Review - PrimaLuna
Contents
1. 900 1k 2k Hz Fig 9 PrimaLuria Prolonte Premium 8 ohm tap THD N 96 vs frequency at 4 8V into 8 ohms left channel blue right red 4 gma eft cyan right meena ie 2 ohms Caray stereophile com June 2012 _ clips at 21Wpc into 8 ohms i and 32W into 4 ohms 12dBW but the ea amplifier does meet its specified power lafn from this tap at 1 4 THD havent _ shown the clipping behavior into 2 ohms a cl from either tap as the amplifier switched i R _ itself off and lit one or more BTI Root as with the 4 ohm tap driving Sand 4 ohms respectively The ProLogue Premium 13 2dBW 50 100 200 500 ik 2k Hz Fig 10 Primatuna ProLogue Premium 4 ohm Ua THD N 94 vs frequency at 4 8V into 8 ohms fa channel blue right red Robe eL nn magenta 2 2 ohms rep iF F Deta in Vots 5k 10k20k fo Premium is is not atow fistortion design ef I plotted how its THD N percentage changes with frequency at 4 8V a level sue equivalent to 2 9W into 8 ohms where us _ Lcould be sure that the distortion was cht higher than the noise floor The results ne 4 ohm tap The amnifer is more Uh 3 from its 4 ohm tap but there are seit b n dant rises i in distortion at the Brea vat 1 0 Time in ms ER Fign Pananda ProLogue FN 4 ME tap ion IKHz waveform at TW into 4 ohms top 0104 gt gt THD N distortion and noise waveform with a r ehga fundamental maci2. Like the Uno Nano the Triton Two incorporates a powered subwoofer Its claimed sensitivity confirmed by John Atkinson s measurements is 91dB somewhat higher than the norm but much lower than the Uno Nano s JA also noted that the speaker will not be too difficult for the partnering amplifier to drive The combination of the Triton Twos and the ProLogue Pre mium proved particularly synergistic it was as if each designer had used the other s speaker to fine tune the sound of his own The speakers sounded good through the ProLogue Premium s 8 ohm connectors and even better more dynamic more pres ent through the 4 ohm taps Comparing the ProLogue Premium to the Audiopax 88 Mk II and the Simaudio W 7 each driven by the CAT SL 1 Renaissance preamp there were areas of performance in which each of these high end references sounded superior The Audiopax s major area of superiority was its ability to present recordings that normally sound a bit harsh in a way As figs 6 8 make clear the ProLogue ze this will be a problem in normal use _ With the amplifier s output trans mae tap matched to the load the PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium just met its specified power of 35Wpc 15 6dBW Y Fig 6 shows how the THD noise percent age present in the 8 chm output changes as with power into 8 ohms The THD N reaches 196 our standard definition of clipping at 35Wpc HT 7 ande 8 show 50 100 200 5k 10k 20k
3. Serial Number of Unit Reviewed 10044978 auditioning 10115729 measuring Price 2299 Approximate number of dealers 35 Manufacturer Durob Audio BV PO Box 109 5250 AC Vlijmen The Netherlands Tel 31 73 511 25 55 www primaluna nl US distributor PrimaLuna USA 1042 North Mountain Avenue Suite B PMB 406 Upland CA 91786 Tel 909 931 0219 www primaluna usa com 73 _ Wher n I consider the selection of products for review I don t cmally look for ones that are in the state of the art cost no object category but rather ones that promise to offer high i quality at a moderate price Based on my experience dr PrimaLuna ProLogue Three preamp and ProLogue ayen power amp see December 2009 Vol 32 No 12 that retty much describes PrimaLuna s design philosophy So when read PrimaLuna s announcement of the ProLogue Premium best integrated amp in its class just got better I was keen check it out E w Description and design It s said that an amplification component s weight can tell you about its quality Other things being equal amplifiers that weigh more tend to sound better Two factors are involved here transformers and chassis construction Higher capacity stereophile com June 2012 transformers weigh more and usually result in better sound Having a more solid chassis helps suppress resonances which negatively affect sound For a 35Wpc integrated amplifier the P
