SED EL34 from the 90's are best EL34 I've heard. I've had a number of pp and SET amps, closest pp to SET sound I've heard is my newly purchased PP monoblocks based on Bendix 6094 tube, this has 12wpc. I also used to run Prima Luna Dialogue, mods will only take you so far, but some nice EL34 and something like Jupiter copper foil coupling caps will help that amp.
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)