Schiit Freya+ vs. high end (e.g., Mcintosh) ?

"Still, from what folks here have said, it can take some time for tubes to burn in. Would 15 days be enough time to really know how it sounds with your stuff?"

Actually it would not be enough, especially if you want to roll tubes and see what this little preamp can really do.  It cannot be judged with the stock JJ tubes.

On the the other hand, there are very few Freya+ units on the used market and you can sell it quickly and with very little loss.  I know; I did.  

Freya+ sound decent with stock JJ tubes.

It does not sound etched before break but slightly veiled compared with Nos tubes.

You can get nice Nos 6sn7 tubes made in 1950's at 50% for pair.


I like the remote of Freya+ with click noise while some people got bothered by click noise.

Using quad 6sn7 tubes, Freya has lot of room for tube rolling.

So far I had been happy with Sylvania vt231 in gain stage and Rcs gray bottle in buffer stage.

But I will also try out other combinations.

Having burned in the stock JJs on my Freya+, I have ordered quad Tung-Sols with all options: balanced triodes, low microphonics, high gain, matched. My first rolling experiment on this pre with 6SN7s. Bass on JJs can be tubby (some listeners like this sound; on most material I want more definition) and female vocals can lack clarity.

@shkong, if I go next to a pair of NOS RCAs, should they go in buffer stage rather than gain stage? (This assumes Tung-Sol or JJ in gain stage).

Same question for @wolf_garcia; if I get only a pair of NOS GEs to begin, try them in buffer stage?

Having heard a Vidar in my system and been underwhelmed, I had the same experience with the Freya+.  Competent, and competitive at the price.  I preferred a c-j PV12L and a AI Modulus 3A. 

What is your room like?  And what's the rest of your system?

As for myself, I’ve got Revel f206s (pretty analytical and neutral) and a listening room that is moderate in size (~14x16). Listen to a lot of LPs on a Rega P3 and have the Schiit Gungnir DAC for Tidal. I currently/previously used a Dared VP-80 integrated tube amp (45 wpc) that still sounds surprisingly very good. I am sure with the right pre, the mc275 will blow it out of the water; well expecting that anyway.

I do notice, using the Gungnir direct into the mc275 (not ideal, I know, just to test), its quite a bit brighter/sharper than I like. This is probably because of the KT88s and obviously no good pre amplification.