Maybe tube preamp

The Inspire preamps aren’t remote controlled, and cost about twice as much as a Freya…I have heard of a remote version somebody talked Had into building recently so maybe in the future I’ll get one, but one thing about Inspire stuff is the utter randomness of Had’s builds and the "contact over Ebay" thing. It’s sort of like a club you join, and that’s OK. The Freya’s balanced design (my DAC has balanced outs), a hip volume control (so they say), and 3 operating modes appeal to me also, although my amp is single ended. I may change my mind and bug Had if the Freya doesn’t deliver the mojo I seem to want it to…next week it arrives so we shall see.

The Freya is also in the Harmony Universal remote Database so that is very Handy for those that use them[me].

Wolf_Garcia: I run both 6SN7s and 6SL7s -- the 6SN7s are in my mono blocks and the 6SL7s are in my preamp. This decision was made to take advantage of the fact that the 6SL7s bring a little more gain than the SNs, which I wanted. With respect to the "Red Base" -- I believe that it is, in fact, important. I have rolled a lot of both the SNs and the SLs in order to be able to say that. New production, NOS/NIB, it doesn’t matter, nothing sounds like a red base 5691 which was RCA’s Premium version of the 6SL7 or a red base 5692 same for the 6SN7. Premium because both included extra support rods between the top and bottom mica spacers making the structure more rigid, and in doing so, eliminating microphonics; and long life cathodes rated by RCA at 10,000 hours.
                                                                                                                           RCA also made both in a Black base as well and I must say I find it very difficult to tell them apart. The Black base seems to be easier to find and they command less money.

Great info there tubepower…after reading endless "headfi" posts about the Freya I'm very curious about the tubes they ship with. I've also noticed RCA "black plates" and they do seem less pricey, so based on your experience I may just get a couple of those…I'm absolutely certain that if the Freya passes the test to earn a place in my gear pile I'm going to go after lots more 6SN7s.

Thanks Wolf, just to be clear, it's "Black Base" rather than "Black Plates."