PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP Power Amplifier
An incredible Stereophile Class A rated power amplifier; at $3899 it competes firmly with amplifiers costing $10,000 and more while being better built, more flexible, and easier to use.
MORE POWER, NOT MORE HASSLES
All PrimaLuna’s have incredible slam because of bandwidth. Power is secondary, and can in fact be bad news for unwary customers. To learn more about power, read Less Power, More Bass. But for customers with speakers that are 86dB efficient or lower, that have larger rooms and play at higher volumes, they may need more power.
The cheap way to get more power from a tube amp is to raise the tube’s plate and screen voltage, and bias them harder. It costs nothing to do so as a manufacturer, but we refuse to follow the pack. You will see claims of as high as 100 watts from a pair of KT120’s. Initially, the customer is happy. But talk to the same customer in a year when his tubes are worn out. PrimaLuna amps are famous for long tube life, running cool, and being absolutely the easiest amplifier to own.
The best way to add power and keep running cool is an bigger build. We increased the size of the power transformer, added all the supporting circuitry including tube sockets, Swiss silver-plated OFC wiring, Takman resistors, SCR Tinfoil caps and a second Adaptive AutoBias board. And of course, four more EL34’s for unrelenting power. And if you want the ultimate, add a second HP later and flip the switches to mono. Incredible!
PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP power amplifier Review
By: Paul Mah | DaGoGo
International union–a confluence of four countries for the sake of high-end audio
Question: What do you get when you have Dutch, Chinese, American and Italian joined together?
Answer: Mighty good eating if I’m referring to international cuisine. But since I’m writing about food for the soul, the new PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP power amplifier is the tasty audio dish that I am referencing. PrimaLuna has been a company since 2000, started by the Netherlander Herman van den Dungen who coined the Italian brand name in honor of his grandfather. For the uninitiated, one can get the origin of the company name from the back of any PrimaLuna owner’s manual. To achieve high quality and dependability at reasonable prices, Mr. van den Dungen turned to Chinese manufacturing but with an eagle eye to strict quality control and adherence to design standards.
Operation fail-safe
I’m sure many Dagogo readers are familiar with the PrimaLuna brand, but for those who are not, the company offers audio components which are value-packed with forward thinking safety and convenience features at relatively affordable prices. The new DiaLogue Premium HP power amplifier retails for $3,899.
Much have been written about the various features, either in the high-end audio press or on the PrimaLuna USA website, so rather than rehash the available information I refer readers who are unfamiliar with the company to satiate their curiosity by doing a Google search.
I will, however, mention some of the more important cool safety features. With the DiaLogue Premium HP power amplifier there is a new board for its famed Adaptive Auto-bias (AAB) circuit. Not only does the new AAB monitor and adjust the bias, but it will also indicate which output tube has gone bye-bye when a red LED lights up. Other new items include a larger power transformer, and silver plated Swiss made OCC wiring used in the signal path. Because of the humongous hand wound transformers in the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP, an installed soft start circuit prevents initial current rush upon turn on from frying them. There is also separate power and output transformer protection circuits to further safeguard what are the most expensive components of the unit. Transformer noise or hum is basically non-existent thanks to its AC Offset Killer circuit. Little or no transformer noise with a tube amplifier is a very good thing! I also didn’t hear any noise with any of the stock tubes.
At the request of Kevin Deal of PrimaLuna USA who wanted me to see the layout, I removed the bottom panel and was happy to see the excellent execution and built quality, not unlike that of a fine automobile. Befitting a premium model, there are premium parts galore and the point-to-point wiring is all neat and tidy. So neat and tidy that I thought the wiring was performed by a machine, but Mr. Deal assured me otherwise. With the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP, there’s a lot of really nice and expensive stuff one does not usually get with other amplifiers for this amount of money.
With its design philosophy, PrimaLuna has endeavored to minimize the fear of owning tube equipment. While it is still possible for something to go wrong, a faulty capacitor, resistor, or tube for example, the occurrence of a major catastrophe has been reduced to a very low probability. Even solid state or digital components can develop problems, so it is commendable that PrimaLuna have taken steps to make tube equipment that is as trouble free as possible.
