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Calling all Schiit Freya owners: question about amplifier pairing and heat problems.

Hi everyone,

After significant deliberation earlier this month, I decided to purchase a Schiit Freya/Gumby stack to handle preamp and DAC duty. Right away I replaced the stock tubes with a matched quad of Tung Sols. which was a clear improvement. For amplification, I'm currently running a recapped Adcom GFA555 but will be looking to replace this in the coming months. What have you successfully paired with your Freyas? My speakers are fairly easy to drive (88 db efficient, 6 ohm) so any high quality solid state amp will do the job. I have been looking into the Odyssey Stratos as a possibility and would like to keep the price under $2000. Also balanced inputs are a must.

My second question has to do with the heat output from the Freya/Gumby stack. These two components produce an alarming amount of heat. Maybe I'm just not used to how tubes operate yet, but the source of the heat seems to be emanating from the power supplies at the back-left of the unit. After several hours of operation, the Freya is actually too hot to touch. I separated the units with 1" thick sorbothane spacers and this helped a bit, but it is still extremely hot. Does anyone else experience this? Should I be alarmed?

Thanks for the answers, cheers!
primarist
mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
4,992 posts
 
I’m from the old school that says you should never stack gear. It creates more heat and also can lead to more noise in the system.

I would maybe give Jason or Mike a call or email and see if this normal. IMHO, he will probably tell you the same thing...
aberyclark
1,355 posts
 
Since the Freya is basically a passive preamp and I believe the active stage is low gain, you may want to take a look at this. Before buying something much more expensive. Check out the reviews of the Job225 since this is basically a smaller watt version. Designed by same outfit (Goldmund). MSRP was $1299 and now on closeout $499. I love mine. 

http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=NUSTA200


ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,312 posts
 
Primarist - I’ve had a Freya for the better part of a year now (and a Gungnir for longer than that). Have been very happy with both pieces. The Gungnir since the MB upgrade is spectacular.

First, on the heat: Compared to other tube gear I’ve had, the Freya with various 6SN7s does not get exceptionally warm. In fact, while I prefer JFET mode, when I do have tubes installed I’ve been a little surprised how relatively "cool" it operates. The 6SN7s don’t seem to throw heat like some other small tubes I’ve had in other gear. This is NOT to say the Freya surface right near the tubes doesn’t get hot BUT if you mean the whole chassis or areas well away from the actual tubes are "too hot to touch" - that definitely has NOT been my experience. I haven’t run Tungsols - maybe they operate differently? (seems unlikely), but have run new production EH, some NOS RCAs and NOS Russians (as well as the as-supplied Russian 6SN7s).

There’s a pretty active Freya thread over on HeadFi.org. See what the consensus is over there. I think Jason might actually participate from time to time. AND like mofimadness suggested, contact Schiit tech support (email is best). Like MoFi, as a general rule I avoid stacking powered-up gear. Heat kills. The Freya is on the top shelf of my equipment "console" with plenty of space all around. The Gungnir is on a lower but still open shelf. The Gungnir gets warm to the touch...a little warmer since the MB upgrade. But that’s all. Never hot.

I’m really happy with the Freya and consider it a step up from the 6H30/EZ80 tube preamp I used previously. I’ve used (am using) the Freya with a Merrill Audio Taranis Class D power amp as well as Hegel H200 operated as power amp in HT bypass mode.

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