Primaluna?


I’m thinking about giving a full tube setup a go and Primaluna in particular.  Looking to hear people’s experiences with Primaluna in general. My main draw to them outside of tubes is there auto bias and protective features.  Wondering if people generally replace a single bad tube or if people are replacing all tubes of that type when there’s a failure.  Also would be interested if there were any other companies with at least a similar protective feature. The auto bias sounds great but the protective features are a bigger deal to me.  

brylandgoodman

I had PL Dialogue Four diy modded/upgraded to latest spec with Takman carbon film, I also added MIflex coupling caps, ran with SED (1990's era, cryo'd) EL34 and NOS drivers. This in concurrent  comparison to Coincident 845SET, custom built 300B monoblocks. And I've had plenty of nice push pull and SET previously. The PL, while not up to the far higher price SET's in my setup, didn't make me feel deprived in the least, I could have very satisfying longer listening sessions with PL.

 

PL is one of those good value components, within its price range one of the best. One would have to get really high end system for PL to be weak link. Could be end game solution, not a bad place to end for reasonable audiophile. Its all marginal gains past this point, law of diminishing returns kicks in.

@brylandgoodman ,

I have the Primaluna Evo 300 power amplifier in my main system ( Tannoy Legacy Arden speakers and MC2300 pre amp). It seems every reviewer and most owners opt for the PL integrateds. Perhaps due to ease of review or system simplicity. I just wanted to share from a power amp owner's perspective.

What the PL offers over most other tube designs is ease of ownership and tailoring of sound through tube swaps. As mentioned by others, the auto bias, and bad tube indicators make ownership a breeze. I had a stock EL34 go bad a few days after the amp arrived. Upscale Audio had a replacement at my door 2 days later. After trying the stock set, I swapped in 7581As, KT-88s, and KT-150s. The 7581A were rich but a little dull in my system, and I settled on both the KT-88 and KT-150 as favorites.

I did however have two KT-150 go bad (working but noisy) in short order, in both cases i simply replaced the bad ones instead of dropping $450 on another quad. 

I've owned SS amps from other brands that retailed for more including Pass and Jeff Rowland, and honestly feel the PL is every bit their equal in sound quality. I've yet to own anything close to the build quality of that Rowland amp...I now regret selling.

Best of luck with your decision.

 

 

Another PL owner here. integrated evo400.

 

I just wanted a tube amp that worked without me needing to use a screwdriver and multimeter (though i have both).

I've experienced the "bad tube indicator" on the PL and been able to change that tube without anything blowing up.

PL apparently run the tubes very lightly and you should experience years of service from them. 

the triode/ultralinear button on the remote makes this option a breeze.

Be careful of your back if you need to carry it anywhere. I don't think a thief could get very far with mine in hand.

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I suggest you have a look at Opera Consonance. For the same price as PL they are far better.