Honestly I would keep your front end and go with some more efficient speakers. For years I dealt with power hungry speakers, Infinity IRS Betas, Gammas. Now I have 2 pairs of speakers I rotate into my system. Tekton Moab’s and Jbl 4435’s and couldn’t be happier. The Primaluna gear is great. I had the same setup and regretfully sold it. One huge improvement when I had mine was to use Brimar tubes for the gain tubes and I had Kt-150’s.
Upgrading from Primaluna
Recently went down the front end upgrade path and am running a nice table and phono now. I'm curious as to what the weaker link in my system is between my Primaluna Dialogue Premium Preamp and my Dialogue Premium Hp Power Amp. I'm considering swapping out the amp to a Ps Audio BHK250 for the summer to avoid heat, but am curious if I would be better off dealing with the heat and moving up to say an Allnic L-7000/Arc Ref 3 for the Pre. I'm happy with tubes on the front end, but curious if I'm running out of gas with 88DB efficient speakers and a single chassis tube amp. Which amp would you upgrade first and what benefits would you expect?
- ...
- 55 posts total
@j-wall Awesome!!! Glad to hear it helped. Thanks for circling back to us to let us know! Now you can better assess the needs in your amp chain. |
Stick with tubes. It’s always a challenge in a small room because you’re forced to put your gear exactly where it shouldn’t be placed. I agree with the consensus suggestions that you should address your room and maximize its possibilities. Is it possible to set up your room to where your gear is on the long wall, and not the short wall? I have a similar room, and that’s what I did. I’ve 9 feet between the edge of speakers, and have 4’ on the right wall, and 7’ on the left wall. My sound stage is much better and wider. Anyway, explore different options for your room. |
@j-wall While I am a Audio Research fan, if I were you I would definitely go for the Allnic L7000. Looks like a great preamp. I read a couple reviews (I’m good at reading reviews and getting out what was intended). I would be shocked if the preamp didn’t completely upgrade your system a couple levels. |
Not sure why Primaluna is not good enough? I have an EVO 100 integrared running on 89db speakers. It will bring the house down just past half volume. This is with the original EL34s. I just installed JJ KT77s and wow! Better of everything, amazing. They will get louder too. Have you tried KT 77s? Also, the room is likely more of an issue than the electronics would be, my guess. Also, Enjoy! |
- 55 posts total