Valhalla2 vs Freya+ as a preamp

@artemus_5 ouch! Let’s start again. My name is John, nice to meet you. I looked at your system and it is mighty impressive. I believe you that it sounds great.  I’m new to this hobby. I just asked if anyone had first hand experience with the products I mentioned. 

Bump

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Ahhhh My apologies. But I wasn’t all the rough on you was i? But I am kinda straight shooter which throws some.

Anyway, your system looks like you have a good start. However it threw me that you had a very inexpensive preamp in with equipment which is much better. So maybe I can introduce me also

Okay,, I’m also John. I’ve been into hifi for 60 yrs so I’ve had lots of experience both before the internet/ web and after the web. People talk about the necessity of listening to a piece. However the incident I told you about in the previous post did happen. It sounded great in their system, and I hated it in mine.

Yet I have put together the system I have now through research and without hearing it in a store. I have yet to have a bad purchase. Of course my next purchase will be bad now that I have bragged about it! LOL. The lesson learned is that just because it sounds good in the dealers system or someone else’s doesn’t tell you how it will sound in yours. So someone who hears the 2 pieces in question, in an entirely different system still tells you only so much. The only way you will get an idea is to get opinions from those who’s system is similar to yours. So this isl a part of the research. . But I will still put more trust in the differences of the actual selling prices of each unit.. Similarly priced items generally sound mostly equal. But something that costs 3x as much is going to be a very noticeable change for the better. Again, this is general knowledge. is it a hard and fast rule? NO. But those are exceptions. Last thought

I’m sure part of the cost disparity is the fact that the freya+ is far more feature rich

I agree,But usually at three times the cost you will get much more than bells and whistles.Looking more closely I see that thee Freya offers balance in and out which has a cost to it. So you may be somewhat on track. However I see other stuff under the hood that help account for the cost However I believe the Val only uses the tubes for the amp section and basically uses a inactive pass through (Passive preamp) w volume. The Freya uses 6sn7 tubes which generally make for a good sound. My own though is that is will still sound better and if you have balanced inputs or outputs it may be beneficial

@artemus_5 John, thank you for expanding on that. It makes more sense now. I’m just going to have to order it and if the difference is imperceivable - it goes back. Thank you for explaining this 

if the difference is imperceivable

It will sound different, but the question is will you like the differences. I think you will. Then again, I don’t know Schitt 😁.

Sorry I just can't resist a Schitt joke...