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PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium

Hi,

First and foremost let me say I’m not trying to start any war of words, bash any manufacturers products or any HiFi dealers. I’m just stating my humble opinion. In the words of Denzel Washington in the movie Malcom X we’ve been hoodwinked and led astray when it comes to the whole audiophile phenomenom. I recently owned a ARC REF 5SE, REF 110 and ARC solid state DS450M mono-block amps. They were driving my Magnepan 20.7’s and my Meridian music streamer. I just switched all of it out for a PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP amplifier with KT150 tubes and a PL Dialogue Premium preamplifier and two these ears my Maggie’s have never sounded so good. I’m going to add another PL Dialogue Premium HP next week and then I can honestly say I am done with my search for high fidelity sound. People please don’t let other dealers and manufacturers tell you, you need to spend $$$$ to achieve musical nirvana it’s all hype. I fell for that crap and I’m really embarrassed to say it. PrimaLuna is a superior musical instrument that honestly should cost 4 to 5 times more for their Dialogue Premium line. The build and features are second to none. Please please don’t let these dealers tell you other wise. It’s all about the benjamins and they want you to invest your hard earned money in there over priced crap. I invite anyone to listen to my system and tell me this isn’t as good as it gets and that this is not how music should sound. I live in Seattle and I  reached out to Upscale Audio’s Kevin Deal after 1 1/2 weeks of watching his videos and banging my head against the wall over my inferior lifeless musical experience. I took a leap of faith after reading several reviews and seriously doing some home work and made decision. Wow PL and KD thank you for not making me look like and absolute fool. I honestly feel like I stole from PL and Upscale Audio. Can’t stop tapping my feet and shaking my head. Bye for now and if one person listens to PRimaLuna after reading this thread my mission is complete. Peace,  Miles and Dizzy are on stage with Stevie Ray riding shotgun!
bluesy41
soundermn's avatar
soundermn
344 posts
 
I don't know what audioman is saying either.  I think he's saying it can always be better.  Maybe, maybe not.  

But, I had a PL Dialogue One for four years, then moved up the link to the Dialogue Premium HP Integrated.  It's great with the standard EL34 tubes, but it is a step better with KT150s.  I rolled input tubes for a while.  Eventually I went back to the factory input tubes and I was reminded that PL puts things together the right way.  The factory input tubes are a great match for this amp.

I'm happy with mine, two years now, and see no reason to ever get anything else.  
bluesy41 OP
211 posts
 

@soundermn 

What is the rest of your system comprised of?

soundermn's avatar
soundermn
344 posts
 
I have Revel Performa3 F208 speakers (recently replaced my B&W 803N), JVC VL8 Turntable, Project PhonoBox RS phono preamp.  I also have a Cambridge 650C CD player, but rarely use it.  And, my room is acoustically treated, which helps a lot.  I'm sure I could improve slightly with a more expensive integrated, but really I see no reason to do so.  
terryo
3 posts
 
What audioman58 is saying is if you get the capacitors and a number of the resistors replaced in you PL amp with higher quality parts there is a very decent sized improvement in sound quality and he is totally correct. I will be having the caps in my HP integrated replaced with Jupitor caps in the next two weeks, can’t wait.

I have read on a number of occassions comments by people saying they sold their PL amp for various reasons, like they got bored with the el34 sound, yet they never bothered to try tube rolling. Their loss I reckon these amps were made for tube rolling, a PL amp with KT120’s or better still KT150’s has a completely different sound to one with either el34’s or KT88’s.
The big 150 tubes make the PL very dynamic and open without loosing to much of that smoothness you get with el34’s.
Also once you change the two centre 12au7’s for some NOS tubes, depending on brand and model, you can totally dial in your amp to sound the way you like it best for each genre of music and then change it again in less than a minute if for example you switch from heavy rock to jazz.

Rolling the main tubes in a PL amp has the same effect as buying and plugging in a totally different amp and changing the centre two 12au7’s is like changing to a different DAC in a SS system.

For those who have a Pl amp and don’t try tube rolling seriously you don’t know what you are missing.

... cheers.
bluesy41 OP
211 posts
 
@terryo - I got the KT150 and they are amazing. I’m up to about 20 hours on the Dialogue Premium Preamp and HP amp and will look to roll the tubes on the preamp after about 80 hrs of listening. Adding a second HP so I can take advantage of having mono-blocks. Not that I’m not digging the sound already but I know my 20.7’s would benefit from the separate power supply. 

Cheers
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