Schiit Freya + Class A in Stereophile

Yes I can attest to the comparison between the LS50 and Wilson speakers.  I had been running some LS50 for a few months moving them around from room to room as I was doing some remodeling.  I thought wow these rooms really sound bad, hopeless for audio.  I got a deal on some Wilson duettes and put them in the system that had the LS50 in on of the rooms and OMG what a massive difference. We need to re do the alphabet if LS50 and Wilson are both considered class A.  

I am pretty happy overall with the sound of my Freya + and when you read that it's considered to be in the same ballpark of sound at the 16K Audio Research pre then I think why bother.  

OP: this is exactly why i stopped my subscription to Stereophile many many years ago. Their rating system is absurd, or I'm just too dumm to understand it. keep on rockin'!

+1 @avanti1960 . I noticed that in the latest Recommended Components, there is very little recommended that is not in Class A or Class B. Grade inflation?

I sold my Freya+ last week because I had 2 other preamps that I liked better. However, the Freya+ was very good. I was surprised at how quiet it was.

Someone mentioned the Freya+ and Topping pre90 in a post above. I had both and they are both really good with a Benchmark AHB2.  Add a KEF LS50 and KEF KC62 sub and you can get some excellent sound for not too high a price.

You need to understand what class A means. It means for the money. I have compared Class A equipment from Stereophile and The Absolute Sound for decades. A class A component that cost $200 is class A against other $200 components… not against $20,000 Class A components. I have confirmed this many times.