4. from Upscale The ProLogue Premium has a number of specific trade marked circuits designed to optimize performance and prevent damage to the amplifier in the event of a malfunction e Adaptive AutoBias AAB monitors and adjusts bias con stantly AAB was present in previous PrimaLuna amplifiers but the latest version is said to include more extended output stage protection circuitry to safeguard the output transformers resistors and high voltage power supply in case a tube fails Bad Tube Indicator BTT is what PrimaLuna calls the red LED next to each output tube though BTI is not quite what its name implies A lit BTI LED indicates that the tube is drawing more power than it should however this condition may be only temporary and not necessarily indicate a bad tube If the BTI comes on you re advised to turn off the ProLogue Premium wait a few minutes and turn it on again If no BTI LEDs light up you re fine It s only when the indicator stays on that the cause is likely a bad tube which must then be re placed During the review period there were a few instances of a BTI coming on but each time turning the amplifier off and then on again fixed the problem Power Transformer Protection PTP is a thermal switch built into the AC transformer If the internal temperature gets too high the AC is switched off automatically coming back on again when the problem is resolved This never happened during the review perio
5. arrived for review The Montis 10 000 pair features an electrostatic midrange tweeter mated to a powered woofer Electrostatics are notorious for presenting a difficult load to amplifiers the specifications for the Montis state that its impedance at 20kHz drops to 0 52 ohm but having a woofer with its own amplifier should help Since the ProLogue Premium was the first amplifier I used with the Montis I had no background to draw on to determine if in fact the ProLogue was a good match for this speaker but it sounded pretty good to me Mark Aling of Paradigm MartinLogan who helped me set up the Montises and who has heard them in other contexts indicated that he was pleased with the sound Whatever the effect of the low impedance load in the high treble the ProLogue Premium didn t seem fazed by it perhaps because there s so little musical content up there A test with the CAT Audiopax quickly revealed that this was not a good combination the treble was much softer than ideal and the amp ran out of steam at higher but not room shaking levels The ProLogue Premium fared better the highs were still a bit subdued but to a lesser extent As mentioned earlier in the review my listening throughout was with the EL34 output tubes When I had the GoldenEar Triton Twos in the system I did a brief trial using the KT 88s and I much preferred the EL34s more laid back sound The ProLogue Premium s rated output using the EL34s
6. below their maximum ratings Like other products in PrimaLuna s Premium range the ProLogue uses double 12AU7s in each channel rather than the earlier com bination of 12AX7 and 12AU7 This is said to result in much lower distortion in the first stage The ProLogue Premium includes a solidly built remote control that also controls the basic functions of PrimaLuna CD players I found the remote to work extremely well to set the desired volume a very brief depression of the Up or Down button resulted in a correspondingly minimal change in volume with no overshoot Like most remotes this one has buttons of identical shape and size Since there are only six buttons remembering the most frequently used ones Up Down Mute is not that difficult but I wish they d made the Up and Down buttons differently shaped or sized from the others so that they could be identified by touch The impedance of the 8 ohm tp appeared to be around 2 ohms which gave rise to audible 1 8dB variations in the amplifier s response when connected to our standard simulated loudspeaker fig 1 gray trace There were some slight variations in response even into purely resistive loads but more important atthe 200kHz upper limit of this graph canbe seen a large resonant peak whose height D 00 0 05 0 10 0 15 0 20 Time in ms Fig 3 PrimaLuna Praloee Bramani 8 ohmtap small signal TOKHz EHO mis 8 ohms stereophile com June 2012 S
7. the EL34s There are connections for speakers with nominal impedances of 4 and 8 ohms The ProLogue Premium is available with an internal moving magnet phono stage 199 but the review sample didn t include this option The ProLogue Premium was designed in Holland by a team headed by Herman van den Dungen and like most audio products these days it s manufactured in China According to Kevin Deal of Upscale Audio and PrimaLuna USA PrimaLuna s North American distributor the engineering of the Premium began with a circuit design in which nothing was taken for granted and the components selected are of a quality not normally seen in cost conscious designs These include e Nichicon and Solen polystyrene and tin foil capacitors Alps motorized potentiometer said to be 10 times the cost of lesser parts toroidal power transformer manufactured in house capacitor plus choke power supply designed to eliminate both low frequency ripples and high frequency hash custom designed output transformers manufactured in house heavy gauge ventilated chassis with a five coat finish construction by hand and point to point wiring The tubes supplied with the ProLogue Premium are Silver Label according to Upscale Audio s classification and are said to PRIMALUNA PROLOGUE PREMIUM INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER be already special compared to standard tubes on the market Other tubes including cryogenically treated ones are available
