. What I find I like alot is that there is an abundance of details, even in the high frequency region, all this without fatigue. Again, as with other Schiit product I have heard, I get this feeling of heft and fullness to the sound, wether it be in the low or high frequencies. Take my comments with a grain of salt as I have only heard the Kara paired with my Vidar 2. But at this price point, this is a great combo!

Soundstage depth is very much dependent on many other facts. I hear plenty of recordings (in my system) where depth is significant.

 

[dericchan1]

Hi everyone, currently a Freya + owner. Been overall pretty happy with it until last week the tube stage is dead with no output (but the passive mode and solid state differential mode works fine) Going to drop it off to my friend who is an amp tech to fix it. Honestly i had been mostly using the tube stage for all my listening and wasn’t giving much love to the other modes for the past few years…

In the meantime, I get to use the passive mode and the solid state mode and I got to say I am not sure if I miss the tube stage!! Sure You don't get that fakely expanded soundstage yes but especially the passive mode is sounding really organic!!!

I guess what I would like to find out is for others who might have switched from the Freya + to the Kara, how does the Freya + solid state differential mode compared to the Kara’s gain mode, is it a worthy upgrade?

The rest of my speaker setup is Ifi pro idsd dac or Holo Cyan 2 -> Freya + -> nuprime evolution sta power amp -> Monitor Audio PL200ii and 2 PSA 15” down firing sealed subs.

Cheers

Deric

 

[adias]

Hi everyone, currently a Freya + owner. Been overall pretty happy with it until last week the tube stage is dead with no output (but the passive mode and solid state differential mode works fine) Going to drop it off to my friend who is an amp tech to fix it. Honestly i had been mostly using the tube stage for all my listening and wasn’t giving much love to the other modes for the past few years…

In the meantime, I get to use the passive mode and the solid state mode and I got to say I am not sure if I miss the tube stage!! Sure You don't get that fakely expanded soundstage yes but especially the passive mode is sounding really organic!!!

I guess what I would like to find out is for others who might have switched from the Freya + to the Kara, how does the Freya + solid state differential mode compared to the Kara’s gain mode, is it a worthy upgrade?

The rest of my speaker setup is Ifi pro idsd dac or Holo Cyan 2 -> Freya + -> nuprime evolution sta power amp -> Monitor Audio PL200ii and 2 PSA 15” down firing sealed subs.

Cheers

Deric

Send your Freya+ to be fixed by Schiit. If out of warranty I doubt it will cost much anyway.

 

[dericchan1]

Send your Freya+ to be fixed by Schiit. If out of warranty I doubt it will cost much anyway.

Thanks. My local buddy will take care of me. I just kinda come to the realization while I am out of the tube mode that I can be potentially looking at a solid state preamp, that’s all!

Cheers

 

[adias]

Thanks. My local buddy will take care of me. I just kinda come to the realization while I am out of the tube mode that I can be potentially looking at a solid state preamp, that’s all!

Cheers

The answer to your question is on this thread a few posts above - extensive exchange of POVs.

 

[Adam Balm]

Schiit Alert! A B-Stock Kara in black popped up on their site.

Some lucky person scooped this fine preamp up. Bravo!

 

[kh6idf]

In my earlier review of the Kara preamp, I had mentioned hearing added 'weight' or 'heft' to the sound compared to my older Linn Kairn preamp (others have reported this additional weight also).

I recently tried some different speaker cables (Blue Jeans 10 Gauge with locking bananas), and with these new cables, the added weight/heft disappeared. The new cables use locking banana plugs (appear to give a nice solid connection) while the original cables use a Cardas Rhodium plated spade connector on one end and a Linn 'knekt' banana on the other end (to fit the Linn LK280 amp).

I listened to the new cables for a few days then put the original cables back on and the weight/heft reappeared. I prefer the sound with the old cables so am continuing to use them.

I got curious as to what type of wire was used in the old cable. I thought it was Radio Shack 12 gauge "megacable" but on closer inspection it is actually the original Monster Cable, 10 gauge I think. This wire must be about 40 years old now. Copper is still shiny inside the clear plastic insulation.

