Might try a tube preamp

Arugmentum ad hominem, how intellectual and original. That the Freya beats a more expensive commercial product, considering its designer, should surprise no one. Commercial products made in large numbers, and sold through small audio boutiques necessarily cost far more than the component parts do. There is designer overhead, manufacturing overhead, distribution costs, and dealer overhead, to name a few costs. Small independent makers are therefore not only able to compete, but in fact can offer much more for much less. They can use vastly better parts, and can easily better far more expensive gear. Sachs has spent his life as one of, if not the preeminent go to person for modifications and upgrades of Citation and McIntosh tube gear. Your credentials sir, you have owned a few preamps, who hasn't? You have owned a few tubes, I have a crazy collection myself, and Sachs has heard more than us both combined. Unlike you, I used to do equipment modifications myself, though I only did tube gear for myself and one other audiophile friend as I really didn't have time to relearn tube circuits. The tube gear once used for video pickup was replaced by CCD in the 1990s. The fully tubed gear used for low light applications was also replaced by CCD, but we maintained it, we didn't do mods, so I was uncomfortable doing mods on tube gear for others. Anyway, you know more than all, you implied it, so it MUST be true. So stop with they Freya, it is a decent tube preamp for the money, with the right tubes, which you are not using. The original poster didn't ask about a great entry level preamp or else the Freya would have been my recomendation. 

BTW, this is about MY Stasis amplifier, I sent it to Jon because he buys transistors by the hundreds and matches them, and he had identified caps that would fit, with increased capacitance. Furthermore, at that time I didn't work on amps, I didn't have dummy loads, and it was flat out less expensive to have Jon provide matched transistor and such than for me to buy and match a set out of hundreds that I wouldn't later have a use for. Anyway, Jon had installed matched sets and new caps in hundreds of Stasis amps at Threshold, and after Mr. Garcia, but he told me that he had never heard one that sounded as good as mine.

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sean6,229 posts07-18-2004 1:45pmAs good as many Threshold amps are, they can all benefit from component upgrades / internal modifications.

One of my friends has a very highly modified Stasis 2. He swapped out many of the caps, diodes, etc... of the existing circuitry, increased the filter capacitance of the power supply and then had Jon Soderberg of Vintage Amp go through and align it. While this was the most heavily modified amp that Jon has ever worked on, he also said that it was probably the best sounding Threshold amp that he had ever heard. Given that Jon used to work for Threshold and has probably repaired / modified hundreds upon hundreds of Threshold based products, even after they went out of business, i think that his comments should say something about how much parts quality equates to what we hear. This is just another reason why i encourage others to upgrade / modify what they already have, if they are basically happy with it.

With that in mind, i don't think that you can go wrong with any of the mid to later series Threshold pieces, even in stock form. Some are better than others, but all of them have the potential to sound very nice. While I can't say that i've even come close to hearing or examining every amplifier or design out there, Nelson Pass is my favourite amplifier designer at this point in time. He has been for several years now. Sean"

That's okay, you know ot all Mr. Garcia, we bow to your superior knowledge and intellect, only a true genius can use personal attacks after all.

My post was primarily in jest, had no misspellings or punctuation issues, and I don't actually care much about Don Sachs although I assume he's a wonderful designer and a true mensch, and I do hope to someday be his friend so we can perhaps shower together and share vacations. Note that I refuse to practice any form of mirth control. Also, nobody cares about the most interesting part of my post which is the Don Ho reference, and that's a shame. I do think the tubes I'm using sound fabulous in the Freya, and am seemingly too old to care what anybody else thinks unless they absolutely agree with me. I will politely refrain from telling you what you can do with your Ken Rads.

Ken Rads on their own suck. They tend to be enormously microphonic, and completely lack dimensionality. What they do bring to the Freya table is tone, instruments sound real. The early 40's Raytheons add dimensionality. Chrome dome Sylvanias are bright, if you have sufficient high frequency hearing loss, they may sound okay. The really old Sylvanias are supposed to be something special, but who wants to spend 100 or more for NOS tubes that can last years, or days? All that said, if you are content with your system, that's great, until you try to pass it off as more than it is, then your going to called out.

My NOS Sylvanias are NOT bright, noted by most reviewers of these things, and I also use NOS USA Amperex tubes, and NOS RCAs...Instruments certainly sound real, which I can verify by listening to actual instruments I often use as a life long musician. I bristle at references to my hearing as I currently work with world class musicians in my capacity as a  professional live sound mixer...if this gets out I'm toast! I suggest you not threaten me as being "called out" for reporting things as I hear them, as It makes you seem somewhat desperate, cowardly, weak, and a little creepy.