What solid amp to pair with DiaLogue Premium Preamplifier ?

Hi All,

There has been some amount of comments on the PL Dialogue Premium needing repair. My personal experience:

Mine blew a Solens capacitor within the first six months and Upscale Audio took care of it for free.

Recently, a couple of years later, the left channel went out and I had to pay the freight to get it to California. Upscale repaired it for free and and shipped it back for free. They claimed that they "upgraded a circuit". 

Two repairs in three years bothered me so I checked out other preamps including CJ LS17 - 2, ARC LS25, and an Axiom II passive. In my system, all of these are more musical than the PL. The PL was good if I wanted to hear into a vocal but rather lame if I wanted PRAT.

I ran the PL with both a Coda CS and McCormack DNA - 500 and neither helped with the lack of liveliness.  My speakers are Thiel CS5's.

Things changed for the much better with any of the other preamps. 

Thanks for listening,

Dsper

I have owned and used my PL Dialogue Premium preamp.. almost 4 years now..on a daily basis and have had not one issue with it..period! That does not mean some parts failure can not happen from time to time...just like any manufactured product out there.Concerning prat..well,it may not be as good as some of the best ss designs..but, with the PL..that will depend on what tube types are being used to achieve that end goal.

I highly recommend it as do many other owners. Who knows..someday I may change to something else,but in all honesty,the sound I'm getting right now is just too good to even think about a change in my preamp...especially with the great benefit and fun factor of nos tube rolling... tailoring that perfect sound... to your own liking!   
 
 

FWIW,

I tried Telefunkens, Mullards, Seimans, and the usual list of US tubes. Some Mazdas were the best because they smoothed out the sound.

But no PRAT.

I guess the PL is too analytical for me/my system.

Thanks fro listening.

Dsper

I would not consider analytical a definition describing the musical merits of the PL preamp. If you mean how the preamp responds to tube change I guess you could have a point but on the whole this pre is a true music maker when used in a properly oriented system setup....tube type also plays a huge role with both the 12au7’s and rectifiers used. It all comes down to personal tastes I guess... 8)