Schiit Freya plus. Is this an upgrade?

Interesting, and I'd buy one if my "original version" seemed noisy or lacking in some way, but it's interesting that Schiit seems to be listening to their critics. Another note, I've found the Tung Sols to be consistent but somewhat duller sounding than the NOS RCAs and Sylvanias that I prefer to use in mine. Neither of these tubes are particularly expensive and actually can cost about the same as the new Tung Sols.

This should be a considerable upgrade. Maybe transformational for Schiit. Any time you lower the noise floor in any product by 20db over the outgoing model, that's significant. The ability to shut down the tubes when not in use is a big deal to many and the stepped volume knob I guess is nice. With the ability to cycle the tubes on/off, one can leave the preamp on all the time, sort of like a stand by status, and then turn on as necessary. The Freya S (without the tube stage) provides a pretty nice balanced remote controlled linestage for less than $600 and is likely all the non tube camp should need without spending alot more money.

Whether the Schiit sound (or lack thereof) floats your boat or not, what they are doing to make high quality audio gear affordable is refreshing.

@ghasley - 20 dB reduction is very surprising. I haven't been able to find that information.  Like @wolf_garcia , mine is very quiet. With the gear at idle, I measure 37dB room noise from my listening seat 11 feet away. Noisy is not an adjective I would use to describe my Freya. Curious that others have found it noisy.

Tom

A preamp that seems whisper quiet in a typical system can suddenly have very noticeable noise (from seating position) when placed in a system with high-sensitivity speakers & amps. If your speakers are below 90 dB, your system probably won’t be a stress test for preamps, and you’ll be wondering about others’ complaints of noise. My speakers are 96 dB / Watt, 8 ohm, and amps output almost 300 Watts at 1V input. It is definitely a stress test for preamps. Impressively, the ARC REF 6 is whisper quiet here.

The Freya +’s noise spec of -115dB, if legit, is superb. Stereophile measured the REF 6 at -100dB, A-weighted.