Van Alstine Trans 10RB vs. Freya Schiit. Which do you prefer and why??

Update on compare.
Transcendence has headphone out. If you need this Freya is NOT your product, you should look at another Schiit product like Mjolnir 2 or Jotunheim for $ 399.
http://schiit.com/products/mjolnir-2
http://schiit.com/products/jotunheim
Or is you only need SE input and output see Saga for $ 349
http://schiit.com/products/saga

Freya has 5 inputs,2 balanced, 3 SE, Transcendence only has 4 SE
Freya has 1 balanced and 2 SE outputs, Transcendence only 2 SE outputs

Have had a Freya for about a week now. Never heard a Van Alstine Trans 10RB. Bought the Freya mainly to have a balanced, solid state pre. Didn’t really want tube output but at least it didn’t have a DAC or phono pre. I wanted those less. Initially one of the tubes was microphonic. Schiit provided a replacement set but in the interim I listened to it in passive mode: Gungnir DAC>>Cabledyne Copper Ref. XLR>>Freya>>AQ Columbia XLR>>Taranis amp>>Totem Forests. Things sounded excellent. WAY better than I expected from passive. None of the thin, bleached-out sound sometimes associated with passive. A few days later, got the replacement 6SN7 tubes installed. Immediately struck by a delicacy and refinement to the sound compared to the 6H30 tubed preamp I’d been using. There’s more detail but no harshness. On female vocals performed at higher volume, a kind of hardness I’d sometimes hear with the other pre seems gone. I am very pleased. From new, out-of-the-box, the sound has opened up. Nice air. Have been listening only to tube mode since they arrived.

The unit is very quiet. Between tracks it’s like somebody shut off the system. Tap the unit with volume up, nothing. Ear up to speaker with volume up and nothing playing, dead silent. Very pleased. Seems like a very good value for just $700 bucks. Schiit does have a 15 day return policy (less 5% restocking fee). I do not hesitate to recommend auditioning Freya.

Like wout, I got a couple other pieces of Schiit (Asgard 2 as well as the stock Gungnir).  Guess you could say I'm a fan of Schiit.

Glad the comments were helpful, 'dog  Good luck with your purchase.  Hope whatever you choose gives you a lot of listening enjoyment.