Schiit Freya Plus Bass Shyness
\For those interested I'll list my audio gear at the end.*
Not too long ago I felt like getting some tubes in my life again. Product of choice, the Schiit Freya Plus. Once I had it all hooked up and set to tube mode, obviously, the first thing that caught my attention was a reduction in low end. I willfully ignored this and gave myself some time to acclimate to the new sound. After some brain burn in, I did enjoy the character tubes brought to the table. But I could never get used to the loss in low end. I tried tube rolling, but none of what I tried brought the bass up to satisfactory levels.
Today I decided to take the time and actually get an in-room measurement of the Freya Plus in all its modes next to my other solid state pre-amp. Here is what I did. I placed a Unik-1 mic in the listening position and shot my responses with only the right channel playing normalized volume at 80dB. No EQ, no room correction applied. All graphs have 1/3 smoothing applied. Orange is my old solid state amp.
Blue is the Freya Plus in passive mode.
Green is the Feya Plus in Solid State mode.
Red is the Freya Plus in Tube mode with GE NOS tubes (other tubes measure near identical).
Take note that the Freya Plus in any of its active modes has about 4dB less output at 40Hz compared to my other preamp. Interestingly, the Freya does not have this bass reduction in the passive mode. This suggests to me that the Freya Plus does not have a linear response in my system in its active modes. I will spend a bit more time doing some investigation. I do want to try a different power amp with a different input impedance. Once I do that I’ll report my findings. I am also planning on reaching out to Schiit and get their take on it.
I am not suggesting the Schiit Freya is bad by any stretch. There is a whole lot more to sound quality than pure bass extension, and there is plenty that the Feya Plus does well. I am simply curious to hear what others with the Freya think and if they have had similar experiences.
\My gear:*
Schiit Freye Plus
MinidDSP streamer.
Audio-GD R1 DAC
Audio-GD NFB-1A Preamp and Headphone amplifier
Audio-GD A1 Power Amp
Buckey Purifi Stereo Amp (Not used for these measurements)
Tekton Double Impact (with crossover upgrade) speakers.
HSU Research Sub (Not used for these measurements)