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?
To be fair, the OP’s speakers are a difficult load… both phase wise and low impedance.
^good point^ |
I own audio research ref 10 preamp and phono stage and ref 160s amp and love them. I previously owned the audio research LS 17se preamp that was great - used they are about 2200. I also had an ARC ref 75se that you can now get used for 5k or less and it’s an amazing amp. The former ARC dealer here also sells primaluna, and comparing them I preferred the ARC but it was more expensive. I am a big fan of ARC tube amps and preamps. Allnic also makes great stuff but the only comparison I did was with an Allnic phono compared to my ARC ref 10 phono- both were great but I preferred the ref 10. |
@gasherbaum thanks for the insight. What did you prefer in the ARC over the Primaluna? I'm sure the higher ARC gear blows the PL out of the water, just kind of curious how and what you heard? |
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Let me first make clear that I think prima Luna makes good gear and great stuff at its price point. Although I think the ARC ref 75 se is some of the best value in audio. That amp is amazing. Now to answer your question - at the dealer where I did the comparison the ARC gear cast a much wider and fuller sound stage which is something I’m partial to. The ARC also was better driving the speakers especially in the base. Lastly, to me it was just more engaging and musical. I just fell in love with the sound of the ARC gear over the prima Luna. But I’m also very partial to ARC sound. I had a boulder 2060 in my system and though it did some things better than the ARC ref 75 se I sold the boulder and kept the ARC as I just preferred the ARC sound in my system. So just know im pretty bias in favor of ARC gear. |