8. to sound and then I be gan to get the feeling that the sound was too smooth too liquid a extremes and into lower impedances This amplifier really does need to be used with speakers with the same nominal i im pedance as the transformer tap or higher Fortunately at low powers into high impedances the distortion i is strongly second harmonic in nature fig 11 which is relatively i innocuous At higher output currents the third starts to develop fig 12 and even at moderate gae at tow V freduentiea a regula Data in Volts 1 0 Time in ms Fig 42 Pri bimatina Patani Premiu 8 ohm tap 1KHz waveform at 2W into 4 ahms top 0 584 THD N distortion and noise waveform with funda mental notched out bottom not to scale freguency scale stereophile com June 2012 T peket fence of Pee hai rmon ics appears fig13 At the other end of t the spectrum despite the amplifiers decreasing linearity at high frequen cies the PrimaLuna did quite well on the high frequency intermodulation test At a level about 3dB below visible pa waveform clipping onan oscilloscope the second order difference product at a kHz resulting from an equal mix of 19 and 20kH2 tones s was at peed 0 pees PRIMALUNA PROLOGUE PREMIUM INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER Similarly when listening to the system through the Moon W 7 I was impressed with the clarity definition and dynamic
9. whatever I tried the wideband unweighted signal noise gt ratio taken with the input shorted and the i volume control at its maximum and ref 1W into 8 ohms from the 8 ohm tap was ta disappointing 57 3dB in the left channel __ 63 1dB in the right As shown by fig 5 this was because some low level hum was present at the AC supply frequency and _ its harmonics Switching an A weighting filter into circuit improved the measured Fig 7 PrimaLuna Protague Yn 4 ohm En distor tion 96 vs IkHz continuous output power into 8 ohms PRIMALUNA PROLOGUE PREMIUM INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER First up were the Avantgardes With these speakers I always experience a degree of trepidation when I turn on the system after installing a new amplifier Never mind any subtleties of sound quality is there noise hum or buzz at a level that s likely to interfere with my enjoyment of the music Whatever noise there is at the output of the amplifier the Avantgardes with Most their 100dB sensitivity will let audiophiles and me hear it I can try to listen past the noise but I don t like having manufacturers to do so With the last amplifier of audiophile I reviewed the otherwise admi P rable Conrad Johnson LP125M equipment December 2011 I had to go to know that all kinds of trouble grounding _5 ungrounding different parts of the break in system and dressing the intercon and warm up nects before the noise a
10. 5 W 10 20 50 100 Fi PrimaLuna alanis Renie 4 ohm tap distor tion i vs ee continuous pumput power into 4 pams 81 Mk II The 30Wpc of the Audiopax is more than enough to run the Avantgardes to high levels and the combination provides a near ideal mix of timbral accuracy detail and dynamics Chang ing from the CAT Audiopax to the ProLogue Premium might be expected to have produced a sense of disappointment but my feeling was one of excitement this integrated amp costing a mere fraction of the CAI Audiopax combo 32 000 with the latter in its current Mk III form was Turning on ableto produce sound that was faithful the svstem to the source musically involving and vai yste altogether very listenable Like other with the tube preamplifiers and amplifiers that m I have experience with the ProLogue dros de Premium had a special way with voices reproducing them in a way that combination hada more human quality than with f h even topnotch solid state products like or t G the Simaudio Moon Evolution W 7 first time power amplifier Listening more critically compar mwd E Audiopax at matched levels to find it heard some differences With the CAT i xr Audiopax the sound was more con dead guiet vincingly three dimensional with more air around voices and instruments the highs were more detailed without becoming overly bright and it was easier to follow the music s subtle ebb and flow T
