Finish = Silver Tubes = 4xPremium Matched New Production Tung Sol 6SN7 + 4x Premium Matched NOS Tung-Sol 6SN7 Voltage = 115VAC Plug Type = USA Plug This Freya+ package is a step above the factory product (that retails for $1,099) you would buy new directly from Schiit. Included upgrades on this package include a .5% matched quad of V-Cap Odam coupling capacitors (a $400 upgrade) and an additional 2 platinum matched pairs of NOS Tung-Sol 6SN7 GTB tubes. This package includes 4 matched pairs of tubes in total - 2 matched pairs of new production Tung-Sol’s and 2 matched pairs of NOS Tung-Sol’s. Your purchase will ship with the factory IEC power cable, remote, and manual all packaged within the original shipping box with all original packing materials. Freya+ is a true high-end, balanced, remote-control preamp. Switch between passive, differential buffer, and differential tube gain modes, enjoy the fine control of a 128-step relay-switched stepped attenuator volume control with perfect channel matching, and control it all from the comfort of your favorite chair. Whisper-Silent Tube Stage—With Tube Shutdown Now, you can enjoy a tube preamp without the hiss and hum of classic designs. Freya+ offers super-quiet tube modes with DC heaters and semi-circlotron, noise-cancelling output stages. Better yet, the tubes turn off when you’re not using them! That’s right, both the tube heater and high voltage rails go away when not in use, so you can preserve lifetime of costly tubes. Choose Tubes...Or No Tubes Freya+ ships with your choice of no tubes (if you're planning to use your own), matched NOS 6N8S, matched new production premium 6SN7 tubes...or choose our LISST solid state tubes that are super-reliable and last virtually forever (so you always have a tube backup). Easiest 128-Step Relay-Switched Volume, Ever The benefits of a relay-switched stepped attenuator for volume are clear. Compared to a potentiometer, they give you essentially perfect channel matching and near-unmeasurable distortion. However, some preamps with relay-stepped attenuators confuse you with buttons and screens. Not Freya+. Freya+ has a volume knob that works just like a volume knob—just grab and turn. And if you use the remote control, the motorized potentiometer changes to match the remote setting. Yes, Remote Control Included When you’re talking about gear that doesn’t sit on your desktop (like our headphone amps), you need the convenience of remote control for volume, input switching, output switching, and muting. Freya+ includes a custom remote control, standard. Perfect Companion to Our DACs Want a remote-controlled system to interface your digital gear with the rest of your system? Stack Freya+ and Gungnir Multibit or Freya+ and Yggdrasil+ (or any other of our DACs) for a true no-compromise remote-controlled system. Designed and Built in California By “designed and built in California this is what we mean: the vast majority of the total production cost of either Freya—chassis, boards, transformers, assembly, etc—goes to US companies manufacturing in the US. Our chassis are made minutes from our facility. Our PCBs are done just over the hill from us, or done in NorCal. Compound Differential Buffer Gain: 1 (0dB) Frequency Response: 20Hz-20Khz, -0.2db, 3Hz-500KHz, -3dB THD: <0.004%, 20Hz-20KHz, at 1V RMS IMD: <0.0055%, CCIR SNR: >120dB, A-weighted, referenced to 2V RMS Output Impedance: 75 ohms SE, 600 ohms balanced Topology: JFET differential amplifier compound pair with equalized-gm followers Tube Gain Gain: 4 (12dB) Frequency Response: 20Hz-20Khz, -0.2db, 3Hz-200KHz, -3dB THD: <0.01%, 20Hz-20KHz, at 1V RMS IMD: <0.01%, CCIR SNR: >115dB, A-weighted, referenced to 2V RMS Output Impedance: 75 ohms SE, 600 ohms balanced Topology: differential triode input with semi-circlotron follower stage Input Impedance: 10K ohms Crosstalk: >85dB, 20-20kHz Inputs: 2 XLR pairs plus 3 RCA pairs, selectable via front switch or remote Outputs: 1 XLR pair plus 2 RCA pairs, selectable via front switch or remote Volume Control: relay-switched stepped attenuator with discrete thin-film resistors, 128 0.625dB steps Power Supply: One 48VA transformer with regulated 300V rail, plus 24VA transformer with regulated +/-18V rails, plus 6.3VDC tube heaters and regulated 5VDC for microprocessor Power Consumption: 40W typical Size: 16” x 8” x 2” + tube height (about 2.5 more) Weight: 11 lbs So what can I use a preamp for? If you have only one source, and it has a volume control, maybe you don’t need a preamp. But if you have a system with more than one source, and you want convenient remote input switching and remote volume control, a preamp is a good idea. You can also pair it with our DACs for convenient remote volume control, since our preamps don’t cost like the total debt of a small nation-state. So cheap is good? Absolutely. Because in the last 20 years or so, audio pricing has gotten really stupid. Go ahead. Look around for a remote passive preamp, and check the prices. Now add a buffer stage. And a tube gain stage. Oh, wait, there really isn’t anything like that. And then start looking at preamps that use a sophisticated, perfectly-matched relay-switched stepped attenuator instead of a volume pot, and you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that Freya is in a class by itself. That is, a class with a three-digit price tag, not a four-digit price tag (that doesn’t start with, like “5,” either.) I don’t like cheap. I distrust cheap. I like nice things. That’s cool. We like smart design and efficient construction that make great sound affordable to more people. But if you literally have $100 bills hand-stitched into toilet paper so you can wipe your butt in wretched excess, then by all means, find something that costs more. Just don’t think it’ll automatically be any better. So I can run this fully passive, no gain stage at all? Yes, no problem at all. Just don’t expect it to convert single-ended to balanced or anything like that. It is, after all, passive. But I can use the buffers to get differential output, right? Right. The differential JFET buffers will convert single-ended to balanced, which is very handy if you want to run, say, a pair of Vidars from a single-ended source. They’re also pretty cool designs, with a compound feedback pair front end and an equalized-transconductance output stage. And the differential tube gain stage—tell me about that. This one is also pretty neat, with a differential triode front end feeding a semi-circlotron output stage for lower distortion and noise cancellation. That trick, together with DC heaters, provides a much, much lower noise floor than most tube preamplifiers. So what’s the big deal about a relay-stepped attenuator? Unlike a typical potentiometer, a relay-stepped attenuator gives you perfect channel matching down to the lowest level of the volume knob. It also makes cool clicking noises when you turn the knob. In our minds, this is the best way of doing volume control. There’s only a couple of thin-film resistors in the signal path at all times, rather than a potentiometer wiper. And it doesn’t use a “volume control chip,” which we believe proper only to cheap receivers. But then again, a lot of people think we’re crazy. What if I don’t need balanced inputs and outputs? Then you need Saga+ or Saga S, Freya’s little sisters. So what’s a Freya? From Wikipedia, In Norse mythology, Freyja (/?fre??/; Old Norse for (the) Lady) is a goddess associated with love, sex, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death. We have no idea what seior is, and the war and death stuff doesn’t sound so fun, but the first five items we can go along with just fine. Disturbed? Don’t be. It’s just a name.