Schiit Freya + Class A in Stereophile

I don't think some of the posters on this thread understand what stereophile class A really means.

@invalid You seem to imply the class A defined by Stereophile does not mean the highest quality.  If so, please advise what does it really mean.  I am all ears.

@output555 When you say passive tube stage do you mean a stage without gain? Those are called buffers and are really helpful if you need to drive long interconnects. The "solid state" function of the Freya+ is in fact a buffer and adds no gain. The "passive" mode does not have the buffer stage. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I don't really consider it a real passive stage since there is still active circuitry involved. Maybe I'm a purist but I want my passive stages to be nothing but passive components like resisters or transformers. 

If you search for tube buffers you will find a variety of products out there but you're right, the Frey+ is not one of them. 

https://forum.audiogon.com/users/lanx0003 stereophile  they take price in consideration as well as sound quality looks and build quality, so a $1,000 amp might be rated class A it doesn't mean it's as good as a 50,000 amp in sound and build quality. Motor trend once had the Vega as car of the year, does that mean it was just as good as a Corvette.

isaacc7: A tube preamp without duplicative/reduntant gain, which it seems the Freya+ isn't. I have no interest in the SS state.