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
kennyc
2,104 posts
 

Not sure if the OP is looking for an amp or integrate, but I picked up a used Coincident Frankenstein 300b mono blocks - high-value sold direct with plenty of very positive reviews from a long established company.  

audition__audio
1,692 posts
 

"Effortless" is not a adjective I would use to describe the sound of a 300B SET.

I dont care which expert you want to quote regarding the inherent superiority of a particular type of tube amp over another.

PP amps produce less distortion and have more power than SETs, but the p.p. operation also makes this type sound sort of thick and confused when compared with SETs. The thing you can be certain of is that your SET is going to start to soft clip very quickly and product a bunch of really nice distortion. 

 

abd1
173 posts
 

I didn’t read every post here but I have that amp and have had 2 other PL amps before it. I’ve also had SET amps. The closest sound I had to a SET with my Primaluna was a quad of Sophia Electric blue glass el34 tubes and 6 La Radiotechnique 12ax7’s in the front. Sounded fantastic. Might have been 12au7’s as I can’t remember exactly what that amp uses but either way that was the combo. Sounded fantastic. I’ve used at least 15 tube combos with that amp. That was one of my favorite combos. Other was Gold Lion KT88s. If I had to live with one tube with that amp it would be KT88 followed by el34 and related variants. Was never a fan of KT120 or 150. 
 

 

lowtubes
141 posts
 

I have to tell you the truth, the answer to your question is maybe you can get it a little bit but your pushpull amp will never sound like a single end amp. Single end amps have a different sound than push pull amps.  Nothing you can do to change that. I own several pushpull and single end amps. My pushpull amps range from 5 watts to 180 watts and my single end amps range from 3/4 watt up to my biggest amp 45 watts. 

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