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Has Anyone Uesed A PrimaLuna Amp With Harbeth Speaker's

Hi guys, I will be on the market soon for a new amp and I keep looking at the Primaluna Amps, has anyone heard the Primaluna Dialogue Premium amp driving a pair of Harbeth's 30.1 speakers? these are 87d/b and I am not sure how this will work out?
bigred71
djfst
169 posts
 
An acquaintance has Harbeth's with Quicksilver tube amps and sounded really nice.  There is a pair of Quicksilver mono blocks for sale on audiogon now that I think were similar to the ones he had:  https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis8eh0e-quicksilver-v-4-balanced-monoblocks-tube

I usually love Primaluna with most gear, but might agree that the HP Dialogue would be a better option than the Dialogue.  Doubling the tubes and power would seem a bit safer, especially if you every changed speakers down the road.  Just food for thought.
joey54
435 posts
 
Having owned 3 pairs of Harbeth's, currently the SHL5+, I agree with tswila that Harbeth's do not sound right with tube amplification. I tried Quicksilver V-4' and Silver 88's and an Audio Research VT100 with both the original SHL5's and the monitor 40's.

They need a good SS amplifier to sound their best. Of course, this is my opinion and YMMV. Good Luck!
brianmoriarty
51 posts
 
willemj
Just look at these Stereophile measurements: https://www.stereophile.com/content/primaluna-dialogue-premium-power-amplifier-measurements it has a pretty bad load dependent frequency response. You might as well buy yourself an equalizer. Moreover, its output of little over 20 watts is not enough to drive the Harbeths. Just do yourself a favour and do what Harbeth’s designer Alan Shaw suggests and get a beefy solid state amplifier. Even very good ones will cost less and will sound far better.
If you read the Stereophile article you’ll see the following, the 25 wpc is in low power triode mode, see below. The amp met the 42wpc spec. As far as quality goes, reliability and quality control in the primaluna line are halmarks. These are top shelf amps that will last a lifetime.

...With two choices of output tube, each capable of being operated in Triode (green LED) or Ultralinear (red LED) mode, and with three output-transformer taps available, the DiaLogue Premium offers 12 different ways of being used, and is therefore 12 different amplifiers in one chassis.
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/primaluna-dialogue-premium-power-amplifier-measurements#OGDKVfi7...
bluesy41
211 posts
 
I own the PL Dialogue Premium HP amp with 8 KT150 and 12AU7’s per monoblock  to drive my Magnepan 20.7’s (87db) and the sound is truly glorious. I’m certain they will make your Harbeth’s sing.

Cheers 
pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,229 posts
 
Harbeth’s sound good with both solid state AND tube amplification. It all comes down to personal preference. I’ve owned Harbeth’s for about eight years (SHL5’s and two pairs of 40.1’s). In that time, I’ve used or tried three solid state amps/integrateds and six tube amps/integrateds... and while all of the amps sounded good, I preferred tube amps by a sizeable margin.

The other area of disagreement when it comes to Harbeth’s is amplifier power. Many are adamant that Harbeth’s need high power to sound their best. Alan Shaw implies that any run of the mill 100 wpc amp will
work fine. I think the "quality" of watts is more important that "quantity" of watts... excluding flea power and SET amps.

Here is how I’d rate the amps I’ve used with my Harbeth speakers:
  1. VAC 70/70 Signature (68 wpc)
  2. VAC 30/30 MK III Signature (32 wpc)
  3. Music Reference RM9 MK2 (125 wpc)
  4. McIntosh MC275 MKV (75 wpc)
  5. VAC Phi 200 (125 wpc)
  6. Bryston 4BST (250 wpc)
  7. Plinius SA-102 (125 wpc)
  8. Jolida 1501 Hybrid integrated (100 wpc)
  9. McIntosh MA2275 tube integrated (75 wpc)
I don’t care about accuracy and neutrality... I just care how it sounds.


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