More watts, Watson!
The HP stands for High Power or nearly double the watts of the standard DiaLogue Premium power amplifier, depending on the type of tube. With the stock EL34 output tubes, the standard DiaLogue Premium amplifier delivers 25 triode watts and 42 ultralinear watts, while the new HP version bumps up the watts to 42 triode and 72 ultralinear, respectively. 34, 77, 88, 12o, hut, hut! Snap the ball already! You can use any of these output tube types or a combination even, as the famous PrimaLuna photo shows; but I wouldn’t recommend it, unless you want a weird-looking tube complement.
I requested from Kevin Deal a review sample with the black faceplate (also comes in silver) and received one of the first imported units, which was literally fresh off-the-boat.
My review unit arrived with a complement of six 12AU7 tubes and eight EL34 output tubes (four per channel). The tube layout reminded me of chess or checker pieces ready to do battle. In this instance the amp was ready to tackle the musical apexes. The two innermost 12AU7s are input tubes, while the four outer ones are employed as drivers. I asked Kevin why four drivers instead of the usual two and he answered four provides a wider dynamic range. Wider dynamics is always a good thing in my audio book, thus bringing reproduced music closer to the dynamics of a live performance.
I also requested an optional octet of Russian Tung-Sol KT120s to try in place of the stock EL34s, which Kevin sent in a separate package.
This power amplifier is a heavy beast at almost eighty pounds, given my ninety-seven pound, kick-sand-in-the-face frame. For even more power, one can buy two PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP and they become mono-block behemoths, essentially doubling the wattage. While no lightweights to begin with, PrimaLuna gear keeps getting heavier with each new model and in the case of the HP, a beefier power transformer added several more pounds to the standard DiaLogue Premium version.
The DiaLogue Premium HP is outfitted with high quality speaker connectors for 4, 8 and 16 ohm loads, depending on your speakers’ average impedance. To change from stereo to mono operation and double your pleasure, buy another DP HP, then perform the following for both: flick a switch on the back panel; connect an RCA cable to the left input (marked mono) and speaker cable to the right output for 2, 4, or 8 ohm use, again depending on the speaker’s average impedance. The 2, 4, and 8 ohm labels are clearly marked at the bottom of the right output section.
The DiaLogue Premium HP required a fairly long break-in period before reaching full stride. I estimate approximately 100 hours of operation were required before changes in sound came to a screeching halt.
The rest of the gang
Associated equipment for this review included my Rogue Audio 99 Super Magnum preamplifier, AAD 2001 (nominal 8 ohms, 86 dB) loudspeakers on custom stands, OppO DVD 981 player used as transport, Asus laptop (fitted with JRiver 20 media player), Audio Sensibility interconnects, digital and speaker cables, all with either OCC copper or silver wiring. Power cords used are Triode Wire Labs and Sjorn audio. Towards the completion of this review I substituted my AAD 2001 with the recently arrived Fritz Carbon 7 SE stand-mount loudspeakers (review forthcoming).
PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP power amplifier Review
I used three different DACs for this review: Teac UD-501, Eastern Electric MiniMax, and iFi Micro iDSD–which I bought immediately after my recent three part review of some of their other components. I listened to a large variety of music using standard Redbook CDs and audio files, as well as some high-resolution PCM and DSD files on my laptop. The Teac UD-501 and iFi-audio Micro iDSD DACs are highly capable performers with DSD files. The rest of the system, including the Dialogue Premium HP amplifier, was able to distinguish even slight tonal differences when assessing the sound of the various DACs. Although sonic differences were small among them, I ended up using the Micro iDSD for the bulk of my listening which I favored slightly above the other two DACs.
EL34 midrange magic-Hark, the angels sing
After making sure the EL34 and KT88/KT120 optimum bias switch (located on the right side of the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP) was in the correct EL34 position I proceeded to start several long listening sessions. According to the manual, no harm is done even if the optimum bias is set for the wrong output tube, but I wanted the optimum bias anyway.
