2. amps-preamps
  3. 176740-144705

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?

128x128j-wall
carlsbad's avatar
carlsbad
1,551 posts
 

I went down the high power road for a while.  I had my own personal room heater with 4x 6c33c tubes.  Now with my efficient speakers I'm running 6 wpc of decware and much better sound, my amp makes less heat than my TV, and I can listen or use it for my 2 front channels of AV all day long.  Highly recommend Decware.

 

curlyhifi
156 posts
 

With the BHK the world speaker selection is your Oyster!

knighttodd
197 posts
 

For 2k more I would get 2 PL Evo 400 amps and mono block. If the El34 tubes aren't enough power you can always get KT150 tubes. Don't give up the tubes because of a little heat. I run them in my basement system. 

larry5729's avatar
larry5729
1,001 posts
 

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.

ghdprentice
6,445 posts
 

@larry5729. Sound quality… the way music comes through… more technically midrange bloom as well as rhythm and pace.

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