Maybe tube preamp

mark, in case you ultimately decide you want to go with a popular name brand, there's a Conrad Johnson Classic SE for sale now for $1,150. I have not heard this particular model but it gets good reviews and should have that famous CJ midrange glow.

Have had a Freya for almost a year now. It is well worth the money especially in regards to functionality, flexibility and good sound quality (low distortion to my ears). I personally also like the form factor. It does have a few quirks. Freya replaced a very nice tube rectified 6H30 Opera Consonance Reference 50 preamp. I thought the sound with the Freya was more refined and relaxed; greater detail without any hint of harshness or "etch".

I use it mainly in JFET buffer mode. I suggest tempering expectations regarding its virtues as a tube pre-amp. I’ve run the stock 6SN7s, some upgraded Russian 6SN7s from Upscale, new production EH as well as NOS (early 50s) RCAs. To me, the sound with any of these tubes did not change all that much. I don’t find it to have any sort of classic tube euphony - at least with my gear and to my ears (though I do associate that quality more with choice of power tube). There’s a major increase in gain (14 db) with tubes to be sure; this can be advantageous but, as well, this level of gain will highlight noisy tubes, esp. in the gain stage.  There’s a lot of discussion about Freya and tubes over on HeadFi.org. I’m in the minority there w/respect to my view on the tube sound from Freya.

Do not take this the wrong way. I am NOT ripping the Freya. I really like it. Sold off my tube pre-amp. My purchase of Freya was largely driven by wanting something passive and with balanced input/output options. You may have a completely different experience w/respect to running it in tube mode. I’m sure I’ve barely scratched the surface of NOS 6SN7 options not to mention the various 6SN7 variants that will work in Freya.

Good luck to the OP finding something excellent for their system.

+2 on the Freya but,when I was looking I got a fair quote and quick response from Mapletree Audio.see below.HT in the model code was for the 'Home Theater Bypss'

""Thank you for your inquiry. The Line 2CHT is $820 USD and shipping to you would be $40.00. This includes the PS 2C power supply, tubes, line cord, and power interconnect cable. The Line 2CHT will have 3 line inputs, with Input 3 being your HT channels. The selector switch position next to Input 3 is labelled HT and it bypasses the Input 3 signal directly to the output jacks, of which there are two pair. You can power off the PS 2C when in HT mode. There is not a "REC" output on the HT model.

 Regards,

 Lloyd""

 

 

 

Lloyd Peppard

Mapletree Audio Design

Thanks, Kali.  I had seen that unit.

Wolf:  Since you have experience with 6SN7 tubes, you may be able to provide some insight into something I am curious about:  How would you describe the difference in sound between 6SN7 tubes and the more popular 12AX7's ?

Ghost & Axe.  Thanks much for your valuable insights.  I am leaning toward Aric, but may take another look at Mapletree.