I didn't audition PrimaLuna, but I had that feeling when I had CJ preamp. The sound had good extension, very smooth, excellent midrange, but it was boring and I could fall asleep while listening. I take it as different people looking for different qualities in component. Some people prefer laid back smooth sound, and others prefer live and dynamic sound. It's a matter of preference, not one is better than the other. VTL preamp that I'm currently using is at the opposite end of the spectrum, alive, dynamic, with toe tapping quality. You might consider switching your amplification.
Most beneficial change .
I am seeking opinions about what to change first , my speakers or my amplification .
I have a Primaluna Prologue 2 integrated feeding Reference 3a Decapo i speakers from a Granite Audio 657 CDP using the tubed side most of the time . I have rolled the input tubes on the integrated to warm things up some which helped nicely . The system is in a small 10'X11' room on the diagonal with some room treatments . The room is carpeted and my chair is overstuffed leather with a matching foot stool .
I get good tone , extension , details , resolution and PRaT but it is kind of boring ! It all sounds pretty good but I don't want to tap my toes ,bob my head or play the air guitar ! I can listen for long periods of time with ease but just don't want to . Easy to fall asleep ! I guess that I would like to increase the dynamics and musicality . I prefer tubes .
Suggestions ?
Thank you for your input .
I have a Primaluna Prologue 2 integrated feeding Reference 3a Decapo i speakers from a Granite Audio 657 CDP using the tubed side most of the time . I have rolled the input tubes on the integrated to warm things up some which helped nicely . The system is in a small 10'X11' room on the diagonal with some room treatments . The room is carpeted and my chair is overstuffed leather with a matching foot stool .
I get good tone , extension , details , resolution and PRaT but it is kind of boring ! It all sounds pretty good but I don't want to tap my toes ,bob my head or play the air guitar ! I can listen for long periods of time with ease but just don't want to . Easy to fall asleep ! I guess that I would like to increase the dynamics and musicality . I prefer tubes .
Suggestions ?
Thank you for your input .
Showing 4 responses by jylee
Such harmonics and overtones are captured by the microphones. The job of the amp is reproduce the captured signal as accurate as possible. It's NOT the job of the amp to reproduce additional harmonics. However, many amps, especially tube amps, add additional 2nd and 3rd harmonics, which is pleasant to the ears for many. *hint hint* While I understand that some amps are more natural sounding than others, I don't think that's because such amp is capable of reproducing the harmonics more naturally. Most all amps have flat freq response, and are able to reproduce captured harmonics correctly. I think it's the added harmonics that the amps generate that influence the perception that one amp has more harmonics and therefore more natural sounding than others. |
One of the few useful and credible measurements published on the web is Stereophile. Here is a random example of a tube amplifier and a solid state amplifier. tube amp Take a look at figure 10. It's a graph of response generated by the amp when the input signal is 50Hz pure sine wave. The vertical axis is normalized to the amplitude of fundamental signal at 50Hz. The 2nd harmonics of 100Hz is seen at -40dB of fundamental, and the 3rd harmonics of 150Hz at -60dB of fundamental. solid state amp The response plot of the same signal is shown for a random solid state amp in figure 7. There is almost no 2nd harmonics, and 3rd harmonics is at -90dB of the fundamental. The relative levels of those harmonics may be low enough, but they are not present in the input signal of pure sine wave, and they are the by product. I've picked random samples, but in general tube amps tend to generate more harmonics, and solid state amps tend to generate less. There are exceptions of course. |