11. a tal AU nM i 4 N i Zz amp Eu i F i he dee s s i T F INFINITY S ARNIE NUDELL LOOKS BACK JUNE2012 OME Ua D few O PrimaLuna S Scorchin New ProLogue Premium Amplifier VOL Ume Max m ri FU j d g Wr AE cr ff sg ua uh b n Allnic Amplifier from Korea PN r tz r 4 L P NG GREE i AN Li lb di n dl d Music First s tigate Magnetic Preamplifier y f ss RACK TO MONO ee S S ie ES a Eh le bya Miyajima and Tektron Return to Audio Roots H PERFORMANGCE LOUDSPEAKERS Online Authority rani SF CR wwwstereophile com Chart Toppers from Wilson peers Monitor Audio Penaudio i 6 99 79025 34967 A SOURCE INTERLINK MEDIA PUBLICATION LT E i m j F i 2 z V a ff wn a 5 ea Var GL 2 oe He 4 4b F i gt 4 l i d l j E d T a Jol Jee WAST LA ND i j a Eid ah bl iis dems EQUIPMENT REPORT PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER PrimaLuna ntegrated amplifiers are hot I don t mean in the literal sense although having a preamplifier and stereo power amplifier in the same chassis usually results in higher running temperatures but in the metaphorical one Once viewed as the type of component that no serious audioph
12. anding e ProLogue Premium would be 43 an excellent component around which sound quality to start assembling such a system I ata very found it combined well with speakers bl i reasonable as disparate as the Avantgarde Uno Nano GoldenEar Triton Two and price MartinLogan Montis The ProLogue Premium also allows some fine tuning to match the speakers there s a choice of output terminals 8 or 4 ohms switchable power tube bias and a choice of power tubes EL34 or KT88 Playing the system building game first with an emphasis on keeping the total system price down I would combine the ProLogue Premium 2299 with the Marantz CD5004 CD player 350 and with something like the Dynaudio Excite X12 1200 pair or PSB Imagine B 1100 pair speakers plus some entry level cables from AudioQuest or Kimber Kable At a total price of around 4000 plus another 400 for a Pro Ject Debut III turntable and 199 for the PrimaLuna phono stage to get you into the world of vinyl you d have a musically satisfying system that represents outstanding value At the next system price level the obvious partnering loudspeaker for the ProLogue Premium is the GoldenEar Triton Two Keeping everything else the same you d have a system price of about 6000 Further improvements could come from upgrading the digital source I d first check out Oppo s BDP 95 SACD CD player for 1000 and consider getting better cables and a power line conditioner Fo
13. bated to phenomena the point where it was negligible al d Turning on the system with the are real an ProLogue Avantgarde combina that amplifiers tion for the first time I was much s relieved to find it dead guiet With ms go these the volume turned way up but characteristics no music playing no sound came from the speakers it was as if the system were not on at all Very impressive and it boded well for the time I was about to spend with the ProLogue The Avantgardes are known to present a high impedance load so I connected them to the Premium s 8 ohm taps a brief comparison using the 4 ohm taps showed only a marginal difference one in favor of the 8 ohm connection The preamp and power amp that I ve found to work most optimally with the Avantgarde Uno Nanos are Convergent Audio Technology s SL 1 Renaissance and Audiopax s Model 88 gw sro araje A NETEN cd a OU y PREPARING NE a AE to 76 8 and 77748 left right MS 25 respectively which gives a closer estima 4 tion of the audibility of this noise Even so note that RD had no noise problems with his sensitive Avantgarde horn speakers So perhaps his sample of the Prologue _ _ Premium was quieter than mine What did find with my sample was that it was _ mildly microphonic If banged the top of the transformer cover even with the input shorted l could generatea ringing tone with a Tpeswlenicy of around 250Hz 0 1 100m200m 500m 1 2
14. d Output Transformer Protection OTP protects the output transformers from high voltage transients Power in my system is supplied by a PS Audio PerfectWave Power Plant 5 which is designed to protect against transients of this sort in any case there were no problems in this area SoftStart is yet another protection circuit designed to o take these rieasurement fi used Stereophile s loan sample of the top of the line Audio Precision SYS2722 system see the January 2008 As We See lt www stereophile com asweseeit 108awsi index html and www ap com The unit shipped to me for measurement serial no 10115729 a different sample from the one auditioned by Robert Deutsch was fitted with EL34 output tubes made will result inno practical consequences assess an amplifier s output ined ance by comparing the output voltages when itis loaded down with 8 and 4 ohms with the voltage when it is loaded only by the Audio Precision s 100k ohms a restored when t left the gneifio turned Things went smoothly withthe 4ohm tap which measured 1 7 ohms across the aud oband However when tried to mea he a sure the impedance of the 8 ohm tap the gS amplifier went into runaway ultrasonic as 4 ing the prol gu to mute its output and illuminate one or more of the Bad Tube _ Indicator BTD LEDs Normal service was Ta Pa VAs PrE care neverto disconnect their Teen 1 when the Cen is see up s
