Hornshoppe "the Truth" preamp - any opinions?

The Saga is simply too inexpensive to be considered a true audiophile product, as are many items sold by Schiit. I have a Freya that's also cursed by its low cost, and I think sounds better than other preamps I've compared it to including those that I own, and when schlepping it to a friends house for a little "shoot-out" we both noted it sounded surprisingly every bit as good as his reference series ARC preamp...not the most scientific comparison, but there ya go. Too inexpensive...I'll buy a Saga when putting together a second system in my vacation house (later this year, still shopping for the house) ...no problemo...or maybe another Freya...

@exdmd I actually ended up returning my truth preamp. After a few weeks of trying different inputs and I went back to my source driving the amps directly and ended up liking it better. In the end, I decided the money was better spent elsewhere. Ed was a great person to work with though. 

Haven't tried any other preamps, although I do look around periodically. I should reach out to the Denver audio community and see if anyone wants to do some gear auditioning so I can see if one would actually improve my system enough to be worth it...

I own The Truth and it is just fantastic. I does take a full week of playing 24/7 to break in and sound its best.  At first it was a tad closed in, overly warm and a little dull sounding. After some 150 hours of play time this unit has just amazed me.  So utterly balanced top to bottom with absolutely no glare or vestige of noise. 

My unit does not have a selector as I only use one input. I cannot stress enough or even overstate how revelatory this piece is. 

I have owned many top end active preamps costing up to $9000 new. I have built some great tube preamps and upgraded/modified quite a few good ones over the years. I have also owned the Placette, Lightspeed and Tortuga passives. These passives showed promise, but always left me wanting as they lacked body or meat on the bones weight. The Truth has all of it and is certainly the best Preamp have heard to date. 

Just be patient with break-in and enjoy.   Ed offers a trial period and the unit costs less than most high end cables :) 

grannyring - Do you plan on making any modifications? I'm pleased as punch with the stock T3 unit, but would be interested in learning about any further sonic improvements that could be made.

Well @thaluza that is a great question. It sure does not need any upgrades to please me, but every piece of gear I own has my signature somewhere in it.  Ha! 

Not much to do as the design is simple and so unique.  I plan to wire the input and output with Neotech silver/gold wire as I love the sound of it.  I will also upgrade the RCA jacks and IEC to Furutech. 

I will wire up the power supply with Duelund Polycast stranded and tinned copper wire. I plan to replace the eight 470uf 35v Nichicon HV caps with the wonderful Audio Note Kaisei. 

That would be it. Will it really improve on an already great unit? I think it will a bit.  The cost is reasonable. 

No rush.  I will enjoy it as is.  I will put some nice wooden knobs on the front to make it look high end 🙂