I will see if the Prima Luna with the ray el34 reserve tubes I just ordered satisfy my ears… and if not I will move my attention to a 300b of some sort…
big moves. Much passion of the ear.
r
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)
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- 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)
- ...
- 25 posts total
@whyrichard I hope the tube journey you are on turns out ok, trying 300b and the Ray tubes won’t do it. When you hit bottom get away from tubes..
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Try a Svetlana St Petersburg EL 34’s. Closest my Dennis Had Inspire KT-88 amp comes to having the rich full midrange of my Cary Audio 300B SEI amp. PrimaLuna’s are great amps, but voiced a little more toward the modern tube amp transparent sound. Pentodes have more power than triodes, drive more “clarity” which is a little less “bloomy” than triodes. You have some great gear, search for NOS EL 34’s, more warmth than any new production tube. |
- 25 posts total