Prima Luna Premium Pre

So The Prima Luna weighs more and may be better built.

How do the parts internally compare to a Conrad Johnson ET3SE on a quality basis?

More importantly does it sound better?

My local dealer sells both CJ & Prima Luna and he told me The Prima Luna is inferior to The CJ ET3SE. His opinion is if you are going to upgrade go to an ET5 or something in a similar price range and that The Prima Luna is going backwards.

Of course that is his opinion. It is hard without listening to the Prima Luna in the same system as the CJ.

I wouldn't worry so much about the parts as the sound. My Jadis preamps had parts in them that may not have been the most expensive, but the end result was stunning.

If your dealer has both brands, can't you listen to them there and compare? Or better yet, borrow them to try at home in your system? That way you'll know if it sounds better to the only ears that matter, yours. Look at the above posts--there are two people who have differing opinions of the Prima Luna vs. McIntosh. I would say they are both correct, as far as their own hearing and personal preferences in what they want out of their audio systems go. You need to make your decision based on what you hear, not what someone else says.

Pkelly, I'm wondering if with your present CJ ET3SE you are having to operate the volume control undesirably close to the bottom of its range, especially with digital sources if you are using any.

The reason I ask is that your ET3SE, and also the ET5 you mentioned as a possibility, are spec'd as having unusually high gain (25 db). And I see in another of your recent threads that you are using Sonus Faber Elipsa SE speakers, rated at 91 db/2.83V/1m and 4 ohms, and Cary CAD 500MB amplifiers rated at 1000 watts into 4 ohms, with 1.42 volt sensitivity for full output power. That all suggests to me that you may have too much gain in your system to be optimal, and the same would be true if you went to an ET5.

The 12 db gain of the PrimaLuna preamp, which is more typical of the gain of most line stages, seems much more reasonable in the context of your particular system. To be sure it's clear, however, in saying that I am not expressing any opinion about the PrimaLuna's sonics, having no experience with it.

FWIW. Regards,
-- Al

My main source is now a turntable. A project extension 12 with a Sumiko Celebration 2 cartridge and an Audio Research PH 7 as the phono pre.

Thank You all for the responses.

The 57.5 db gain of your phono stage will raise the output of your cartridge by a factor of 750, so the 0.5 mv rated output of your cartridge under the standard cartridge test conditions will be raised to 0.375 volts. The peak levels of some recordings will be several times greater than those standard test conditions, but still the maximum output levels of many digital sources are likely to be significantly greater than that. So if you go to a different preamp, and you envision the possibility of eventually using a digital source as one of your main sources, the possibility of issues arising from the unusually high gain of the ET5 and perhaps other CJ preamps (in combination with your particular speakers and amplifier) is a factor that should be considered.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al