Ezstreams ,
Some of your decision might have to be based on your budget.
I would recommend going with one of the Dialogue Premium HP versions for amplification. The Dialogue HP versions will give you more power and will drive most speakers. This will help if you decide to change speakers in the future. Some speakers require more power to drive them properly.
If you can afford separates , I would recommend either:
Dialogue Premium Preamp / Dialogue Premium HP Amp
or
Prologue Premium Preamp / Dialogue Premium HP AMP
If you budget is in the range of an integrated amp then I would recommend The Dialogue Premium HP.
You can check out Primaluna's web page for prices.
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Whats your budget? What's your current system amp?
In my 11X16 room I'm running the Dialogue premium integrated(non HP) into my Focal 1008be2's and it's my final system unless i move to a bigger space.
If you go separates remember to add cables int the budget.
If you can, see if you can find a dealer and setup an audition.
good luck.
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You can’t go wrong either way. The HP Integrated sounds great with the KT150 tubes, a friend has one and I have heard it many times. I have also heard the HP Monoblocks. Better separation and spacing of the instruments. At this point it all comes down to money. |
Thank you for your thoughts.
Current amplification is the 150 watt RMS Class D hybrid Vincent SV 236 MKII integrated driving a pair of GoldenEar Triton 3's. With the GoldenEar's having active onboard bass amplifiers, the external amp is only driving the midrange and ribbon tweeter so I probably have more than enough headroom. That said, to get to my "final system" (a great term i hadnt heard before), I'll very likely upgrade the speakers in the next 2 to 5 years. To what, i really havent though about yet.
In regards to budget, I'd like to stay in the $4K range but definately no higher than $5K. Adding in cost of interconnects for separates is a good point to be added in the $ side of the equation, but musicality satisfaction is by far the highest priority in my search as i would like this to be the last amplification purchase (not including any tube tweaking) to be enjoyed over the remaining 20 to 30 years i hope to be around to enjoys the endorphin inducing pleasure of listening to great quality music.
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I have Prologue Mono's and a Dialogue Preamp. Quite happy with it.
Setting it all up again this weekend, as I've just moved. Can't wait to fire it up :) |
It is hard to beat the feeling of anticipation one gets from adding a new component to your system or i would imagine setting up your system after a long hiatus simonbelgium!
Your mix and match configuration with Prologue amps matched with Dialog Preamp along with Timo62's suggestion of Prologue pre matched with Dialogue HP amp raises an intersting question. Do the Dialogue upgrades over their Prologue equivalent have a greater influence on musicality from the speaker in the Preamp stage or in the power amp stage?
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What phono preamp are you going to use? |
@ezstreams
I suggest you call Kevin at Upscale Audio. He gives great advice concerning Primaluna since he is also the distributor. I purchased my Dialogue Premium integrated amp from him along with various tubes and couldn't be happier. |
You will find the following thread to be of interest: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/primaluna-prologue-integrated-help-neededAs you’ll see, the OP in that thread had a problem using the PrimaLuna ProLogue integrated amp with his GoldenEar Triton Two speakers, in the form of a "throb" at about two beats per second that occurred when the volume was raised beyond a certain point. Like your Triton Three his Twos have internal amplification for the deep bass, resulting in an impedance that rises to very high levels at deep bass frequencies. And it turned out that the amp wasn’t happy working into a load that was essentially absent at low frequencies. The result being what is referred to in electronics as " motorboating." I suggested that he try putting suitably chosen load resistors on the output terminals of the amp, and that resolved the problem. Good luck. Regards, -- Al |
I have the Prima Luna Dialogue premium HP integrated amp.
When I ran it into a pair of Dali Helicon 400 floorstanding speakers with ribbon tweeters, the mid range in the top end were the best I have ever heard on those speakers. but the base was too soft.
But since you have Active subwoofers and you don’t need to amplify them, I would concentrate on an integrated amplifier that just provides the juice for the mid frequencies and high frequencies.
Meaning that the nonHP Integrated primaluna would likely provide enough power for the mid/highs on you 90dB/8ohm Tritons. And provide beautiful depth, resolution, and timbre.
To be honest I think the pre-Maluma prima Luna amplifiers are a step above the Tritons, even though the Tritons are very good.
Consequently, I would just pick up the PL nonHP Integrated, and keep your leftover $500 to buy NOS tubes for the PL. Particularly NOS PreAmp tubes, which seem to have the largest impact on final SQ.
When you graduate from the Tritons and move up the line, then I would consider separate PL preamp and amplifier.
The most effective and efficient upgrade after the integrated will be to install the NOS tubes. After that, when you upgrade your speakers, then maybe consider Prima Luna separates.
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incredible! I can not thank you enough almarg for bringing this phenomena to my attention! You are a great example of why these forums are so valuable to the home audio enthusiast. Im not an electrical engineer, but I did take a EE course in college and have had a healthy respect for them ever since. Do you know if all the Primaluna lines would be susceptible to "motorboating" or do any have a more robust stability when dealing with high current at high impedances in the low frequency range of GoldenEar subs? |
@ezstreams...………………
I run my Golden Ear Triton Reference speakers with a McIntosh power and pre. 150wpc going to the mids and tweeter is plenty of power. I can easily hit 108db in my room (don’t recommend it though your ears could suffer from too much volume) and the sound is deep and tight,
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@ezstreams,
Thank you for the nice words :-)
I have no way of knowing if a similar problem would arise if a different PrimaLuna model than the OP was using in the thread I linked to were to be used with your Tritons. But it wouldn't surprise me if there is enough design commonality among PrimaLuna's various models for the problem to arise.
On the other hand, though, should that occur it seems to me that the resistor solution would be a good one. The only downsides I would expect are a slight reduction in the maximum amount of power that could be delivered to the speakers, and perhaps a tiny increase in distortion due to the slight reduction of the overall load impedance seen by the amp. I'd be very surprised if either of those effects were great enough to be audible.
I should mention also that if you were to go with one of the higher powered PrimaLuna models the 47 ohm 12 watt resistors that were used by the OP in the other thread with his approximately 40 watt amp may have to be different in one or both of those parameters.
Good luck, however you decide to proceed. Best regards,
-- Al
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https://www.ohmite.com/wirewound/Get the Ohmite 12 watt Resistor and call PrimaLuna which I think will end up routing you through Kevin and he'll tell you how to connect them. It's really easy. I didn't end up getting the Triton Ones like I was going to but that was the solution to the motorboating. JM |
would agree with comments from the others. the Dialogues have larger Output transformers, so will weigh more. The prologue premium pre amp uses no cathode follower, so would keep cables between the pre and power amp on the short side. I have both dialogue premium and prologue premium power amps. Both are very nice. would also suggest setting aside a few bucks in your budget for some after market input tubes. Either NOS or the psvane T-IIs.
both amps also benefit nicely from coupling cap upgrades, but another story for another time.
good luck and happy listening.
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