Schiit Saga vs Freya

[GUTB]

Many of us have DACs with volume control -- the "need" for a preamp to begin with is suspect. How much a sonic benefit would there be with a real line amp stage as compared to, say, a Sabre digital volume control scheme?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Computer Audiophile

[GUTB]

I’m sad and frustrated.

 

I’m currently using a Mjolnir 2 as a pre-amp. It’s fully balanced, and costs more than the Schiit dedicated preamp — so, is it better? Meanwhile I’m missing out on the JFET....but is it balanced? I can’t tell — does anyone know if it is? If it’s just some kind of summed balanced output then forget it, my speaker chain has to be balanced throughout. I can pick up a BAT used for a much higher price, but damn I’ll be mad if it doesn’t make much of a difference. Can someone help me?

[GUTB]

My Mjolnir 2 is definitely balanced, but is the Freya? The bad stereo separation seems to indicate that it's not.

[GUTB]

For a supposedly premium product, the black Shuguangs sure are failure prone. I ordered 2 sets of 6SL7 and 6SN7 for my tube amp. One of the 6SN7s had a factory defect out of the box (top frosting was missing, didn’t work). The certification card that came with them were just for cosmetics I suppose. After a multi-month shipping cycle in which I had to pay return postage to China, I got another set....one of which stopped working within one day.