Some new Schiit coming soon... hopefully!

[JonMarsh]

This is not on the bench yet- after the holidays we'll get to some of that... this is more reporting a curious saga of product development from my perspective, along a few bits about my experience with two versions, and a new version that I believe may merit some serious attention at it's price point, based on my experience with the earlier ones.

Now, if that isn't obscure enough, let me simplify things and point out that I'm referring to the "evolution" of the Freya Preamp, which has been available in at least four versions - including a new preamp with a different name, "Kara", but clearly not just a bastard offspring, but with a full development heritage.

To be continued...

[theSven]

Are you inferring this Schiit?

https://www.schiit.com/products/freya-n

If using this with digital music would you put this after the DAC and this would then connect to the amp?

[JonMarsh]

Nope, I'm going all new fangled modern, with what is essentially an updated version of the Freya S, with much higher voltage power supplies for the Nexus gain stages, and lower distortion and noise at typical output levels like 4V RMS.

BUT, I think they realized all these different versions of the Freya were getting a bit out of line, and so this one is called "Kara"- her little sister?

I dunno, too confusing for an aging curmudgeon like me, I suppose.

But it should make the online searches more straight forward...

[JonMarsh]

Are you inferring this Schiit?

https://www.schiit.com/products/freya-n

If using this with digital music would you put this after the DAC and this would then connect to the amp?

This would serve as a master source switching function after DAC(s) or tuner or streamer or phono preamp, and then connect to the amplifier(s)

[JonMarsh]

I'm going to borrow a couple of graphs from Audio Science Review, since he has the same Audio Precision Analyzer that I have, an APx555, and he has had a Kara to test, which I do not have yet.

The Kara is basically an improved version of the Schiit Freya S, which I use in my Fuzzmeasure based speaker test cart. It uses an updated version of the Nexus current feedback amplification system which is used for single ended to balanced conversion as well as amplification, and has two gain modes, a low gain (consider that "normal") and a high gain basically for legacy gear with low output voltage (you know who you are, refugees from before the year 2000, basically). The update part includes using rather high power supply rails (scary high if you're a typical opamp, as in way beyond what they can handle).

Also, the Kara has a headphone jack, which in a sense sort of positions it in the same territory as the Benchmark HPA4, which I also have, and is used in the cart for the dedicated Pocket Clio test system. (Hmm, am I detecting a pattern here?). Plugging in the headphones mutes the line outputs.

So, while I think the Freya S that I have is pretty respectable, Schiit sort of trash talks it in their pitch for the Kara. (they also don't sell it anymore)

• Much higher performance. Kara Kills Freya S from all outputs, in all modes.
• Much higher rails: Freya S was +/- 17V, Kara is +/- 32 V, which increases the range of high linearity with respect to output voltage.
• Now with headphone jack. Kara uses the same amplification stage as the single ended outputs of the preamp.
• 2x bigger power supply: 48VA transformer in Kara, 24VA on Freya S. Gotta power those headphones somehow...
• Better controls: More rational front panel layout on Kara.

A couple of key graphs- first, a very simple 4V RMS in, 4V RMS out, low gain mode, volume control adjusted for zero gain, 1kHz test signal. Pure vanilla.




A lot of folks, including my wife, don't know how to read this- what it's showing is that relative to the input at 1kHz, HD2 at 2kHz is at -120 dB, and HD3 at 3kHz is at about -132 dB. For the old school amongst you, that are more comfortable with % specs than dB specs, that means the total distortion plus noise is at about 0.0002%. Yes, the APx555 analyzer is a very capable instrument. And not cheap, either! OTOH, the Kara is quite capable, and as very high performance preamps go, is pretty dang cheap!

One more borrowed graph- IMD swept as a function of level is plotted, including the APx555 residual, the afore mentioned Benchmark HPA4 preamp (one of the absolute best measuring preamps JA at Stereophile has ever tested; IIRC, a Halcro and a new Weiss are the only other ones in the same ballpark), and the Schiit Kara. This gives you a combined view at both distortion at low and high levels, with the impact of noise at lower signal levels. You'd be amazed at how poorly many preamps do below 200mV output level. Or, maybe, like me, a curmudgeon with decades of testing experience, you won't be surprised at all, but just pleased at how well these three do.

Pay attention: this is a level swept IMD test, not the common level swept single tone test, so distortion is higher than what you see for single tone tests like the spectrum analysis above.




Here's where I put in a few reminders to conclude...

• I am not an "influencer", in the modern social media sense (a pretty face paid for schilling goods) (not remotely pretty, just look at the Avatar!)
• I am not receiving any compensation for this post, other than personal satisfaction at discussing an interesting product development that seems to raise the value proposition even further at Schiit.
• I don't take this Schiit at face value, but plan to acquire one after digging out from under the year end expenses and new year expenses (like property taxes, for example)(no Christmas bonus anymore, since I'm retired!) and post a bunch of test Schiit as well as any relevant (or irreverent!) subjective impressions.

So, to all a Merry Christmas, and to all a good night! (oops, not really appropriate, it's only 8AM! I'm a morning person, you see, one of those with the Neanderthal genes... )


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/s...ng-people.html