Parasound vs Primaluna vs Alternatives

I've been using that amp (PL Dialog HP integrated) for some time with Zu Soul Supremes in a small room, and while every tube in it was great (I went from EL34s to KT88s then KT120s then finally KT150s), the 150s are an almost mandatory investment in my opinion.  I've had the 150s for over a year and they are totally worth it even though it's an expensive change for 8 of them. Despite the really high efficiency speakers and small room, the Zus sound phenomenal with the extra power, but I suspect the 150s are just a better sounding tube all around that just happen to produce more power too (than the other KT family, at least).

I will, however, say that when ready, putting a good pre-amp in front of it can improve the sound even further (bypass its pre-stage through the home theater inputs).  It's going to have to be a $5k preamp or greater to get much improvement, I suspect.  I demoed an Audio Research LS-28 that was a good improvement in resolution over the built-in, but is almost $8k new.  I settled on a bespoke pre-amp instead which bettered the LS-28, but have kept the PL as the amp because it's so good.  And to be clear, it's fantastic as an integrated, so don't take my comments as criticism of this piece...I love it as an integrated.

Even more impressively, this amp has a phenomenal headphone amp section, btw...which got even more awesome with the tube upgrades.  Also a great way to critically listen to tube changes or the effects (good and bad) of putting a pre-amp in line.  It's better than 3 other multi-thousand-$ headphone amps I own.

I'm hoping to try some $5k-15k 300b set amps to compare, but I'm very very happy with this amp for the time being and I think you will too.

Also, to help others who may read this thread later, I also have a Nelson Pass First Watt SIT-2, since First Watt was mentioned earlier (as it should be).  I have the stereo version (not the SIT-1 monoblocks).

It is an excellent sounding amp in systems that can make the most of its low(er) power, and for someone who prefers solid state over a tubed amp.  I bought it based on the recommendations of many, without the chance to demo it personally.  It was a great experiment.

However, for me, it has never been a totally "convincing" solid state replacement for my PL HP, in my systems anyway.  Here's why...while the micro-dynamics and detail are phenomenal, and the soundstage is so dead quiet and black to let all those details shine through (the best I've heard, in retrospect), to me there is a slight over-emphasis of the leading edges, and the decay seemed just the slightest bit short, and ultimately I found myself listening the details rather than hearing the music and the tone of the instruments, and ironically finding the whole sonic image to have less coherence and realism.  The result was, again to me, just slightly less emotionally enjoyable, and even ultimately a little distracting.  I later (much later) read similar comments from other owners, so I would recommend you demo one before you buy it.  People also rave about the mono versions but at 2x the cost, it wasn't an experiment I was willing to try.

BTW, it smoked the 2 different Transcendent OTL tube amps I'd been using on my various vintage Altecs and three different sets of Zu speakers (all of which I still own in various systems)... a little in detail, but a lot in timing and immediacy (the OTLs both were relatively slow, in spite of sounding detailed and musical).  So the SIT-2 is great at many things, but to me never ultimately beat the PL HP.  That's how good I've found this PrimaLuna to be, at least with KT-150s.

The SIT-2 is one of a couple $5k-ish level amps I've kept around, hoping to find the right system for, but still waiting unfortunately.

David, fair question...I tried a few different pre-amps in the combos, all with the same results to me.  I settled on a little known bespoke pre-amp called the Truth from the Horn Shoppe...an insane steal at like $1200.  It has no amplification (so low-output phono pre's may struggle--mine is good), but is powered and is buffered (so not a passive either).  I was skeptical when I bought it a few years ago, but it's easily bested both the Audio Research LS-28 I demoed for a few days a couple of months ago, and also beat my Marantz SC-7S2 reference pre-amp (no longer made, but $6500 when new--since sold).  The Truth and Marantz are solid state, and the LS-28 is hybrid, I guess technically.  So to your question, I never got my hands on a fully-tubed pre-amp of any quality--it's possible that may have made a better pairing with the SIT-2 for my tastes.  The Zu guys reportedly love the SIT-1s, so I'm being super nit-picky when I say that I didn't prefer the SIT-2 over the PL HP with any of those pre-amps.  It's very, very close.

To be sure I was being fair, after posting above, I actually immediately put the SIT-2 back into the system for a day and listened for about 2-3 hours with it.  I confirmed my feelings one more time.