Review: Prima Luna Prologue Two Tube amp

Category: Amplifiers

Background ...

I have been in this hobby for almost 35 years and the only tube equipment that I have ever owned was my very first system ... a one piece victrola with a Philco tube stereo amplifier, a Voice of Music turntable, and two detachable speakers each containing a single 3 inch, full range, baffle mounted speaker. My dad, who owned a TV & Appliance Repair Shop in Brooklyn, was a big fan of tubes, as tubes were easier to service than the first solid state boards. After a few years, I "upgraded" to a solid state SONY HP-161 tuner/turntable compact system and I never considered tubes again.

Well, hit the fast forward button 35 years and here I am purchasing a Prima Luna Prologue Two integrated tube amp. The Prima Luna replaces a NAD C 320BEE integrated amp, that I have used happily in a secondary system almost every day for more than two years. Even though the NAD was not the most refined sounding of amps (when compared to a Musical Fidelity A3 integrated, for example), the NAD made music listening enjoyable for hours on end ... which is perhaps the best praise that I can give to a piece of stereo equipment.

If you are a reader of the hifi magazines (like I am), it has been hard to avoid the Prima Luna integrateds lately. Just about every magazine has featured a rave review about either the Prologue One or Prologue Two and they are attractively priced ... so much so, that the question became "which one should I buy?" as opposed to "should I buy?" The only issue was that I could not easily audition one (I live in NYC) and the Prima Lunas have only one distributor and he is 3000 miles away. Fortunately, the distributor is Kevin Deal of Upscale Audio. Kevin is someone that I trust and respect and have purchased equipment from several times. In all candor, knowing that Kevin was one of the key members of the Prima Luna team was comforting to me and so, not being able to audition the amp prior to purchasing, became less of a “must to do.”

I decided to go with the Prologue Two mostly due to a “technical talk” email exchange with Kevin that went ended with ... "the Prologue Two will have more pop in the bass." I was planning to use the Prologue Two with Acoustic Research 302 speakers (3 way; 10 inch woofer; acoustic suspension design) , which can go down to 35 hz, so for an extra $250, I figured ... why not take advantage of the extended bass response?

I have listened to tube amps in the past, but never with an eye towards buying one ... so I was very much in the role of the newbie when purchasing the Prologue Two. Knowing that the Prima Lunas were designed to make life easy for the first time tube amp purchaser was a comfort, as well.

The Audition ...

First a disclaimer ... when I listen to music, I tend to concentrate on the performance. I have never been one to get too hung up on audiophile concerns like soundstaging and things of that ilk. With that said ...

The first quality that I noticed about the Prologue Two was how quiet it is. The music seems to just emerge out of the darkness. The crisp, opening guitar chords of "Gimme Shelter" (Rolling Stones "Let It Bleed") seem to appear from nowhere. This is the same impression that I had when I first heard the album over 30 years ago. The Prologue Two also conveys a sense of solidness to the music ... a real sense of musical depth. When listening to Frank Sinatra's "Night and Day" (from "A Swingin' Affair"), the brass fanfare that drives the pace of the song and sets the tone for the rest of the album, sounds full and in command, not lightweight and screechy, as I have heard on other systems. On that same album, on "No One Ever Tells You," the band's instruments play counterpoint to Sinatra's vocals and the Prologue Two captures this interplay with just the right amount of delicacy and emphasis.

I have always listened to a lot of music with vocals. As a teenager, it was mostly pop music. Today, it can run the gamut from Bob Dylan to Placido Domingo. The Prologue Two captures the essence of the vocal performance with ease. I both heard and felt the full range of emotions expressed ... from desperation (Frank Sinatra “My Funny Valentine”) to longing (Bob Dylan “I’ll Keep It With Mine”) to swaggering pride (Frank Sinatra “Look At Me Now)” to pensive (Jesse Sykes “Oh, My Girl”) to operatic approaching doom (Mozart “Ah, son perduto!”).

Instruments sounded equally impressive with the Prologue Two. The violin on Bartok’s “Danses Populaires” (from "Le Violin Vagabond") had an almost three dimensional quality to it and the sound just seemed to hang in the air. The guitars on “Little Rivi Airhead” (Junior Brown “Down Home Chrome”) and “Oh, My Girl” (Jesse Sykes) sounded crisp, detailed, and musical all at the same time. There was a suppleness and pace to Oscar Peterson’s piano playing on “Caravan” (“Ocsar Peterson & Dizzy Gillespie”). Horns had just the right amount of bite and lightness to their sound (Maurice Andre “Trumpet Concertos).

From a construction and looks standpoint the Prologue Two shouts quality. If you appreciate solid, finely machined, neat looking equipment with a good amount of heft ... well, this is one amp for you. I went with the black faceplate version as it complemented the rest of my system. The stock tubes that come with the Prologue Two get the job done quite well, which is a good thing, as I am not into “NOS and tube rolling” ... well, not yet anyway. The amp gets pretty warm to the touch, but not hot, even after it has been on for a few hours.

Summary

To sum it up, I was very impressed and very happy with my Prologue Two purchase. Listening to music on this amp has been very enjoyable, as the music sounds inviting and I am finding myself playing more and more CDs and playing them all the way through. I am having a lot of fun with this amp. A special thanks to Kevin at Upscale Audio for first rate service both pre and post sale and his SoCal sense of humor.

The Baker’s Dozen of CDs Used:

Maurice Andre ... "Trumpet Concertos" (EMI Classics)
Joseph Canteloupe ... “Chants d’Auvergne” (NAXOS - SACD Hybrid)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ... "Le Nozze di Figaro" ... Rene Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi)
Graf Mourja ... "Le Violin Vagabond" (Harmonia Mundi)

David Bowie ... "Ziggy Stardust" 30th Anniversary Edition (Virgin)
Junior Brown ... “Down Home Chrome” (Telarc - SACD Hybrid)
Bob Dylan ... "Biograph" (Columbia)
Buddy Holly ... "The Ultimate EP Collection" (See For Miles Records)
Oscar Peterson & Dizzy Gillespie ... (JVC XRCD2)
Rolling Stones ... "Let It Bleed" (ABCKO - SACD Hybrid)
Frank Sinatra ... "Frank Sinatra Concepts" (Capitol Box Set)
Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros ... “Streetcore” (Hellcat Records)
Jesse Sykes ... "Oh, My Girl" (Barsuk Records)

Associated gear
SONY SCD C555 ES SACD Player
SONY DVP S560D DVD Player
Acoustic Research 302 speakers (3 way; 10 inch woofer; 85 db sensitivity)
IXOS Silver GAMMA 1001 Interconnect (amp to SACD player)
Signal Cable Analog One Interconnect (amp to DVD player)
Signal Cable Classic Speaker Cable

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