Randy Myers
Well-known member
I agree in some but not all. As Mike says, you can hear everything we can measure, but we cannot measure everything we can hear.
Freya + VS. ARC REF 3?
- Thread starter ingleplob
- Start date
AJ Soundfield
Well-known member
Well if Dad says so, ok, ok.
Stay safe, enjoy some tunes.
Pouring rain here, may have to fire up the big horns
Stay safe, enjoy some tunes.
Pouring rain here, may have to fire up the big horns
[emoji106] that’s a fact Jack! Measurements are interesting however. Ken and I have been talking a lot about the recent DartZeel 468 and VAC 452iQ reviews and subsequent measurements. Very interesting stuff.
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hifinutt
New member
i have had the Freya pre amp and the ref 5 and the ref 5se . sorry but the arc stuff is way better , the freya is incredibly transparent and pretty good for the silly amount of money but the arc stuff is streets ahead in terms of palapable realism
Jozua
New member
Hi
I owned a Ls 27 and regret selling it for a ARC upgrade.
In my opinion - it is exceptional and only having two valves it has a very low running cost. You need to rake up 4000 hours before a tube replacement is required.
Being such a low power device, one assumes the thick power cable supplied by ARC is adequate. It is not !!
Use a top quality power cable with the LS 27 and you will be pleasantly surprised by how close it is the ARC Ref pre-amps. It easily matches the ARC Ref 3 in sound quality.
In my opinion it is a huge mistake to review the LS27 with a stock standard power cable.
Take care.
Jozua
I owned a Ls 27 and regret selling it for a ARC upgrade.
In my opinion - it is exceptional and only having two valves it has a very low running cost. You need to rake up 4000 hours before a tube replacement is required.
Being such a low power device, one assumes the thick power cable supplied by ARC is adequate. It is not !!
Use a top quality power cable with the LS 27 and you will be pleasantly surprised by how close it is the ARC Ref pre-amps. It easily matches the ARC Ref 3 in sound quality.
In my opinion it is a huge mistake to review the LS27 with a stock standard power cable.
Take care.
Jozua
Feanor
Member
There is no particular reason to assume a $900 preamp will outperform another costing 10X as much. OTOH the former cans sound mighty good and represent crazy-good value vs. the latter.
I've had my Freya + for couple of weeks and am selling my ARC LS9 line stage, (solid state, of course). The latter is physically magnificent vs. the Freya + but sonically has no advantages compare to the Freya +'s passive and buffered modes. Also, I prefer the Freya +'s 128 step volume control over the LS9's 70 step control.
I hadn't used a tube preamp for quite a while before receiving the Freya + but I must say it isn't a strongly "tubey" component. There is a slight warming across the spectrum but no significant tonal shift nor added "harmonic richness". IMO, there is a slight loss of fine detail. Where I DO hear a significant difference is in "holographic" effect, i.e. instruments & voices "stand out" and seem to have more air about them -- I'd say this is main thing that tube mode does.
OK, so is the tube stage worth while? Probably the tube aficionado will say it's indispensable, but for me it isn't. It's nice to have for Jazz and popular forms but not so much for Classical music. The the case of Classical, especially large-scale and/or complex works, the loss of some fine detail is undesirable, and even more, the "holographic" effect just sounds fake. Since I am mainly a Classical listener I will mainly use passive mode, but hey, that's just me.
Incidentally my Freya + came with Tung-Sol 6SN7GTB tube: some buyer received JJ tubes. I'm no golden ear, so I'm not sure if or when I'll start tube rolling.
What I dislike most about the Freya +, (really the only thing), is the "user interface", i.e. the controls and remote control unit. The labels and indicator lights are too small to be read from my listening position; the bigger problem is that I like to see the degree of rotation of the volume control which I cannot see from listening position. I have to fixed the latter by pasting on legible indicator: see the picture ...
The remote control hand unit I don't like either. It's aluminum which gives it some heft but the buttons are the vague-feeling membrane type. Again, I fixed that by purchasing a $8 programmable remote with larger, proper buttons.
I've had my Freya + for couple of weeks and am selling my ARC LS9 line stage, (solid state, of course). The latter is physically magnificent vs. the Freya + but sonically has no advantages compare to the Freya +'s passive and buffered modes. Also, I prefer the Freya +'s 128 step volume control over the LS9's 70 step control.
I hadn't used a tube preamp for quite a while before receiving the Freya + but I must say it isn't a strongly "tubey" component. There is a slight warming across the spectrum but no significant tonal shift nor added "harmonic richness". IMO, there is a slight loss of fine detail. Where I DO hear a significant difference is in "holographic" effect, i.e. instruments & voices "stand out" and seem to have more air about them -- I'd say this is main thing that tube mode does.
OK, so is the tube stage worth while? Probably the tube aficionado will say it's indispensable, but for me it isn't. It's nice to have for Jazz and popular forms but not so much for Classical music. The the case of Classical, especially large-scale and/or complex works, the loss of some fine detail is undesirable, and even more, the "holographic" effect just sounds fake. Since I am mainly a Classical listener I will mainly use passive mode, but hey, that's just me.
Incidentally my Freya + came with Tung-Sol 6SN7GTB tube: some buyer received JJ tubes. I'm no golden ear, so I'm not sure if or when I'll start tube rolling.
What I dislike most about the Freya +, (really the only thing), is the "user interface", i.e. the controls and remote control unit. The labels and indicator lights are too small to be read from my listening position; the bigger problem is that I like to see the degree of rotation of the volume control which I cannot see from listening position. I have to fixed the latter by pasting on legible indicator: see the picture ...
The remote control hand unit I don't like either. It's aluminum which gives it some heft but the buttons are the vague-feeling membrane type. Again, I fixed that by purchasing a $8 programmable remote with larger, proper buttons.
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chops
Active member
Wow... This entire post couldn't be more wrong about the Freya+.
It's not overhyped, it doesn't lack depth and musicality. It's also not a giant killer. I don't know whoever claimed that, but I've never read that anywhere in any review.
The key to getting much better sound out of the Freya+ is ditching the stock tubes (both the Tung Sol and JJ tubes) and getting some quality NOS tubes or even better current production tubes.
chops
Active member
Again, as I said above, ditch the stock tubes and get some quality NOS or current production tubes in there. The right combination of tubes will maintain the detail and proper holographic effect, no matter what the music content is.
I've got five different pairs of tubes that I have tried in various combinations and think I've come across the best combo so far with what I've got. Solid, tight bass, full natural mids, air, detailed and smooth treble. No lack of anything with this combo. Other combos get either too lean and thin, or too dull, muddy and soft sounding. This is the whole point behind tube rolling.
And with different socket adapters, there's a large assortment of tubes you can try. You don't have to stick with "just" 6SN7's. In fact, I'm using a pair of 6F8G tubes and adapters along with a pair of 6SN7's. You can also use miniature tubes with the appropriate adapters. There's a large array of tubes that can be used with this preamp. You just need to do your research and find out what works and what doesn't.