15. es out soron not to scale ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT Ayre Acoustics CX 7e CD player Convergent Audio Technology SL 1 Renaissance Simaudio Moon Evolution W 7 Audiopax Model 88 Mk II Avantgarde Uno Nano GoldenEar Triton Two MartinLogan Montis Interconnect Speaker AC Nordost Valhalla PS Audio Perfect Wave Power Plant 5 Arcici Suspense Rack PolyCrystal amplifier stand Nordost Sort Kone TC Totem Acoustics Beak on GoldenEar Triton Two Furutech RD 2 CD demagnetizer Robert Deutsch that made me think that the recording sounded better than I d realized Come Fly With Me CD Capitol CDP 7 48469 2 catches Frank Sinatra at his confident best with Billy May s arrangements and musical direction providing perfect support but there s no getting around the fact that the massed strings have a certain edge whether from limitations of the 1957 recording technology or the digital transfer This edge was less noticeable through the CAT Audiopax combo than through the ProLogue Premium The Moon W 7 had more of this edge than the ProLogue Premium and much more than the Audiopax but it beat both tubed amps in its sense of power and dynamics had more extended bass and was able to drive the speakers to a higher level without strain The sonic character of the Pro Logue Premium was in between the Audiopax and the Moon W 7 At times listening to the system with the Audiopax in it I thought Yes this is the way it s supposed
16. etup PRIMALUNA PROLOGUE PREMIUM INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER Setting up an integrated amp like the ProLogue Premium should be pretty straightforward connect the source inter connects speaker cables and last the power cord make sure the volume control is turned all the way down turn it on Sounds simple enough but I ran into a problem at the very first stage plugging in the interconnects from the CD player The ProLogue Premium s RCA jacks have plastic covers on them and I had a difficult time trying to remove the ones over the CD input pair The user s manual makes no reference to these protective covers they may have been a late addition Pulling on them didn t seem to work so I started twisting one of them and then I felt it give and the entire input jack started turning Not good Td inadvertently broken the internal con nection to the CD input jacks To repair the damage with Kevin Deal s approval I engaged the services of a highly experienced audio technician Roger Sherman who came to my home and was able to resolder the connection without difficulty I eventu ally found out that there s a trick to removing the protective caps There s a part that provides for a grip it was facing the bottom so I didn t see it once you take hold of that you can easily pull the cover off This problem solved and both channels of the CD input working properly I was ready to do some listening According to the folks w
17. hese differ ences apparent when I was wearing my sharpener hat are to be expected given the price difference People who have 18 000 to spend on speakers like the Avantgarde Uno Nanos can usu ally afford to spend more than 2299 on an integrated amp and probably should to get the most from their speakers However if you ve picked up a used pair of Uno Nanos or Unos or Duos ypwlydrdun a an WYS level of 30mV RMS I doubt that how the THD N percentage ONR PRIMALUNA PROLOGUE PREMIUM INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER at a bargain price and don t have a lot of money left over the ProLogue Premium would give you maybe 90 of what these speakers are capable of and outside of an A B comparison you wouldn t know what you were missing Sound In the Real World The Avantgarde Uno Nano is a rare bird ultra high efficiency horn loaded midrange and tweeter powered subwoofer Evaluating an amplifier with this speaker while useful doesn t tell you how the amp will fare with more conventional speak ers and of course there s a major mismatch in price Keeping these factors in mind I spent most of my ProLogue Premium reviewing time using speakers that are less exotic in design and provide a better price match the GoldenEar Triton Twos The Triton Two is one of my favorite speakers a floorstand ing three way that sells for 2999 pair whose sound quality comfortably exceeds what is normally expected at this price level
