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PrimaLuna Prologue 5 and tube upgrades

Coming from the pro audio world and sitting most of my career in front of extremely flat loudspeakers in acoustically treated rooms, I'm a bit concerned that my brand new Prima Luna Prologue 5 tube amp is quite rolled off from 10k on upward.
I'm sure most would call this "warm" and the typical tube sound, but I would just call this in need of a pink noise generator and a eq adjustment. I am in love with the 3D dimensionality and the incredible soundstage from this amp, but am left craving the pings of cymbals and the air of vocals on playback.
So far, I've only just replaced the 12ax7's with some 70's phillips that I had around. It helped just a small bit with the extention of the highs. Should I chase this down with some great Telefunkens etc? or go back to a solid state amp? Yes, I'm calling Kevin from Upscale later today!
jmacinnis
jmacinnis OP
16 posts
 
So this is common eq'ing with tubes? I'm not sure I'm patient enough or rich enough?!
davide256's avatar
davide256
399 posts
 
most of the new manufactured pre tubes are awful for good tube equipment... I've yet to find any I like after prolonged listening although the Prima Luna tubes are a safe bet for a tube thats musical but not detailed. And the NOS tubes definitely have sonic characteristics. Mullards, Siemens, Amperex, and Telefunkens from early 70's and before seem to work well, after that tube manufacturing went down hill with the exception of some Eastern Europe tubes in the early 80's. And it does cost, hard to find good NOS tubes for less than $50 per tube with 12AX7's the dearest.

BTW I heartily recommend the KT-120's instead of KT-88's...they remedy the main ill's that the reviewers have critiqued Prima Luna Prologue for, dynamic compression and missing low bass. They will however shine a spotlight on any distortion from your pre tubes, I found this especially noticeable on complex choral passages and ended up completely reshuffling my pre tube complement to eliminate.
jmacinnis OP
16 posts
 
I've been reading about non-feedback topology amplification and it being prone to be frequency limitations if not matched with the absolute perfect speaker system. Truth to this? If so, where are these perfect speakers that will give me the sparkle back?
b_limo's avatar
b_limo
2,277 posts
 
Good thread, and extremely helpful to me as I purchased a PrimaLuna Prologue 5 just last week! Great advice with recommended tubes! Thank you. Once I start getting into some good tubes I'll report back!
jbreezy5
2 posts
 
Jmacinnis - I was doing some research on the Prologue 5 and found your post. Did you ever get this sorted out?

Do you still have the amp?
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