PrimaLuna EVO 400 v Cary SLI-100


I've never owned anything other than solid state but I am increasingly intrigued with tubes.  Thinking of "investing" $5K or so in an all-tube integrated to (at least initially) drive my Klipsch Heresys.  Any thoughts on these two choices?  Is there another choice in this range?

mattsca

Showing 1 response by yakbob

I second dweller’s suggestion that the Evo 400 has more power than you’ll need for the Heresy speakers. The Evo 300 with a nice quad of KT-88s would offer plenty of power and save you the additional cost of the 400 and running cost of 8 power tubes.

Since this is your first tube amp, the PrimaLuna offers ease of ownership with auto-bias, bad tube indicator, and varied tube compatibility. It’s a painless transition from solid state. The bad tube indicator is especially handy given the state of current production tubes.

In contrast, The Audio Research I50 amp mentioned earlier is a fine looking unit, but tube bias has to be set by a technician (internally) and not exactly user friendly.

For what it’s worth, I’ve had great luck with the Apos Ray Select KT-88 tubes.