Depends on budget.
If you don’t mind light assembly (no soldering), the Hypex NC400 mono blocks would run you <$1500 USD I believe (more if bought them from a company, one sells them for $2000/pair I think, also bridged mono block pairs (4 monoblocks total) for $3000). There’s almost nothing they can’t power with pristine output. |
Not sure I want to go class d.
Was thinking more of an mosfet amp. |
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Not sure I want to go class d.
No reason to not go to Class D. The only reason old or cheap Class D was/is bad is because the switching frequency wasn’t/isn’t high enough. PS Audio for instance uses an ICE Class D for their M300, ATI also uses Class D. Look up reviews, the NC400 is vastly superior to basically everything else for the price. Datasheet: https://www.diyclassd.com/img/upload/doc/ncore/nc400/Documentation/NC400_04xx.pdf#page11 |
If you want new and Class AB your best bang for the buck are Odyssey and Van Alstine though Klaus at Odyssey has quite the backlog so used would be your best bet with remainder of 20 year warranty. If budget is larger then more options. |
My dialog premium pre arrives Friday. I’m pairing mine with a Rogue Stereo 100 amp. It’s beating my Croft 7R tube hybrid and Naim NAP 180 solid state. If the Rogue Stereo 100 and Prologue Premium pre is good enough for Herb Reichart, it’s good enough for me. Guess I’m a bit of a Herb fan boy lately because I like what I hear with my Harbeth Compact 7s. |
Sounds interesting, have not though about Rogue, looking forward to your impressions.
After checking,I see it’s a tube power amp,I am after a tube pre and solid state amp. |
I recently purchased a CODA Technologies 10.5R (discontinued model) that I use with an Audible Illusions tubed preamp. To my ears it sounds fantastic and is very well built. It is 100 watts with the first 25 watts in Class A. I would highly recommend this amp if you can find a used one. |
Sorry about not paying attention to your post title. If you decide to go all tubes, the Primaluna/Rogue combo is completely sublime. I liked my Croft tube/mosfet amp better then my solid state Primare and Naim amps. I liked the Rogue Stereo 100 best of all. Think it’s something about it’s huge bandwidth and control of the bass. |
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Wasn't there a thread saying PrimaLuna preamps passed DC and blew up speakers? If that has been rectified I am looking for a new PrimaLuna pre too!
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Yes, I read that too somewhere, made me worry about the Primaluna quality!
I could also look at the Vincent 7 pre amp, gets great reviews. |
When I owned a Dialogue Premium, I had it paired with a Pass XA-30.8 into Harbeth SHL5+ speakers. The sound was sublime. |
Hard to understand how a Primaluna preamp could pass DC current. I think Primaluna has been reliable since they got popular circa 2004. The Primaluna and Rogue has responded very well to tube changes. Have all NOS tubes now. Further experimentation forthcoming.
I want a Pass Labs XA-25 to try with Dialogue Premium Pre but the Stereo 100 is so good, I’ll stay put for a while. |
Hi All,
There has been some amount of comments on the PL Dialogue Premium needing repair. My personal experience:
Mine blew a Solens capacitor within the first six months and Upscale Audio took care of it for free.
Recently, a couple of years later, the left channel went out and I had to pay the freight to get it to California. Upscale repaired it for free and and shipped it back for free. They claimed that they "upgraded a circuit".
Two repairs in three years bothered me so I checked out other preamps including CJ LS17 - 2, ARC LS25, and an Axiom II passive. In my system, all of these are more musical than the PL. The PL was good if I wanted to hear into a vocal but rather lame if I wanted PRAT.
I ran the PL with both a Coda CS and McCormack DNA - 500 and neither helped with the lack of liveliness. My speakers are Thiel CS5's.
Things changed for the much better with any of the other preamps.
Thanks for listening,
Dsper |
I have owned and used my PL Dialogue Premium preamp.. almost 4 years now..on a daily basis and have had not one issue with it..period! That does not mean some parts failure can not happen from time to time...just like any manufactured
product out there.Concerning prat..well,it may not be as good as some of the best ss designs..but, with the PL..that will depend on what tube types are being used to achieve that end goal.
I highly recommend it as do many other owners. Who knows..someday I may change to something else,but in all honesty,the sound I'm getting right now is just too good to even think about a change in my preamp...especially with the great benefit and fun factor of nos tube rolling... tailoring that perfect sound... to your own liking!
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FWIW,
I tried Telefunkens, Mullards, Seimans, and the usual list of US tubes. Some Mazdas were the best because they smoothed out the sound.
But no PRAT.
I guess the PL is too analytical for me/my system.
Thanks fro listening.
Dsper |
I would not consider analytical a definition describing the musical merits of the PL preamp. If you mean how the preamp responds to tube change I guess you could have a point but on the whole this pre is a true music maker when used in a properly oriented system setup....tube type also plays a huge role with both the 12au7’s and rectifiers used. It all comes down to personal tastes I guess... 8) |
