Overview
The Freya+ balanced tube preamp from Schitt Audio is a stunning piece of audio gear. As their “most” expensive (but a bargain in our opinion) preamp offering, it has lots of bells and whistles to make any level of audiophile very happy. It has five inputs – two balanced and three single ended with three pairs of outputs (XLR and RCAs) and runs on four 6SN7 tubes. The feature we found really interesting is its ability to offer three types of output. You can select passive, differential buffered and differential tube buffered (w/ 12dB Gain). Needless to say, our choice was the differential tube buffered output. You should experiment with your system but in ours, the tube output stage was pure bliss. Loads of details with lifelike imaging and a nice full bodied sound. This preamp will pose a serious challenge to any preamps out there costing up to $5,000. The factory supplied JJ 6SN7 tubes were never used as the previous owner went ahead and purchase two NOS Zalytron and two NOS Sylvania tubes instead (cost $660). The NOS sounded much better than the JJ tubes (we used our stock JJ tubes to compare). Both sets of tubes (8 tubes in total) are included in the sale. He also added four vibration reduction tube socket bases ($160 for 4) that not only helps eliminate micro resonance effects on the tubes but also helps raise the tubes a bit to make it more accessible for easier tube rolling.
Cosmetically, this unit is in great shape. Tubes have barely 50 hours on them with the factory supplied JJ tubes unused in their box. Original remote, manual and box are included and will be securely packed for safe shipping.
