Thank you! Well, I am still giving the Freya go. I have a buddy that has supplied me with a bunch of different tubes. There are some that are definitely making it more smooth. That's interesting about the interconnects. I am running ZU missions to my Freya and ZU mission balanced XLR's to my J2. I hear you that yours sound mellow but mine just seems very forward and fatiguing so far. I only have about 10 hours on it so I am hoping it will break in more so we shall see.
Preamp help for First Watt J2/ZU Omens combo
Hi, I'm an all analog guy. Just a turntable with a phono pre. I bought a First Watt J2 a couple of months ago and can't seem to find the right preamp. My speakers are high efficiency ZU Audio Omen Mk2's. I tried a luminous audio axiom passive and while the midrange would blow you away not much else was there. I also tried a Schiit Freya which comes with a passive and tube side....passive side real weak and the tube side is like drinking from a fire hydrant. It's detailed but really in your face and forward. Very fatiguing. The people with Pass/First Watt all say a PASS preamp will do the trick like an older X-1 or the like but those are expensive still and kinda out of my budget right now. Plus, buying used there is not much of a return policy if it doesn't work out. Trying to keep it $1000 or less. But, it needs to sound right too so If I need to jump up I could. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Good luck tk. Hope you find a good combination of tubes and wire for that Freya. There is a LOT of Freya discussion on HeadFi if you are interested. 81 pages ! (but they’re short ;-) https://www.head-fi.org/threads/schiit-freya-impressions-and-tube-rolling-thread.832177/page-81 re my "mellow" comment...it’s definitely the combination gear, tubes & wire that gets it there. My sense coming from a 6H30/EZ80 tube preamp is that Freya is pretty neutral. I wouldn’t call it "mellow" as in slower with rolled off highs. Hopefully it will open up and SQ will improve as well with further playing time; 10 hours is still pretty new. +1 re jond suggesting trying SE vs XLR. I had an AQ Columbia XLR from DAC to Freya. Nice clarity but often too bright and/or lean with my gear. Tried a Cardas Parsec RCA from Freya to amp. I thought I heard a clear difference. Sounded better with RCAs which surprised me as I expected XLR would always be better. Much more relaxed sound. Not as bright. Of course had to adjust volume a bit. Could have simply been a preference on my part for Cardas vs AQ sound there but whatever the reason, another variable to experiment with. |
Except for late night low volume listening, I also noticed the Freya doesn’t have the oomph in passive and FET modes to get the attention of my SEP 12 watt per side amp, but the tube stage has plenty of gain. My previous preamp has a 12 db boost/cut I clearly used on the "boost" setting so the Freya was initially worrisome...I only use the tube mode anyway so now I don’t care. I replaced the stock tubes with new Tung Sol 6SN7GTBs that sound fine (and I had an unused pair already) and it’s not fatiguing at all…it actually got better sounding as the Freya, the tubes, and a new pair of speakers possibly broke in somewhat. I might collect a little pile of NOS 6SN7s (I have couple of Amperex tubes I like a lot that I use in my power amp) eventually to experiment with, but the Tung Sols are staying for now. Headfi does have a pile of info which taken as a whole is a bit much. |
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