PrimaLuna EVO 400 v Cary SLI-100

Another recommendation of the Dennis Had Inspire products. For much less cost you can acquire a used Fire Bottle amplifier and an Inspire preamplifier. All Dennis Had products are each hand wired and soldered. It’s the best of the best way to design and produce any audio product.

10-12 watts of power is far more than you need to operate your Heresy’s. Check out the audio forum audioaficionado.org for nearly 800 pages of comments from Dennis Had’s Inspire product owners.

@mattsca 

I owned an Audio Research GSi 75 a few years ago.  It is a fantastic piece with phono and DAC standard on all units.  I needed more power as I have Wilson Audio that are a bit power hungry.  There is one on USAM now for $6000.  

On My system I tried several solid state preamps amplifiers with my current speakers. I found the Evo 100 to be what I could afford and what sounded best. It was far better than systems three times the power. And my experience it was far better than a Shiit Freya and Vidar combo which was very good. I had originally compared it to a Hagel H390.

PrimaLuna doesn't seem to get as much love around here compared to many other brands. Not sure why that is. I tried almost a dozen integrated amps (mostly tube based) not too long ago and ended up buying the Evo 300. It just sounded "right" in my setup, not too warm or bloomy, not to bright or etched. I love it.

The 400 didn't impress me as much. Not only did I not require the balanced aspect, I actually didn't think it sounded as good anyway. 

You definitely would want to try tube upgrades once you adjust to the base performance of the Evo 300. There is a lot more SQ hiding in there that better tubes will unlock.