PrimaLuna Prologue 1 or 2?

I appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions. If anyone wants to take this further (since Newbee raised the issue and it's a valid one), let me add that the characteristics I've always valued in my (and others') systems' performance are: a wide and deep soundstage with solid imaging, accurate instrumental timbre and a sense of air around individual instruments/voices. That's all kind of retro, I know, but I got into this hobby back in the late 70s and then sat out for a few decades just listening to the music. My system chronology includes many fewer component upgrades than most who, like me, have been at this for 30 years. My 20-year-old B&K ST-140 is only my second power amp, for example (the first was a GAS Son of Ampzilla - that *really* dates me).

When I did get active again, I suddenly found reviewers and others talking about equipment having rhythm and pacing and the kind of timing qualities that seemed to me to either be there in the recorded performance or not, not something that a component could add to or detract from. Consequently I'm not sure if I've ever even experienced those types of qualities, or how to even listen for them. I suspect on some level they're at the heart of the "musicality" issue, and whether you get lost in the music vs listening to the hifi. But I have to say I don't know that for sure. I remember when the debate was about whether everyone meant the same thing when they described a sound as "dark," or "dry," or "grainy." It seems much more difficult now. How do I know what a "sense of pace" sounds like?

Before this gets too far off the PrimaLuna topic, let me say that I guess the long and short is I want something that sounds as life-like as possible for the money, and that doesn't cause fatigue from being overly analytical and detailed beyond the detail you get in real sound in a real hall (using a symphony orchestra as a reference). I guess that's one way of saying I want to simply get involved in the music. My current system gets me almost all the way there, but I know it has some weak links, one of which is the preamp. And if I'm going to look into a replacement for it, I thought tubes might be a good approach, and a cost-effective way to do that might be through one of the PrimaLuna integrateds, i.e., maximize the tube effect by having both pre and power. And here we are.

Craig:

Points well made, though if I follow your dates correctly I may still be older (damm).

So, I own the Prologue 2 integrated and Prologue 5 power amps. With either unit, I have never found myself obsessing about 3/4 of the stuff that I read reviewers write about. What struck me about both the 2 and the 5 is that the music had very much a 3D quality to it. The music seem suspended in the air, so to speak. I have recently shuffled all my components around and in the system I use the Prologue 5, the monitors are placed inside of a bookcase, on their sides, about 4 feet up in the air. The system sounds fantastic ... clear, clean, and musical with excellent rendering of the recording ... like what else could I want? My room size is about the same as yours, the speakers have a sensitivity of 86 db, and assuming I don't want ear bleed ... it plays plenty loud.

I use the Prima Lunas as follows:

System #1

Prologue 2 integrated amp, Rega Apollo CD player, SONY SCD 555ES SACD player, Acoustic Research 302 speakers.

System #2

Prologue 5 power amp, Musical Fidelity CD PRE 24 CD player/preamp combo, Rega Ara monitors.

For both systems, the interconnects are Signal Cable and the power cords are Naim.

Without knowing how your current equipment set-up sounds, I think that you would be happy with either the Prologue 1 or 2. I think that the 2 gives you a little more, but I don't think that it distracts from the music. Question though, if you suspect that the preamp is the problem, have you considered picking up the Prologue 3 preamp instead?

Regards, Rich

Tvad - the published specs on the Kestrel 2s are pretty skimpy - with no other parameters given it simply says impedance is 8 ohms (it doesn't even say it's nominal) and sensitivity is listed as 89dB (with nothing said about input or distance).

Rich - thanks for the thoughtful comments. I *have* considered just upgrading the preamp alone, but as I was trying to suggest toward the end of my last post (I could have been clearer, but figured I'd gone on long enough as it was), I thought if there was going to be a sonic benefit to introducing tubes into the mix, the best way to be sure of getting that benefit would be to go with tubes for both power and pre. But your question begs this next one - leaving aside issues such as the relative quality differences between my current power amp and preamp, and assuming I'd have the money to replace both with separates (which may or may not be the case), which approach is likely to have the greater effect on the sound of the system - switching out the power amp or the preamp?

I know a *whole* lot of it has to do with the actual equipment being evaluated, but with the nearest opportunity to hear any PrimaLunas in person being a drive of, well, however far it is from Indy to Kansas City, we've got to talk in hypothetical terms for now. Unless I get an unusually strong craving for BBQ in the next few weeks.

Anyone have any thoughts on that?