Thoughts / Suggestions on Pre-amps

Which Parasound? The P5 and P7 are ok preamps, the JC2 is in another league. I have read a few people calling the Freya anything but tube sounding and some have called it bright. But, its all about system matching and personal preference. I can't speak for the Freya myself, having not heard one but I have heard the AVA and JC2 along with the P7.
 
Mechnutt said:
Which Parasound? The P5 and P7 are ok preamps, the JC2 is in another league. I have read a few people calling the Freya anything but tube sounding and some have called it bright. But, its all about system matching and personal preference. I can't speak for the Freya myself, having not heard one but I have heard the AVA and JC2 along with the P7.
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Sorry, I do not know which model Parasound he was referring to. It was just one of many things I stumbled upon. I have never heard a Parasound and certainly can't speak one way or another about them :)...

I have never heard a Schiit unit either but know several people who have owned their products and almost all have very high opinions about them.

The reviews that I have read all appear positive and the unit certainly has a ton of flexibility. Being able to use it Passive, Solid State, or Tubes is quite intriguing....
 
I have decided to give the Schiit a try. It just seems like a very unique piece and who knows, maybe it is one of those giant killer products. Most of what I read suggests this. If not, it is returnable. I am very intrigued by the flexibility the pre-amp offers.
 
I will listen to the Freya tonight. If my memory serves me it was very uneventful and not very dynamic.
 
Randy Myers said:
I have decided to give the Schiit a try.
If not, it is returnable.
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Yep. Only thing you have to lose is the possible restock fee and 2 weeks of your time. If other options offer this also, by all means...
The only way you know how it fits into your system and taste, is to fit it into your system. Not someone else. Keep an open mind and have fun regardless.

cheers,

AJ
 
Thank you to everybody who were kind enough to add their input, experiences, and opinions. I appreciated every single one of them!
 
This Schiit ain’t too bad. Forgot how clickety click click it is. Not sure what tubes I have in it but very pleasant. A little flat and two dimensional and lacking at the extremes but everything is in the right place. For the money it is hard to talk any Schiit about it. Randy I think you will be surprised.
 
Here is my new ARC vibration platform.

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nc42acc said:
This Schiit ain’t too bad. Forgot how clickety click click it is. Not sure what tubes I have in it but very pleasant. A little flat and two dimensional and lacking at the extremes but everything is in the right place. For the money it is hard to talk any Schiit about it. Randy I think you will be surprised.
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Hey Marty, Thanks for checking it out for me! I have some NOS tubes that I can roll in. Was thinking of using some early '50s Sylvania Chrome Tops for the voltage gain stage and some RCA Gray Glass for the output stage.
 
I prefer the FET stage much more than the tube setting. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Just know the volume control I think is relay controlled so it is a little noisy....click, click, click.....Well it is a lot noisy :exciting:

Randy Myers said:
Hey Marty, Thanks for checking it out for me! I have some NOS tubes that I can roll in. Was thinking of using some early '50s Sylvania Chrome Tops for the voltage gain stage and some RCA Gray Glass for the output stage.
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Hehe... the click, click, click will probably not bother me. I always preferred a volume that let me know, one way or another, when I changed it :)... The volume is relay, 128 steps actually which is much finer control then most using this type of control out there.

I well definitely compare the three different modes of operations. Who knows, I might find that I prefer different modes for different types of music :D...

I am still trying to figure out how they offer their equipment at the prices they do? I know they use minimalistic designs and keep overhead and costs down... but still.... it makes me believe that a lot of companies build far too much profit margins into their products... probably because of distribution channels, etc., etc.

I like it when companies keep extraneous costs down and offer better values. It appears that this is Schiit's mode of operation... we will see. It reminds me of a store back in Syracuse who was known for super low overhead and passed the savings onto their customers. When it was time for doing a bit of a face life I advised them to be very careful about not making the store too glamorous... keep the open rafters low cost appearance.... sure put fresh paint, etc., but do not go overboard because this is what their patrons expected.
 
We have Schiit... the Freya arrived. Of course hooking a major component like a pre-amp is a pain in the butt, especially when you cannot easily get behind racks :). Anyway, it definitely needs some break-in... my experience has been that every component needs a good 50-100 or more to relax and open up. I would say the Schiit is no different.

