Schiit Freya + Class A in Stereophile

@bsme85 , 1000% true.

I love the Freya+, best $1k spent. That matches so well with my Yamaha MX-1, I'm blown away by its warm sound with so much details in mids and vocal.  I think its sounds better than my AS3200. 

Some here are getting it all wrong.

Reference to Stereophile April 2022:  "Class ratings are based on performance...[including performance on the test bench]."

Nowhere is it suggested price or value for money have any relevance.

This irrelevance of price in determining Class is why the $$$ symbol is employed to highlight products that strongly outperform at their price point.

That's all.

So, to move to OP's point.  Products in Class A obviously do not all have exactly the same level of sound quality.  There is a range.  Some just scrape in.  Others are state of the art.  So you do not just buy the cheapest one and expect the performance to be as good as the most expensive.

Stereophile publishes two pages of explanation of the ratings.  It does pay to read them.

I cannot write about Stereophile without including high praise for John Atkinson, possibly the best hi-fi journalist of the last 50 years (about the time he has been working).  He holds very balanced, sensible, well thought out views on all the controversies and is thus to be trusted.  He is a listener and a techie.  Indeed, and a musician.  And a recordist.  I have been reading him since he started in the 1970s in UK's Hi-Fi News and Record Review.

I think they should divide it into three categories. Budget, Mid-Priced and High End. You can then categorize the Freya+ as Class A Budget.

I had one of these that I took on trade.  They must score these things and divide by price to put it in a tier.  It is the only possible explanation. 

The Freya+ was a step down from the onboard preamp in the Chord Hugo2 (not TT2, the headphone amp).  I cannot see how it is a Class A component without the context of price.  Literally, my wife asked what was wrong with my system with the Schiit in it. 

When I went direct from the DAC it returned to a more normal sound.  Admittedly, she is used to much more expensive preamps from Ayre, PS Audio, AVM and Art Audio but I guess that is the literal point here.  

+1  @verdantaudio   Many of us know it's the only way to market budget gear. There is such fear(to some)in HEA about being overcharged due to DIY/snake oil proponents, dealer profits, law of diminishing returns ect.  Stereophile is capitalizing on this fear awarding questionable components class A status. Basically telling you your only paying for build quality/cosmetics and status if you purchase a true hi end product. This is what the mid-fi buyer believes thus verifying his purchase with "so-called" experts opinions.