Your speakers look too close together. I wish I knew why some like tube amplifiers over solid state? Seems to me, people with tube amplifiers are always buying tubes. I also prefer to put my gear into an enclosed entertainment cabinet so it looks nice in a nicely furnished living room.
Upgrading from Primaluna
Recently went down the front end upgrade path and am running a nice table and phono now. I'm curious as to what the weaker link in my system is between my Primaluna Dialogue Premium Preamp and my Dialogue Premium Hp Power Amp. I'm considering swapping out the amp to a Ps Audio BHK250 for the summer to avoid heat, but am curious if I would be better off dealing with the heat and moving up to say an Allnic L-7000/Arc Ref 3 for the Pre. I'm happy with tubes on the front end, but curious if I'm running out of gas with 88DB efficient speakers and a single chassis tube amp. Which amp would you upgrade first and what benefits would you expect?
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With your 88db speakers you'll be hard pushed to get a decent upgrade over PL Dialogue HP. With tube amps you need to spend at least double if not triple the amount to hear real improvement with those speakers. SS amps at similar price class are almost all dry and sterile sounding in comparison in my experience - don't get me wrong, they are perfect, but they just do not excite nor provoke you to listen as the tube PL does. There's an extra level and dimension in that tube sound, SS amps just don't hit that spot, at least in this price range.
I also have 85db sensitive speakers so I share the dilemma. Thus I'd recommend another option not covered here (albeit a controversial one but I'll exmplain this below): modify your Dialogue Premium HP. Those Jupiter Copper Foil & Wax caps are controversial since some people rave about their sound, yet those who have measured them in detail tend to be dissapointed (small distortions measured). IMHO Jupiter cap stands where psychoacoustic hearing preference is set above measurements, hence they have their subtle speciefic sound character, you may like or may not. After nearly a year living with them, I got to say I love their sonics to bits! After this recap mod and burn-in my HP Integrated took another sonic level and IMHO rivalling amps at a much higher price class. The sonic finesse really impresses me the more I listen and the more I adore the sound. Now I have no plan to sell it, at least within 10 year perspective, unless I find something staggeringly better at this price class among tube amps, which I doubt. So my HP now is probably a lifetime keeper.
So maybe this HP mod route is worth considering for you as well.
Just me 2c, Margus |
@j-wall Very nice system! Changing the amps will change the sound, you can definitely try that! Audio Research Ref line is top notch stuff and the odds are there will be a good improvement sonically by switching to ARC Ref series components. But…the room acoustics and speaker placement is something you will run into no matter what preamp or amp you are using. 1. Spread the speakers further apart to about 1.5ft or even 1ft from side wall 2. Move the acoustics panels to treat the first reflection points (have panels on the side walls approximately midpoint between you and speakers) 3. Adjust the toe in to get the imaging to your liking. Adjust distance between listening chair to speakers. 4. I would also add bass traps behind the speakers Suggestions above to move the rack are valid but I would focus on acoustic treatments before making any other changes.
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- 55 posts total