What a pile of Schiit

I did some musical chairs with my gear today since I wanted to reunite my Benchmark gear in the Livingroom system. What that meant was that the Schit Freya+, that I bought on a whim, made an entrance in my office system. It replaced the Topping pre90.

The Freya+ | KRELL Duo 175XD | Thiel CS3.7. Sounded surprisingly good. I am going to listen to this combo regularly. A simple matter of changing 1 XLR to the amp. I normally use the CODA 07x preamp.

The Freya+ | CODA #8 | RAAL SR1a. Rather good. Not reference class as with my CODA 07x preamp but the tubes make for a fun listen with the bright SR1a.

This combo was not in the office, but I tried the Freya+ | Benchmark AHB2 | RAAL SR1a. This was an amazing combo and the reason I never returned the Freya+ to Schitt during the trial period. 

I am glad I got the Freya+. It will add for some fun listens.

Lotta schiit talkin in this thread… I’ve had the Schiit modi multibit DAC for about a year now and have been very pleased with it. I also use the SYS to switch between analog and digital sources. But, since most of the other components in my system have been upgraded, it’s likely that the DAC will be replaced next. Whether I stick with Schiit or go another route is undetermined but my experience with them at least doesn’t rule out trying one of their higher end DACs. 

@corelli 

I had the same problem with Schiit that you did. Same runaround too. That's Okay. I showed them.

 I bought the Jotunheim instead.  It makes a great quick and dirty preamp that is very versatile. You get a preamp that has a phono input, an RCA input and an XLR input. It also has RCA and XLR outputs. This is the only headphone/preamp they make with three inputs. All others have two.

I called it the poor man's Freya.  Little did I know at the time that it shares the same topology as the Freya S. Their phono card measures better than the Mani. I think that it is because of its simplicity. 

I am using the Jotunheim in my main system along with a Gungnir Multibit and a SOTA Sapphire turntable. I like the Jotunheim so much I bought a second one to use in a system for my daughter.

The first stuff I bought from Schiit in 2018 was a Saga and a Modi 3 for my living room. I also have a Vali2/Modi Multibit in the bedroom for my headphones. 

I have been very happy with everything that I have gotten from Schiit. I am more of a tube guy, but sometimes you gotta go with what you can afford.  

@brockwired   Finally--someone who has actually heard the piece!  So can you elaborate a bit on the sound quality of the phono card.  I agree, the layout looks cleaner than the mani and thought it might have an advantage in my case for reasons noted.  Also have you ever used this as a headphone amp?

I too have had good luck with Schiit products. I'm currently using their Gungnir MB in my main system.