First couple albums... so far I kind of like the sound, but it definitely needs some break-in time. Love the flexibility. Very quite... nice sound stage that will open a bit with break-in.

I am using some Sylvania Chrome Top Bad Boys for the voltage gain stage and RCA Gray Glass for the output stage. Might try some rolling, but definitely will do some breaking in first. So far I prefer tubes over passive or FET. (I moved the Chrome Tops to the Output Stage and put my later generation Sylvania NOS tubes in the Voltage gain stage because low noise tubes are most important here while the output tubes will affect sound the most, or so I read).

Right out if the box I have to say it is surprising. This might actually end up competing against other pre-amps I have had, including the Audio Research! Time will tell but so far it is sounding pretty impressive.

Which brings me to the question of how can Schiit create such a solid quality, really nice sounding product for a fraction of what other companies do? It has all the usable features, without any flash, using 6SN7 tubes, and comes with a metal remote. The remote may not give anything fancy but it gives access to everything I need a remote for.

If this continues to improve as it burns in and really smooths out and opens up, which most every new unit I have had has done then this will bring into question my view on some of these crazy level products. I guess if I had unlimited funds it would not matter; or maybe my ears just are not that good (although I do hear obvious differences with my SET amps and DSD, etc., etc.)... but how can they offer this flexible and great sounding pre-amp for $699 while other companies charge several thousand dollars? The world may never know :)...
 
A brief update... first off the pre-amp is starting to settle in a bit. Certainly quite a bit more to go. So far I am amazed at how good it is, especially for the money, but it is actually very good regardless of the cost. I still have no idea how they offer this type of pre at this price.

Sound stage and separation is good, certainly as good as any pre-amplifier I have had in the system to date. Bass is surprisingly good... maybe a very tad over the top side, but again it is smoothing slightly with more hours. I have confidence that this will continue. Over all sweet sounding and approaching anything I have had, so with more break-in I think it may very well compete with even the ARC I had. Granted, I have never had a higher end model but for what I can afford :).... Would love to try something a little better; yes Marty would love to try the LS27 if I decide to put the T+A amp back on the market and sell it :D....

I do hear distinct differences in the Passive, FET Buffer, and Tube Output Stages. All are nice, but I do prefer the Tube Stage and do enjoy the higher gain from tubes. One thing I have noticed is tube rolling does apply here. I also noticed the RCA Gray Glass tubes definitely cause much more noise in the Freya. Right now I am using the Russian NOS in the Voltage gain stage and the Sylvania early 1950's Chrome Top Bad Boys in the Output which seems to work particularly well.

I might grab some Black Treasure CV-181-Z tubes next, which is what Vladimir told me is his favorite tube in the Audio Mirror SET amps, and then roll the 1956 CBS Brown Base into the pre. I am thinking the Sylvania Bad Boys in the Voltage Gain and the CBS in the Output.

Anyway, enjoying the pre so far and unless something else comes my way in the next week or so this will probably be a keeper!
 
I had an Audio research LS-17se. A lower end model, but it was in brand new condition and was less than 2 years old. I liked it quite a bit, but ended up selling it to purchase the SET amplifiers. I was planning on using the Dennis Had headphone amp as the pre-amp. It worked but it is obvious that the pre-amp section was an add-on and not part of the original design. It is a fantastic headphone amp, I would say one of the very finest out there, but did not do the trick as a pre-amp. So far I have been very surprised with the Schiit Freya. It is still breaking in but initial impressions are very positive!
 
To be fair I did not have the opportunity to listen to the ARC with the SET amplifiers (it was sold to purchase the amps), and therefore will never be able to say weather the Freya sounds better then the ARC did. Honestly it is surprising to even be thinking in those terms. What I can say however, is that the current configuration with the Schiit Freya and the Audio Mirror SET amplifiers (along with the amazing T+A DAC, Roon and HQPlayer, etc.) is by far the best that my system has ever sounded!

I just ordered some Black Treasure tubes and will do some rolling with the other tubes. Hoping to eak out even a little bit more performance!
 
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