I’ve owned a LOT of preamps and I consider the Freya to be a neutral, very well designed and way underrated giant killer with performance and features absent from really any other preamps at any price, although I haven’t heard every other preamp including those from Don Sachs, Don Juan, or Don Ho (Although I did sell a Fender Twin Reverb amp with JBLs and an Anvil case to Don Ho in maybe 1980...that’s another story). In my Freya I prefer some recently acquired NOS RCAs and NOS Sylvania "chrome domes" (although I’m not 100% sure the RCAs are better than the Sylvanias, but they’re in the somewhat less critical "output" stage). With these it certainly "competes," and if you don’t tube roll how the hell are you going to know which tube works best with your rig? Note that regarding cost, my Dennis Had "Inspire" Firebottle HO (it’s a HO...says so right on the front) was 4 months old when I bought it for about 1100 bucks, and the Freya new was 700...with $11,438 spent on 6SN7GTBs used in both. So I now have all of this for around $13,238. Take that Don Sachs! (is that like Don Juan? I hope it is if only for my sake). I’m running out of storage space for the tube collection, and may have to wire them up in a string as holiday ornaments.