I Find Primalunas Ugly. How about You? Is there an alternative?


The curved cage on Primaluna amplifiers is extremely ugly. Their shiny cases do not help. Visually, they are worse than forgettable. I like the look of Line Magnetic amps, but they sound terrible. Is there a decent alternative?
defiantboomerang
Hey 1241. The operative word is " guessing " The final decision as always is yours. 
To the OP: can you describe the set-up you heard that leads you to conclude that the LMs "sound terrible"? I've heard quite a few. I've no problem if someone were to prefer, say, the ARC or Manley house sounds; that's simply a matter of taste. But "terrible"? I can only imagine they were being asked to drive low impedance multi-driver speakers, or the source was poor, or a tube was failing, or something else. 

BTW, I would also hesitate to necessarily blame an amp for humming -- if there's DC on the line, the transformers will probably hum...
@lalitk 

Thank you for the recommendation and I am excited to see you enjoyed our setup at RMAF.

@defiantboomerang:

For me the 845 tube is king.  I can say unabashedly that the MastersounD amplifiers are absolutely noise free.  Clients who come to listen actually point this out not only when no music is playing, but also comment on the black background that rivals high quality SS amps.  The secret to their amplifiers lies in the high quality transformers they design and build in-house.  The Compact 845 would be a good option and power all but truly demanding speakers.
The EAR912 and the Zesto Tessera are very versatile. Just added the Zesto line. 

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