I'm not sure how much of the improved sound is due to the connectors versus the wire, I suspect it may be the spade connector making most of the difference. Note in the last picture the ultrasonic welding BJC uses to fuse the wire to the connector. The old cable has the connectors soldered on using Cardas quad eutectic solder.

 

[adias]

In my earlier review of the Kara preamp, I had mentioned hearing added 'weight' or 'heft' to the sound compared to my older Linn Kairn preamp (others have reported this additional weight also).

I recently tried some different speaker cables (Blue Jeans 10 Gauge with locking bananas), and with these new cables, the added weight/heft disappeared. The new cables use locking banana plugs (appear to give a nice solid connection) while the original cables use a Cardas Rhodium plated spade connector on one end and a Linn 'knekt' banana on the other end (to fit the Linn LK280 amp).

I listened to the new cables for a few days then put the original cables back on and the weight/heft reappeared. I prefer the sound with the old cables so am continuing to use them.

I got curious as to what type of wire was used in the old cable. I thought it was Radio Shack 12 gauge "megacable" but on closer inspection it is actually the original Monster Cable, 10 gauge I think. This wire must be about 40 years old now. Copper is still shiny inside the clear plastic insulation.

I'm not sure how much of the improved sound is due to the connectors versus the wire, I suspect it may be the spade connector making most of the difference. Note in the last picture the ultrasonic welding BJC uses to fuse the wire to the connector. The old cable has the connectors soldered on using Cardas quad eutectic solder.

Ah the Monster Cable. It may have a higher capacitance and tip down the frequency response.

 

[kh6idf]

Ah the Monster Cable. It may have a higher capacitance and tip down the frequency response.

The BJC is twisted pair, which should have a little more capacitance per foot than parallel pair, but I doubt if either one has enough to affect the frequency response in the audio band. After all, both cables are made for audio. At my age (67) I don't think I hear much above 10kHz anyway.

By the way, I finally did get to try out the headphone jack on the Kara. All I had was a Grado SR60 but it sounded as good as can be expected from that headphone. I could tell the noise level was very very low (undetectable to me). My good headphones are all Stax.

 

[Bowmoreman]

Nice first update @Basil65, Thx. Being familiar with LS50s they offer some weight and appreciable midrange tone in bone stock form with most amps. What I'm after is to hopefully learn a little bit more about the midrange character - hopefully a little more about the body and tone of the midrange itself with Kara. We are all recently reading regular feedback now from various sources how Kara's timbre and tone is "neutral", yet bass has "weight". What about upper midrange, does that have some weight too - at all? i.e. Not seeing any comments about the midrange yet, and someting some of us look for in testing and listening to different amps, dacs, etc.

Some forum members swapping from the older 80s/90s Class A preamps with large outboard power transformers know exactly what's being referred to when I ask about weight to the midrange or midrange body. Dare I say the words midrange bloom - or some folks will jump right in and accuse of looking for a preamp with a lots of color. Nope. No, just a well designed preamp that normally offers this type of character and weight to the midrange too, in a similar manner how some comment Kara adds weight to the bass.

Apologize If I dare ask too early, what are you hearing with the body of the Midrange itself with Kara - Is it truly neutral as in somewhat laid back compared to high/low frequencies with Kara? [anything more you or others can add here would be greatly appreciated] before I decide to possibly compare this preamp to a few others, waiting a few more replies here to decide more. Watching closely for more replies here. Thanks in advance to all for your time and replies about the new Kara preamp!

So, it’s been quite some time more, and I wanted to respond to you with additional perspective. I, for one, know exactly what you are talking about Mid “body/weight/bloom”. The Kara is doing the mids 100% correctly - IMHO/System - and a part of that is that characteristic that I first heard described as “midrange bloom”. The best examples I can cite of the intrinsic “goodness” of that midrange can be seen then (and frankly now to many ears) via Class A tube or SS feeding into Rodger’s LS3/5A’s. In the early 80’s when my high end race started in anger because i was out of college and had money, I loved what I heard with them driven by top end EAR tube gear at a shop in London, and, what I heard at Lyric in NYC with the Mark Levinson Class A gear.