18. hness Double bass notes were also more clearly defined Bass drums had greater weight Given that the CAT SL 1 Renaissance is widely rec ognized as one of the world s best preamps and costs nearly four times as much as the ProLogue the fact that it sounded better than the Premium s preamp section shouldn t come as a surprise The real surprise is how close the ProLogue s preamp section came to the sound of the reference guality CAT SL 1 with the higher order products at 18 and _ 21kHz lying at 60dB 0 1 fig 14 _ _ PrimaLuna s ProLogue Premium mea i sures about as wellas expect i from a clas sic tube design that uses a push pull pair o ofEL34 output tubes Boththehumand the amplifier s instability when unloaded A Te probably stem from the compromises necessary to manufacture a transformer _ coupled amplifier of this sort that sells for y are BN artordabie ances John Atkinson o at Fig13 P Primatdna Prologue Premium 4 he tap spectrum of 50Hz sinewave DC 1kHz at low inte 8 ohms left channel blue right red linear ich Fig 14 Smal una Prologue Premium 4 gbm yn tap HF intermodulation spectrum DC 24kHz lt 19420kHz at 13W peak into 8 ohms ba channel blue Fight red linear frequency scale 5 85 The EL34 output tubes can be replaced with KT88s Sound More Exotica As I neared the end of my time with the ProLogue Premium a pair of MartinLogan Montis speakers
19. ho view measured electrical perfor are simply myths impedance of the Audio Precision test system the amplifier I became unstable and went into oscillation at the frequency of this peak This ultrasonic peak was gt amp c w a 1 0 Time in ms Fig 4 Primaluna Prologue Premium 4 ot fap si sal sie kHz MAT into 8 ohms and venue increased with increasing yh load impedance With the 100k ohm FO ar mance as the only criterion for the assessment of an amplifier once an amplifier s internal components have reached operating temperature the amplifier is performing as well as it s ever going to perform break in and warm up beyond a minute or so But most audiophiles and manufacturers of audiophile eguip ment know that break in and warm up phenomena are real and that amplifiers vary in these characteristics In discussing the effect of replacing tubes PrimaLuna notes that break in yields improvements In the case of the ProLogue Premium I found that over a period of several weeks with the amplifier on 9 10 Sete oe tere tap UED Even from the4ohm bwr _ some overshoot can be seen with a IkHz ar sguarewave fig A though the flat tops of better damped from the 4 ohm tap fig 2 1 _ when the variations in response with our simulated loudspeaker were a oe oe us i ae rey trace But me ultrasonics _ this waveform are a testament to the Pro _ Logue Pre
20. ile ild consider buying integrated amps have made a come back in popularity and prestige Consider the October 2006 Recommended Components issue of Stereophile listed 29 integrated amps whereas the October 2011 issue lists 40 Stereopkiles 2010 Amplification Component of the Year award SPECIFICATIONS Description Tubed remote KT88s 15 9dBW Frequency controlled stereo integrated response 20Hz 30kHz amplifier Tube complement 0 5dB THD lt 1 at full four 12AU7 four EL34 or power Signal noise 89dB KT88 Inputs 4 pairs RCA Input sensitivity 300mV 1 paw HT bypass Outputs Power Consumption 300W 4 and 8 ohm transformer Dimensions 14 5 370mm taps Maximum output W by 8 205mm H by 15 5 power 35Wpc with EL34s 400mm D Weight 46 3 15 6dBW 4OWpc with Ibs 21kg june 2012 went to an integrated amp the Audio Research VSi60 beating out a host of heavy hitter preamps and power amps The 2012 Stereophile Buyer s Guide lists 400 integrateds What accounts for the renewed popularity of this product cate gory Cost is certainly a factor but it s not the only one You could buy a separate preamp and power amp for the cost of some inte grated amps I suspect that a major part of the appeal is the desire for simplicity one box instead of two or in the case of mono block power amps three cluttering up the living listening room and fewer power cables and interconnects another cost saving
21. is 35Wpc whereas with the KT88s it s 40Wpc a difference small enough that I thought it would be inconseguential Nevertheless I swapped out the EL34s for KT88s remembering to change the position of the bias switch and whether because of the minor powcr differencc or other reasons I preferred the sound with the KT88s Unlike with the Triton Two where the sound with the KT 88s was a bit on the brash side with the Montis the sound was tonally better balanced than with the EL34s with more extended highs and a more dynamically lively presentation My last comparison involving the Montis and the KT88 equipped ProLogue Premium involved changing from the 4 ohm to the 8 ohm speaker connectors The Montis is rated at 