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Primaluna evo 400 Integrated Amp?


Fido

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They ought to get it cranking Benjie. 
Moving on up in power would be KT-90, KT-100, KT-120, and the huge KT-150.

I wasn’t aware mine would handle those. There’s not info about my amp that I’ve found. It does sound great.


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Fido.....A few years back I called Doug at Dougstubes.com and he said a lot of his customers were going to the KT-77 from the EL-34s.  I tried a quad of JJ KT-77s in the Horn Monos and did not notice much difference.

 

You can spend a fortune on tubes so like Kevin Deal said......"just use the ones that came with the PL".  The only reason I switched was they came with the used amp.  I do like the appearance of the large 120s though.

 

I usually buy from tubedepot, the tubestore, or doug'stubes.com ........even amazon sells tubes now.

 

You say you have never done any tube rolling so be careful removing the tubes.  Don't pull by the glass.  Rock the base back and forth if stubborn. And wipe finger prints from the glass or like the purist do wear white gloves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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26 minutes ago, Benjie said:


I wasn’t aware mine would handle those. There’s not info about my amp that I’ve found. It does sound great.


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I'm not sure about your amp but Primaluna usually has a manual on their site if you google it.  Okay I looked it up.  In your Dialogue 5 you can use EL-34, 6550, KT-88, KT-90, 6L6GC, KT-66, 7581, and EL-37.

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I'm not sure about your amp but Primaluna usually has a manual on their site if you google it.  Okay I looked it up.  In your Dialogue 5 you can use EL-34, 6550, KT-88, KT-90, 6L6GC, KT-66, 7581, and EL-37.

Hanks for looking that up. Guess I’ll stick with the KT88!,


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23 hours ago, Tarheel said:

Fido.....A few years back I called Doug at Dougstubes.com and he said a lot of his customers were going to the KT-77 from the EL-34s.  I tried a quad of JJ KT-77s in the Horn Monos and did not notice much difference.

 

You can spend a fortune on tubes so like Kevin Deal said......"just use the ones that came with the PL".  The only reason I switched was they came with the used amp.  I do like the appearance of the large 120s though.

 

I usually buy from tubedepot, the tubestore, or doug'stubes.com ........even amazon sells tubes now.

 

You say you have never done any tube rolling so be careful removing the tubes.  Don't pull by the glass.  Rock the base back and forth if stubborn. And wipe finger prints from the glass or like the purist do wear white gloves.

 

 

Hi Chuck- Thanks for the feedback -- as of now I am very happy with the sound of my system so I can be content with the primaluna tubes that came with my amp. If I ever decide to change them up maybe I'll go for some 150s and figure a way to raise the cage up to fit those large tubes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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At the end of last week my PrimaLuna EVO100 arrived.

The EVO100 contains the standard PrimaLuna tubes;

2 - 12AX7
2 - 12AU7
4 - EL34

The amplifier is connected via an AudioQuest TYPE 2 white cable to my Klipsch Heresy III speakers.

Listening to the PrimaLuna Dialogue II in combination with the Klipsch Heresy II at a friend's place, I could clearly hear the 3d projection of the sound, something that is clearly missing at my place and an important part of the sound I'm looking for.

I've used this WASP tutorial to get my speakers in the right place;
http://www.tnt-audio.com/casse/waspe.html

Right now, I'm using a AudioQuest Dragonfly RED as DAC. The DAC is connected through a standard €10,- RCA to Mini Jack cable. Could this be the problem?

PS: I don't know much about hi-fi equipment but eager to learn!

All tips are welcome.

Warmly,

R

Edited by RvdK
typo
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  • 4 weeks later...

The Primaluna amps have been known for being some of the best, or the best tube amps out there.. so a evo300 or 400 is gonna end up here soon to..