Alas, their flaw - to me and what I wanted - was *focused* imaging and soundstage, and, more importantly - they had no bass balls whatsoever. But otherwise, they sounded REAL in those glorious mids, driven properly.

My metric was, is, and always be: does it sound REAL to me on unamplified music, minimally processed and mic’s, recorded all analog, in a hall familiar to me, and with music familiar to me. It’s much harder to do that these days, than when I was single with rather limitless funds for live music of all kinds. Symphonic music typically.

By bloom (then at least) in the mids meant that there was a limitless sense of effortless power; always and ever, exactly what was correct, nothing more or less. Not just limited to dynamics, but also time and space dimensions. Neutrality in the mids meant flat FR. Some tubes then were neutral, some more “syrupy”…

After 4? 5? Months now with Kara, I am deeply impressed. It is beyond neutral. It is natural; it definitely equals - in my sonic memory - the performance of my Classe’ DR6 in all areas, and betters it in some of the areas I and others previously mentioned (noise). To me, it is soundstaging slightly better (slightly deeper and maybe 5 degrees wider).

I know there’s a cadre’ here who disagree about things like “soundstage”. But for this listener, the system I carefully cultivated to be as real sounding as possible, as measured against: “does music I know, played in a place I know from listening there, sound like I am being taken back there, in EVERY possible dimension”. Not just soundstage, but micro/macro-dynamics. FR/Timbre. Imaging… This Kara, inserted into a system so-optimized to my immense (and not changing once in 30+ years despite growing income) listening pleasure, broke NOTHING, and improved a few small things. That is really all I can say further.

Oh, and hate the volume “Graunching” noise and fact you can’t SEE where your at remotely, but them are nits.

HTH

PS: my DR6 beat (to my ears) the ARC SP11 head to head in identical Apogee system.
PPS: it has a very large outboard power supply

PPPS: best LP’s to use to test for bloom? Get some Lionel Hampton and hear them vibes, VIBE. With planars, ribbons and/or e’stats … the definition of bloom and reality - simultaneously. Borderline ecstasy.

 

[33na3rd]

So, it’s been quite some time more, and I wanted to respond to you with additional perspective. I, for one, know exactly what you are talking about Mid “body/weight/bloom”. The Kara is doing the mids 100% correctly - IMHO/System - and a part of that is that characteristic that I first heard described as “midrange bloom”. The best examples I can cite of the intrinsic “goodness” of that midrange can be seen then (and frankly now to many ears) via Class A tube or SS feeding into Rodger’s LS3/5A’s. In the early 80’s when my high end race started in anger because i was out of college and had money, I loved what I heard with them driven by top end EAR tube gear at a shop in London, and, what I heard at Lyric in NYC with the Mark Levinson Class A gear.

Alas, their flaw - to me and what I wanted - was *focused* imaging and soundstage, and, more importantly - they had no bass balls whatsoever. But otherwise, they sounded REAL in those glorious mids, driven properly.

My metric was, is, and always be: does it sound REAL to me on unamplified music, minimally processed and mic’s, recorded all analog, in a hall familiar to me, and with music familiar to me. It’s much harder to do that these days, than when I was single with rather limitless funds for live music of all kinds. Symphonic music typically.

By bloom (then at least) in the mids meant that there was a limitless sense of effortless power; always and ever, exactly what was correct, nothing more or less. Not just limited to dynamics, but also time and space dimensions. Neutrality in the mids meant flat FR. Some tubes then were neutral, some more “syrupy”…

After 4? 5? Months now with Kara, I am deeply impressed. It is beyond neutral. It is natural; it definitely equals - in my sonic memory - the performance of my Classe’ DR6 in all areas, and betters it in some of the areas I and others previously mentioned (noise). To me, it is soundstaging slightly better (slightly deeper and maybe 5 degrees wider).

