Tube pre for class d recommendations


Would anyone care to share their experience running a tube preamp in front of some Class d amps?
owentdc
A Freya pre-amp used ahead of a Merrill Audio Taranis Class D power amp sounds great to me.  The Freya (4-6SN7s) replaced an Opera Reference 50 (dual-6H30/EZ80-rectified) pre-amp. Both pre-amps worked just fine but the sound with the Freya is more refined...detailed but relaxed at the same time.  

The Freya is very flexible offering singled ended and balanced inputs and outputs as well as pure passive, JFET buffered, and tube gain output modes.  It's very transparent and readily shows differences in tubes and interconnects.  It is also being used with a First Watt F7 amp and a Hegel H200 integrated when used as power amp.  

What sorts of things related to use with Class D are you wondering about?
@atmasphere,
Hi Ralph.  I had the UV-1 on loan after it first came out from Alternative Audio in Dundas, Ontario.  It fed the power amp of my W4S STI-1000.  We couldn’t track down the buzz and I took it back. Too bad, it did give a slight tube sound that I was looking for.

@ghosthouse,
The Freya looks interesting.  Thanks!
The past 7 years have been very satisfying with the MacBook Pro >>JRiver >>Stello>>Moon 300D>>Harbeth SHL5.  I’ve just got an itch again about mating a tube pre with the Class d.
@owentdc

Hi Ralph. I had the UV-1 on loan after it first came out from Alternative Audio in Dundas, Ontario. It fed the power amp of my W4S STI-1000. We couldn’t track down the buzz and I took it back. Too bad, it did give a slight tube sound that I was looking for.

We’ve found that the UV-1 can be sensitive to power cords. We had a customer recently that ran into this. While all the data isn’t in, he found that by simply moving the cord around, the preamp got quiet.




Interesting Ralph.
I have 2 foundation research LC2...one grounded and the other lifted ...done by Ed....that I used. Meaning, I was really giving it the old college try to make it work.