2. amps-preamps
  3. 195565-200780

Can I get my Prima Luna to sound more like a SET/300B?

 

Dear Audiogon community, 

 

I am ruminating on my current state of mind with this alchemy… 

 

I have spent the past year upgrading my main system to a relatively glorious state… details below and in my profile. 

 

I am at times in the sublime musical hallucination I seek. However I admittedly may be coming to the realization that the sound I yearn for in my heart may be ultimately obtained through a SET or 300B type of solution. And to get there I may need a 5-9K indulgence, in order to match the Nagra Streamer, Holo Audio DAC, and Pure Audio Project Duet Horn’s. 

 

This is something that may take a while for me to enact… 

 

SOOOO…. In the meantime…. What if anything can I do with the amp that I currently have, a Prima Luna Dialogue Premium HP, to obtain a completely enveloping, immediate, effortless, sublime, vivid, and delicious delivery of acoustic, jazz, classical, vocals, horns, strings, cymbals…. Sublime enveloping sensual euphoria…?? 

 

Can I get my Prima Luna to sound like a proper SET or 300B amp? Even close? 

 

Some thoughts: 

-Cap upgrade… Jupiter or Jensen or Duelund or…. 

 

-Main tubes to…. Ray? Mullard E34’s? Psvane PH or UK? Sophia Electric? 

 

(Currently I run Gold Lion KT77’s, which are very nice when they work, but their unreliability is frustrating… in 9 months two go out and one has a high frequency distortion)

 

Or should I bite the bullet and jump in to a serious amp upgrade? 

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your brilliant insight… 

 

Cheers to musical alchemy. 

R. 

 

 

 

 

 

Details of my system: (brief)

    • SPEAKERS: Pure Audio Project Duet 15 Horn (Mundorf Silver Gold Oil Cap upgrade and high pass filter, Anticable 4.2 Flex Internal wire)
    • STREAMER: Nagra Streamer (Cardas Clear Coaxial)
    • DAC: HoloAudio Spring 2 Level 3 Kitsune edition (Silversmith Fidelium RCA Interconnects)
    • AMP: PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP Integrated (Gold Lion KT77 power tubes, Mullard NOS gain tubes)
    • PHONO: Music Hall MMF-9 and McIntosh MP 100 Preamp (Goldring Eroica lx cartridge)
whyrichard

Showing 1 response by joeycastillo

joeycastillo
121 posts
 

Hey OP

i hope that your tube rolling will turn out successful. I heard that Ray reserved tubes are very good tubes, I hope it turns out alright

I don’t have a 300B amp, but my audiophile nephew has one, I believe a JELabs designed 300b and using top tier components and Japan steel cores. it is topped with Takatsuki 300b. This is powering a pair of Reference 3A de capos.

phew, this setup is a great setup. Now, as one of the posters have said above, Pass Labs SS gear, specially the XA25 Can come close. Well, I have the XA25 driving LS3/5A. I can tell you firsthand that 300B setup and the Xa25 is very close to surreal. Yes, if I were to nitpick, I give the nod to 300B as being more enchanting, palpable and enveloping. 

 

I may not have a good answer to your quest, but when the time comes, you may be at the crossroads to get a 300B amp versus going to a Solid state such as the Pass Labs XA 25 or Pass SIT-4, consider this as a reminder that some SS gear can give you what you wanted after all. No need to go SET and the power that a Pass Labs SS can provide will allow your PAP play louder and be more engaging. who knows it allows more genre of music to sound (I meant PRAT) better. 

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