4 ohms but is described as being compatible with 4 6 or 8 ohm rated amplifiers I fully expected that the 4 ohm output would produce better results as it had with the Triton Two Not so The sound using the 8 ohm connectors was more open and better focused It just goes to show you that in audio there s little that you can take for granted With the KT88s and the 8 ohm speaker stereophile com June 2012 PRIMALUNA PROLOGUE PREMIUM INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER connectors the combination of ProLogue Premium and Mar tinLogan Montis became a more than credible match despite the major disparity in their prices Conclusions and System Building Built to a high standard the PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium offers outstanding s
22. m um s extended low ug 2 cies These four graphs were taken with gt Er the volume control oct to it n maximum sE Ps Primaluna Prologue Premium 8 dh tani p spectrum of notse floor ref TW into 8 ohms oe a pies channel blue night red linear Tea scale 79 hours a day and playing music 3 4 hours a day I leave the CD player on all the time there was an improvement the music sounded more detailed and somehow more relaxed and frec flowing It also seemed to me that playing music each day for several hours there was a similar sonic improvement suggesting a warm up effect beyond the few minutes it takes the tubes to reach their normal operating temperature I noted these effects while using the Avantgarde Uno Nano speakers the warm up effect was also apparent with the GoldenEar Triton Twos I decided to evaluate it in a more systematic way First with the GoldenEar Triton Twos in the system I turned on the ProLogue Premium waited five minutes and played track 3 of the Chesky Records Jazz Sampler amp Audiophile Test Compact Disc Vol1 Chesky JD37 I listened carefully noting all the little sonic details stopped the CD and left the room for an hour I then went back to the listening room where the system had been on all this time but without playing music and listened to the same track again The volume control was not touched My conclusion which those who want double blind controls are free to igno
23. ound quality at a very reasonable price In my listening tests it combined well with speakers both conventional and exotic and gave high end references more than a run for their money Audiophiles often complain about how expensive this hobby has become and not without justification In apportioning the job of reporting on amplification components at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show Larry Greenhill and Stephen Mejias set 5000 as the dividing line between inexpensive and expensive Stephen tells me that he would have liked to set the cutoff at 1000 but there simply wasn t enough at CES below that price which would have led to an unequal division of labor The 2012 Stereophile Buyers Guide lists 29 integrated amps costing 10 000 or more including one that comes in at a cool 100 000 Is this sheer madness What tends to be forgotten during the expressions of out rage about high prices is that if you ignore equipment at crazy prices and of course each of us has his or her own idea of exactly where craziness begins ours is a great age for the cost conscious audiophile If you do your homework on what s available read The the reviews and visit dealers who make a point of offering their custom PrimaLuna ers value you can assemble a system ProLogue for a reasonable price that with atten Premium tion paid to component matching and setup can offer sound quality that offers a a the a ae s outst
24. r a total price well under 8000 this system could easily compete with the typical rig costing 20 000 Yes this is a great time to be an audiophile m 87
25. re was that there was indeed an improvement and of the sort that I d previously noted more informally What I thought was interesting was that the improvement did not depend on the speakers playing during the warm up period It s possible that playing the speakers would result in a further improvement in the sound but it would require some additional comparisons to determine if this is the case Sound Take One I used the ProLogue Premium with three speakers my reference Avantgarde Acoustic Uno Nanos reviewed in July 2009 the GoldenEar Triton Twos February 2012 and briefly the MartinLogan Montises soon to be reviewed These speakers represent a wide range of design approaches and sound quite difterent from each other a measurements continued Commendably there was no change in the response with the volume control set to lower positions and the channel balance remained excellent Channel separation not shown was good at gt 7OdB in both direction below TkHz but just 50dB at 2OkHz I tried all possible ways of connecting ait AW the ground of the PrimaLuna ampli fier to that of the Audio Precision test system including running a separate wire from the ProLogue Premium s 500m 7 2 5 w Fb Primaluna Prologue Premium Bohm tap distor ton TE ws kHz continuous output power into 8 ohms 10 20 50100 e com June 2012 grounding post on A rear terminal to 2 the AP s chassis but
