Schiit Saga vs Freya

[Speed Racer]

Don't necessarily recommend? Apparently Jason Stoddard doesn't know what he is doing......

[Speed Racer]

14 minutes ago, zackthedog said:

 

Interesting.  Sounds like a shielding issue, and that B-grade Sophia was especially sensitive to it.  I have found that when a pot increases hum when turned *down* there's an RF issue involving the combination of the pot and the tube's grid.  Pots can introduce stray capacitances into the circuit.  Moving it closer to a speaker would create some magnetic field noise as well.  The autoformers may avoid that, which is why they are quieter.  But I could be wrong.  I'd be interested to know if you find a better answer.

 

Saga and Freya have no potentiometers.

[Speed Racer]

3 minutes ago, zackthedog said:

 

...though I also see that the screen shot of the board on their web site clearly shows a either a potentiometer or stepped switch.

 

It's a relay-switched stepped attenuator with discrete thin-film resistors.

[Speed Racer]

The Saga manual says nothing about lifting the ground. It says this:

 

I hear hum, what do I do?

You may have a ground loop. To x a ground loop, try a ground loop isolator or an EbTech HumX. 

[Speed Racer]

No, you are beyond help. 

 

The MJ2 is a mediocre preamp. Saga and a Freya are much better with Saga being better than a Freya. Unless, of course, you want or require fully balanced input or output. Then Freya is your only choice. 

[Speed Racer]

22 minutes ago, GUTB said:

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

 

What "bad stereo separation"?

 

Freya is fully balanced and has the same crosstalk numbers as the Mjolnir 2.