Quote:
Originally Posted by Isaacc7
I originally got the Freya+ to pair with some active monitors. I found the tube section to help out with the sound. When I bought the Firebottle and then some passive speakers (Phase Technology PC 3.5), I found that the tube section just doesn't sound as good to me. With the Firebottle the tube section of the Freya+ sounds veiled and it's missing some detail. To be fair that is exactly what I would expect from putting another gain stage into the chain. You can't add clarity, only obscure it.
As crazy as I am about tube rolling, and I am certifiable, I never did much with the Freya. A big problem I have with it is that using adapters is a real pain. I have simply refused to pay the money that the best 6sn7 tubes go for these days. On the other hand, I've never met an adapter I didn't like lol. Love 7n7 and 6f8g. I have put in some run of the mill Sylvania and RCA 6sn7 into the Freya and I've tried some sylvania 6sl7w tubes in it as well.
I bought a Supratek Cabernet which is also an 6sn7 based preamp but it is a completely different beast. I have found that it does not suffer as much clarity and detail loss as the Freya+. It better outperform the Freya+, it cost me almost 4 times the price! Diminishing returns are a bitch though, my system certainly isn't 4 times better sounding! I can use either 6sn7 or 12sn7 in it and so I have bought the 12v versions of tubes instead of paying the crazy premium of 6v.
Adding a gain stage can make you go crazy though. I also had a short thread here about my difficulty getting better sound with the Supratek. I eventually figured it out but it was frustrating. Tube combos that sounded amazing in the Firebottle using the passive sounded much worse when I used a gain stage. Or at least they sounded really different. And while you might think you have a good grasp on the "character" of a tube, they can combine in unexpected ways across gain stages. I usually end up with different tube combos in the Firebottle if I use the active preamp. Tube rolling in the amp usually requires tube rolling in the preamp to get the best sound. That's a lot of moving parts!
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Not to add to your tube rolling burden but if the Firebottle KT88 supports 6SL7 tubes you might want to give those a try. In my Had Universal SET the 6SL7 tubes are much more dynamic and lively sounding and have quite a bit more gain. They are also usually cheaper than 6SN7 tubes.