Currently I am running a Heed Lagrange on my Klipsch Palladium p17.. and the Heed is no slouch.. more tube sounding than some tube amps, and no hassle.. :)

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It’s a great amp and after a long history of being in the solid state world I took a dive into it.  I am very pleased with its sound.  I will say that I enjoyed good solid state prior to jumping into this amp (McIntosh MHA headphone/integrated Pioneer SC 09TX, SX 1050, SX 1280, NAD).  I have listened to the primaLuna Luna amp through the new Hersey IV and KLF 20s.  Currently I have them hooked up with the KLF 20s.  This combination provides a very nice clear and crisp open sound With the deep bottom end. Some may find the sound of the amp to be a little bit brighter than the solid state amps I mentioned.  Some might say more “airy” or whatever adjective.  The mid range through the amp sounds very pleasing, and the bass is very present.   I will say the whole debate for me on solid state vs tubes is pretty silly bc honestly I love the sound of my McIntosh amp and I’m still longing to repurchase a pioneer SX amp that I mistakenly got rid of.  Lesson learned.  
 

I don’t like to run this amp with a heat wave of 100 plus degrees, as my house has a hard enough time keeping cool up with the A/C.  It’s good to have the solid state amp instead of the small heater (Evo 400) in these conditions.  


One thing worth mentioning is the amp has an input for preamp or home theater , and you can use a “Bypass”.  Unfortunately,  I found it wasn’t that quiet (however note I use very efficient speakers).  I use my Mcintosh amp as a digital preamp for the Evo.  The aux inputs are much quieter I’ve found.  The reason being is that the bypass input has the gain set to unity so you can use whatever preamps volume instead of the primaluna volume.   But believe it or not it got quieter over time. Basically There was a slight hum that could be heard through my highly efficient speakers.  I’ve found that overall it’s provides a slightly wider sound stage than my very good McIntosh solid state.

 

I did hook the Evo 400 up to friends heresy IIs, and I must mention that I didn’t like the sound of the combination. The Heresy II can sound A bit harsh and thin in my opinion through this, with no subs. It’s unbelievable how different the Heresy IVs sound vs the old Heresy II.  
 

In a nutshell,  this Evo 400 sounds very good.  It’s basically the best sounding thing in my setup.
 

edit: I did compare the headphone stage vs the McIntosh Headphone/integrated amp.  I found it to be a close tie.  The McIntosh headphone amp is just super warm, super quiet, and provides the bass.  The Primaluna has a very excellent headphone amp. But Best in the world as claimed by Kevin Deal in his videos?  I don’t think so.   The solid state just provides a super quiet clean sound. But the tube provides a nice crisp detail sound that has more emphasis in the higher frequencies. And during quiet passages, you know you’re listening to a tube amp. 

 

E7A08CB4-1BFF-452A-8996-BF8C420A4D45.jpeg.8f7b334fa5340c6f899356796c1021fa.jpeg

Edited by Mirko
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7 hours ago, Mirko said:

  I will say the whole debate for me on solid state vs tubes is pretty silly bc honestly I love the sound of my McIntosh amp and I’m still longing to repurchase a pioneer SX amp that I mistakenly got rid of.  Lesson learned.  

I found much the same in the better SS amplifiers. The differences have narrowed. The thing is though that when talking less than $1000 in an amp a tube amplifier is a better bargain. You can purchase one of the SE Boyuu A10's for around $400 and from all what I have read if will be better sounding with our horns than anything SS in it's price range. It is only when you get into the what I call expensive SS amplifiers when the sound becomes as good as a $1000. tube amplifier. Exceptions to every rule and my opinion. I certainly have not heard all the amplifiers out there. Transistors have been trying to sound as good as tubes since they were invented. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Primaluna amps offer a lot for their money. Impeccable build quality, autobias circuit, tube freedom, point to point wiring. They are doing it properly!

I am currently playing with the Primaluna evo 400 separates on the Klipsch cornwall's. Incredible sound quality. You must hear this ...

 

Primaluna-Klipsch-Mediaelectronics2.thumb.jpg.0026e636b587a66aaa035b554ea9b037.jpg

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