26. roLogue Premium is surprisingly heavy 46 3 lbs The chassis has a very solid feel and the fit n finish is of a quality that suggests a much more expensive piece of equipment The tubes are covered by a cage that can be easily lifted off rather than requiring a tool to remove it The front panel has two knobs one for volume the other for source selection There is no balance control Source selection has an unusual logic no matter what source you ve been listening to when the ProLogue Premium is turned off and then turned on again the source defaults to CD On the left side panel near the front there s a rocker switch for power on off and on the right side another rocker switch allows selection of bias optimized for EL34 or KT88 power tubes Accidentally setting this switch to a tube type not installed does no harm in fact the user manual suggests that you experiment with the switch position for per sonal taste I explored matching mismatching the tubes and bias switch positions and preferred the matched positions The rear panel sports five pairs of RCA jacks for inputs one pair labeled HT for Home Theater This is not just unity gain but actually bypasses the preamp section and allows volume to be controlled by a surround processor receiver The ProLogue Premium normally comes with EL34 output tubes but can also accommodate KT88s a set of which was included with the review sample Except as noted I did my listening with
27. swing Yes this is more like the real thing Then my critical self again reared its head and I began to feel that the sound was a bit on the aggressive side pushing the music toward me rather than drawing me into it And whenever I switched over to the ProLogue Premium I had the feeling that here was an amplifier speaker combination that just clicked For an in tegrated amplifier that costs a mere fraction of these high end references this is remarkable performance The ProLogue Premium s Home Theater input bypasses the preamp section including the volume control I did a trial using this input connecting it to the output of the CAT pre amp with the Ayre Acoustics CX 7eM CD player connected to the CAT preamp s input In this setup in which I used the ProLogue Premium as only a power amp I could evaluate the contribution of the ProLogue s preamp section to the sound When I compared the ProLogue Premium with the CD player interconnects plugged directly into its CD inputs vs into one of the CAT s line level inputs the output of the CAT driving the ProLogue s amp section directly the dif ferences were not great but were significant The tonal bal ance remained much the same but with the CAT doing the preamplification there was a definite improvement in what I might call finesse the percussion instruments in track 3 of the Chesky test CD were clearer and more distinct but also more delicate and with no added edge or hars
28. ure the bias switch on the amplifier s left side panel was set to the appropriate bias position for that tube Maximum voltage gain into 8 ams was on the low side for an integrated amplifier at 36dB from the 8 ohm output trans _ former tap and 34dB from the 4 ohm tap but this shouldn t be an issue with modern line level source components The Pro Logue Premium preserved absolute polar ity and the input impedance was 35k ohms across the audioband dropping to 30k ohms at 20kHz Though these figures are around half the specified 68k ohms they stereophile com June 2012 a 10 20 50100200 500 ik 2k 5k 10k 20k 50k Wm Hz at Hz Fig 1 PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium 8 ohm tap frequency response at 2 83V into simulated loud speaker load gray 8 ohms left channel blue right red 4 ohms left cyan right magenta 2 ahms green 1dB vertical div 1Ti 1 20 50 100200 500 1k 2k 5k 10k20k 50k ZDUR 5 fig2 PrimaLuna ProLogue Sono 4 ohm tap _ frequency response at 2 83V into simulated loud _ speaker load gray 8 ohms left channel blue ight red 4 ohms left cyan right magenta _ 2 ohms green 1dB vertical div T7 The tube cover has glass side panels extend the life of sensitive components and reduce the chance of tube failure from thermal shock The basic design of the ProLogue Premium follows tried and true principles the output stage runs in Ultralinear mode and tubes run well
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