So, have you used the amp in triode mode?
DeKay
Can I get my Prima Luna to sound more like a SET/300B?
Dear Audiogon community,
I am ruminating on my current state of mind with this alchemy…
I have spent the past year upgrading my main system to a relatively glorious state… details below and in my profile.
I am at times in the sublime musical hallucination I seek. However I admittedly may be coming to the realization that the sound I yearn for in my heart may be ultimately obtained through a SET or 300B type of solution. And to get there I may need a 5-9K indulgence, in order to match the Nagra Streamer, Holo Audio DAC, and Pure Audio Project Duet Horn’s.
This is something that may take a while for me to enact…
SOOOO…. In the meantime…. What if anything can I do with the amp that I currently have, a Prima Luna Dialogue Premium HP, to obtain a completely enveloping, immediate, effortless, sublime, vivid, and delicious delivery of acoustic, jazz, classical, vocals, horns, strings, cymbals…. Sublime enveloping sensual euphoria…??
Can I get my Prima Luna to sound like a proper SET or 300B amp? Even close?
Some thoughts:
-Cap upgrade… Jupiter or Jensen or Duelund or….
-Main tubes to…. Ray? Mullard E34’s? Psvane PH or UK? Sophia Electric?
(Currently I run Gold Lion KT77’s, which are very nice when they work, but their unreliability is frustrating… in 9 months two go out and one has a high frequency distortion)
Or should I bite the bullet and jump in to a serious amp upgrade?
THANK YOU SO MUCH for your brilliant insight…
Cheers to musical alchemy.
R.
Details of my system: (brief)
-
- SPEAKERS: Pure Audio Project Duet 15 Horn (Mundorf Silver Gold Oil Cap upgrade and high pass filter, Anticable 4.2 Flex Internal wire)
- STREAMER: Nagra Streamer (Cardas Clear Coaxial)
- DAC: HoloAudio Spring 2 Level 3 Kitsune edition (Silversmith Fidelium RCA Interconnects)
- AMP: PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP Integrated (Gold Lion KT77 power tubes, Mullard NOS gain tubes)
- PHONO: Music Hall MMF-9 and McIntosh MP 100 Preamp (Goldring Eroica lx cartridge)
- ...
- 36 posts total
Having direct experience with your mods, exception of Silversmith IC and Ray's EL34 I can easily envision the improvements your hearing. While some take exception to modifying equipment, I've found it key to the fine tuning of one's system, adding together a number of small incremental improvements can be a recipe for magic. |
@whyrichard Another amp you should put on your future list should be a EL84 based push pull. I recently purchased mono blocks using Bendix 6094 (special iteration of EL84), these without a doubt the most SET sound push pull tube I've heard. I never expected any push pull could have the immediate, expressive sound of my custom mono block 300B running Western Electric tubes. Every EL34 amp I've ever heard or owned has sounded relatively limpid to this push pull. These tubes have tighter, harder hitting bass, more extension in highs and wonderful natural mids. These tubes are crazy in that they take the best aspects of both EL34 and KT push pull tubes, and have just enough of the 300B sound to fool you into believing this a SET amp.
In speaking of these amps in another thread Ralph @atmasphere reminded me of one of the first EL84 amps, Dynaco ST35. This was the exact amp my best bud had way back in the day, rest of system was Linn LP12 and Dynaco speakers in a pseudo quad setup. That setup was without a doubt my reference system for many years, The EL84 is a special tube more should be aware of! |
- 36 posts total