PrimaLuna dialogue 2 or Caryaudio SLI80 4ML Summit

the summits has active speakers - was advised that the tube would therefore drive the panels... and was told that either amp should therefore be adequate... am also wondering if sonically, the dialogue may be more refine than the cary or not

While I haven't heard the summit with either of those amps I have heard it with Jadis tube gear and it sounded great. So I don't think you will needs lots of power. ML summit are really nice speakers I would love to own a pair.

Electrostats traditionally have low impedance and therefore need a lot of power. I'm not familiar with this model though. Caveat emptor. Symptoms of under-power may not be low volume, but rather, thin nasal sound and loose bass.

I have ML Summits and drive them with Rogue M-150 recently upgraded to M-180. They seem to be more than adequate to drive Summits. I have not heard Prima Luna or Cary.

Hello Johchew38 -

So, I have auditioned The cary SLP-80 in my system (Spendor S6e speakers, Arcam CD36 player) and it was excellent. Problem was it was a bit too lush for me - not enough bass/oomph playing rock for me to pull the trigger and buy. Noting my spendors are lacking in bass as well.
I have not heard the dialogue series but I recently heard the prologue 2 running with Quad22L, Rega Saturn CD player at a dealer and I thought it sounded a bit edgy. Voices, midrange, and bass were fine for a lower powered amp, but not on the cymbals, snare drum or any high frequency.

Maybe it was the room/area, or maybe the speakers, maybe the speakers were too tough a load...don't know.