I know there’s a cadre’ here who disagree about things like “soundstage”. But for this listener, the system I carefully cultivated to be as real sounding as possible, as measured against: “does music I know, played in a place I know from listening there, sound like I am being taken back there, in EVERY possible dimension”. Not just soundstage, but micro/macro-dynamics. FR/Timbre. Imaging… This Kara, inserted into a system so-optimized to my immense (and not changing once in 30+ years despite growing income) listening pleasure, broke NOTHING, and improved a few small things. That is really all I can say further.

Oh, and hate the volume “Graunching” noise and fact you can’t SEE where your at remotely, but them are nits.

HTH

That's a nice write up!

I realize that you weren't writing to me, but I just wanted to make a small comment about "soundstage".

Once you've heard a system that is able to render a realistic soundstage, and then you are finally able to do the same in your own set up, there's no going back.

The ability to portray a realistic soundstage is a very important part of the listening experience to me, to be transported somewhere/sometime else. But for many listeners it's not important at all. It's much like the tube vs solid state, and vinyl vs digital debates. I try not to get involved in these debates anymore. I'm not going to change anyone's mind, and there's a whole bunch of music that needs my attention.

 

[Kristofa]

I'm not going to change anyone's mind, and there's a whole bunch of music that needs my attention.

I think I will get this as a tattoo.

 

[Bowmoreman]

That's a nice write up!

I realize that you weren't writing to me, but I just wanted to make a small comment about "soundstage".

Once you've heard a system that is able to render a realistic soundstage, and then you are finally able to do the same in your own set up, there's no going back.

The ability to portray a realistic soundstage is a very important part of the listening experience to me, to be transported somewhere/sometime else. But for many listeners it's not important at all. It's much like the tube vs solid state, and vinyl vs digital debates. I try not to get involved in these debates anymore. I'm not going to change anyone's mind, and there's a whole bunch of music that needs my attention.

Yep…

My first experience of that was an ML / Klipsch system that was one of my fraternity brother’s father in laws system. Front end was 15ips 1/2” tapes; you could buy them as an alternative to LP’s back in the late 60’s and into the 70’s. He played Dvorak’s 9th (Chicago/Reiner/RCA). I was like OMG I didn’t know you could make music sound REAL!

The second, was a co worker (shortly after getting out of college and starting working at DEC) who had an Oracle Delphi/Koetsu Rosewood feeding an ARC SP3 into a Bryston 3B driving Maggies (don’t remember exact which Maggies). He, I, and a couple of others formed our listening group that would basically last until I got married about 10 years later… my upgrade journey was part of his (I got his Oracle and SP3 to boost my journey). My finish college and starting out rig was the Technics turntable, Shute V15 cart, feeding Nikko PreAmp and a (wish I’d never sold it) Nikko Alpha III Amp (MOSFET). Had a reasonably nice satellite subwoofer system (can’t remember name!). But soon to change in a matter of a couple of years to my current rig, now 30+ years on.

Entry “fee” was always proper frequency response, dynamics, etc. etc. but had to *advance* soundstaging/imaging *also* to “advance”.

I’ve been told the MBL’s are the bee’s knees for this, but not yet had a listen… but since - at the moment - I can’t envision anything I’d like better than my current Duettas, and I don’t and won’t have multiple $1000’s to “upgrade” them… I don’t get all nervosa about it.

It is why I *was* freaking out whilst my Classe’ DR6 pre-amp was slowly dying of capacitor failure (the line stage; phono worked via tape out at a fixed volume I could feed forward)… I was worried I would LOSE my system synergy that imaged/soundstaged (and all the rest) so well. And I did, when using the temporary Proceed/Madrigal/Levinson AVP1 I used as a balanced line stage to “sub out” the Classe’ except for phono… it went backwards in several dimensions: noise, soundstage was massively smaller, and dynamics were a bit constrained….

Kara brought it back, and, as mentioned before, added a bit more in a few dimensions: for a $700 Preamp (versus my $3500 - in 1990 dollars) Classe’

That was all I needed.

I do extend an open invite to any/all that are in the MA/NH/VT/ME region and fancy a drive, the opportunity to hear what Soundstaging brings (at least to me - LOL). Heck, anyone want to come bringing a multi-bit Schiit DAC… even better!

As always, it’s the music.