The Dialogue Premium HP stock 12AU7 and EL34 output tubes are quite competent, certainly much better sounding than Chinese manufacture of say, ten years ago. In either triode (green led) or ultralinear (red led) mode, tonal balance is basically neutral, with triode operation presenting an overall slightly warmer sound and producing slightly less gain-my educated guess is about 3dB lower. Since I prefer a slightly warmer sound in general, I listened mostly in the triode mode during the audition, with either EL34 or KT120 output. I must say that a few recordings sounded better in ultralinear mode, but I enjoyed many more recordings in triode operation.
With the DiaLogue Premium HP’s ability to operate either in triode or ultralinear mode, as well as the ability to substitute many types of output tubes, it is like buying several amplifiers for the price of one. You know I’m always looking for value and the DiaLogue Premium HP is a prime example.
Imaging is well focused with very good width and depth. The PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP’s dynamic range compares favorably to higher power tube and solid state amplifiers, which lower power units simply cannot match. There’s excellent transient speed on rhythmic recordings, which had my head bobbing and my foot multiple times. I couldn’t detect undue brightness or harshness in the treble region–with strings, cymbals, or sopranos–in fact; high notes are refined and smooth with excellent detail. Usually, tube amplifiers fall far short in the bass region when compared with solid state, digital or even hybrid amplifiers. Bass notes from many tube amplifiers are generally flabby and ill-defined. I can say the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP produces exceptional bass notes, almost comparable to its solid state brethren, with great articulation and tightness. What I like most about the EL34s is the way the midrange is produced, with an alluring delicacy that captures my emotion and holds it firmly throughout many listening sessions.
A good example of that midrange magic is an album which has now become a modern day classic: Joni Mitchell’s Blue. On the tracks “River” and “Blue,” Joni’s controlled use of vibrato is produced accurately and gives her singing an ethereal, other-worldly quality. The PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP provides a hauntingly beautiful sound on this recording.
Holly Cole’s Don’t Smoke in Bed ably demonstrates the amp’s treble and bass capabilities. On “I Can See Clearly Now,” Holly’s voice is velvety smooth, without exhibiting unnatural harshness or emphatic sibilance as do some other amplifiers. On this track the acoustic bass notes are deep, taut and punchy with good pitch definition, while piano notes have proper organic harmonic overtones.
The DiaLogue Premium HP handles large scale, complex music very well, such as the superb performance of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (1959, London), with Ernest Ansermet conducting the L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. It is an early 1980s digital transfer to CD from the original analogue recording. It may not be included in the best digital conversion list, but the musical intent comes through clearly with the DP HP. Individual instrumental sections are spaced well between the speakers and instruments within each section are individualized. The horns and strings sound quite accurate, while deep notes have good weight and dynamic impact. The DP HP with EL34 output imparts an overall sweetness to this performance.
Complex tonal colors come to the fore on the Carpenters tribute album, If I Were A Carpenter, especially Cracker’s off-kilter cover of “Rainy Days and Mondays.” Lead singer David Lowery’s (of Camper Van Beethoven fame) slightly off-key and slow vocals matches perfectly with the dissonant cords of the lead guitar and the languid pace of the backup chorus. This strange but beautiful–if you like weird– arrangement is captured very well with the Rogue Audio/PL HP/AAD 2001 combination.
To get a sense of rhythm and pace, I played the Hollis Brown band album, Ride On The Train. The title track is a good ole rockin’ n’ rollin’ song; with the band’s percussive duo of bass player and drummer providing a rhythmic and hypnotic beat like a train locomotive. The PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP delivers wonderful PRaT on this song.
KT 120–Arnold, “I’ll be back” muscle
While EL 34 power tubes favor delicacy, sweetness and refinement, the Tung-Sol KT 120s demonstrate brawn and power, while also retaining some of the delicacy. A fine example of both power and grace is the Mari Kodama rendition of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no. 23 (“Appassionata”) on the SACD recording of Beethoven Piano Sonatas, no. 21, 23 and 26 (Pentatone). Ms. Kodama’s fluid playing style allows the listener to absorb Beethoven’s many emotional moods which the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP reproduces as a thrilling roller-coaster ride. