Maybe tube preamp

I just bought a Schiit Freya, which I didn't need and hasn't arrived yet. It's so inexpensive I simply had to try one as no other preamp I've heard of has its features, and I wanted a tube preamp to go with my SEP power amp. It comes with one fancy knob.

Thanks David and Kalali.  Good advice, I think.  I will have chat with the folks at Aric. And I will certainly post here my decision, and perhaps some of the deliberations that precede it.

Hi wolf,  I agree.  The Schiit Freya is a VERY reasonably priced unit.  If my budget were more constrained, I would consider one.  At some point the 'you get what you pay for' adage starts to carry some weight.  I'm reminded of the Chinese amps you see on E-Bay for $125 that produce 4000 watts.  (How is that even possible?  115volts x 20 amps is 2300 watts.  That would seem the theoretical maximum wattage derived from common household current) 

Let me be clear.  I in no way intend to imply that the folks at Schiit are charlatans.  I do not recall their web site making outlandish claims. In fact, I think that even if the quality of the Freya is a few notches below that of Aric's Unlimited,  which I believe to be the case, they are offering a very good value.  .Enjoy.  Let me know how far off base I am.  :)

My current preamp sounds absolutely excellent (Kavent S33…rare but amazing) but the Freya just seems like it has a "fun" potential (and more of my current fave 6SN7 tubes) so I simply hope it sounds good. Balanced, 3 modes, interesting volume control…we shall see. I’ve had a Schiit Loki long enough now to be sold on the Schiit quality control, and I think price can often be irrelevant to the sound of things as proved when I scored a lightly used Dennis Had "Fire Bottle" amp for 1200 bucks…the Aric stuff does seem pretty cool and handmade (my Had amp is utterly hand done and I open it up just to look at it sometimes) so please get one and report back!

mark, in case you ultimately decide you want to go with a popular name brand, there's a Conrad Johnson Classic SE for sale now for $1,150. I have not heard this particular model but it gets good reviews and should have that famous CJ midrange glow.

Have had a Freya for almost a year now. It is well worth the money especially in regards to functionality, flexibility and good sound quality (low distortion to my ears). I personally also like the form factor. It does have a few quirks. Freya replaced a very nice tube rectified 6H30 Opera Consonance Reference 50 preamp. I thought the sound with the Freya was more refined and relaxed; greater detail without any hint of harshness or "etch".

I use it mainly in JFET buffer mode. I suggest tempering expectations regarding its virtues as a tube pre-amp. I’ve run the stock 6SN7s, some upgraded Russian 6SN7s from Upscale, new production EH as well as NOS (early 50s) RCAs. To me, the sound with any of these tubes did not change all that much. I don’t find it to have any sort of classic tube euphony - at least with my gear and to my ears (though I do associate that quality more with choice of power tube). There’s a major increase in gain (14 db) with tubes to be sure; this can be advantageous but, as well, this level of gain will highlight noisy tubes, esp. in the gain stage.  There’s a lot of discussion about Freya and tubes over on HeadFi.org. I’m in the minority there w/respect to my view on the tube sound from Freya.

Do not take this the wrong way. I am NOT ripping the Freya. I really like it. Sold off my tube pre-amp. My purchase of Freya was largely driven by wanting something passive and with balanced input/output options. You may have a completely different experience w/respect to running it in tube mode. I’m sure I’ve barely scratched the surface of NOS 6SN7 options not to mention the various 6SN7 variants that will work in Freya.

Good luck to the OP finding something excellent for their system.