Schiit amps, freya preamp

I started with a Saga and Vidar and eventually changed to a Freya + and Aegir. I also ran a Bifrost MB DAC before climbing the ranks to Yggdrasil. I have had nothing but good experiences with Schiit products and service. The Freya+ is a solid and great sounding preamp which I ran for 1.5 years happily before jumping many leagues (and price points) up to a Don Sachs preamp. Yes the Sachs bests
the Freya + but it costs a whole lot more. You will likely want to experiment with different tubes in the Freya + but that’s part of the fun of tailoring the sound to your liking. And yes, Aegir is on the Stereophile A List, along with 6-figure amps. Like Rocky in the first movie - might not win the fight, but sure isn’t embarrassed either. 

I've had an original version Freya for over 3 years and it's an absolutely superb sounding well designed bargain of a preamp, never been noisy, and I've enjoyed rolling various tubes in the thing...the reports of Freya or Freya + issues have been seemingly tiny relative to the thousands of happy campers, and Schiit's return policy and warranty should be regarded as a reasonable safety net for doubters.

Wolf I thought you had stated in a previous post that you had to send one of your Schiit components back for repair. Correct me if I am wrong.

I was so impressed by the reviews of the Aegir (one in particular that raised the thing to Stereophile Class A) I bought one in late 2019...it shut off when playing at a not so loud level (I don't listen at "actual" loud levels and my speakers are a claimed 99db efficiency) and Schiit said "send it back." I did at their expense and the second one they sent had the same issue albeit not as bad as amp 1, so I sent that one back and called the whole thing off. The good news is that when I put my SEP Dennis Had Firebottle HO back in the system it sounded so much better than the Aegir I was again just fine. The Aegir shut-down issue might possibly have been due to my having 2 REL subs plugged into the Aegir, which although this has worked fine with other SS and tube amps (the RELS apply a very high 100,000 ohm load for the High Level inputs which amps generally ignore) could have been the triggering issue...still...my tube amp sounds simply right. Schiit was extremely professional in all stages of this saga, and I own 2 of their headphone amps and a Loki (plus the Freya) and they all work amazingly well.

I have an Aegir and have had zero problems with it in spite of the fact that it is lower power than recommended for my Ohm 1000 speakers. It plays as loud as I want with ample headroom and shows no sign of stress. It has never shut down on me, even when I've cranked it for "experimental purposes." I've been very pleased with the Schiit gear I've bought.