Preamps

@wolf_garcia Of course you can blame the preamp for microphonics. Same tubes in Don Sachs preamp are silent. The tubes are Super Line grade VT231s from Andy at VTS. The chassis on Freya just picks up a lot more vibration than other preamps I've experienced.

As to noise, I'm not the only one complaining. The forums are full of Freya complains. It's unbearable into both pairs of my studio monitors. It's better into a pair of hifi speakers. 

Audio Research LS28 is a silent tube preamp. Stick your ears next to tweeters, nothing. In Freya, the tubes are a fun afterthought with $8 dollars worth of coupling caps. Like I said, amazing, transparent volume control with JFET buffer, but a tube preamp it ain't.

So many good reports out weigh the few bad to me, about noise with the Freya.
Sure for those kind of low dollars ($699) you get cheap 6SN7 or 6H8C tubes with it, and there are going to be the odd bad noisy one, but I was told by owners they send out asap replacements if you do get that.

And spending $7,500 on the Audio Research LS28 will get you, matched selected 4 x tubes, but it’s also costing >10 X the amount and some reports that it’s nowhere near worth the money when compared to the similar 4 tube Freya.

Cheers George

A Freya is simply not inherently more vibration prone than any other preamp so that ain't it, sorry. You can hit this thing with a stick and it's still quiet...Also, the stock 6H8C tubes provided for my Freya were also dead silent, just less interesting sounding than other options. Of course there are others "whining" about Freyas, as well as ARC preamps and every other brand out there as that's what people on forums do, but the Freya is a huge hit in spite of forum critics as the vast majority of owners seem happy with 'em. I suggest astelmaszek simply send his back as the warranty is likely still valid.

Some just can't accept that something for $699 can compete with $$$K preamps, just because it doesn't have the million dollar glitzy looks, doesn't mean it can't sound it, it's got what it takes under the hood.

Cheers george 

@ricred1 there’s another similar thread about preamps that you are aware of and you are also aware of my recommendations for Mola Mola which based on European prices would certainly be within your budget.