Product Previews

Schiit Audio Freya + Preamplifier and Vidar Amplifier Preview

What if I said you could buy a Class A-B amplifier that will give you 100W into 8 ohms, and a preamplifier with balanced inputs and outputs that lets you run with and without tubes and includes a remote control, both for $1598? Well, Schiit Audio says you can.

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Their new “intelligent” Class A-B stereo/mono power amplifier, the Vidar, sells for $699. And their new passive or active, solid-state or tube, balanced and remoted-controlled (is that enough features for you?) preamplifier, the Freya+, sells for $899.

That is an impressive number of features and possibilities for a surprisingly low price of $1598. It’s also quite a big pile of promises. Does Schiit deliver on these promises with these two new components? I intend to find out. I’ll run them both in as many different configurations I can, with different types of speakers and sources, and compare them to several different amplifiers and preamplifiers, many of which far exceed their selling price.

Do you think these new Schiit Audio components can make good on these promises? Stand by for a full review of them both!

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Gene Hopstetter

Gene Hopstetter has been collecting records since 1981, when he walked into a record store and spent all of his allowance money on every AC/DC album he could find. In the mid-1980s he worked as a stock-boy in a neighborhood hi-fi emporium, which is when his obsession with sound quality began. He has always had a record player and vinyl in his life. Gene was born and raised in New Orleans, where music and food were invented. In the 1980s and 1990s he was active with two university radio stations, KLSU in Baton Rouge, and WTUL in New Orleans, where he got involved with local music promotion and album production. He earned degrees in Creative Writing and Journalism from LSU, which he somehow manages to use in his current career as an IT professional. When he is not listening to music, reviewing components, or updating his collection on Discogs, Gene enjoys restoring vintage Garrard turntables and cleaning LPs with his ultrasonic cleaner. His most prized vintage hi-fi components are a pair of McIntosh MC30 tube amps, a Garrard 301 cream grease bearing turntable with two tonearms, and a Thorens TD124 turntable. Gene is also interested in contemporary developments in hi-fi, such as Raspberry Pi DACs and streamers, amplifiers with Gallium Nitride transistors, and phono preamplifiers with digital output.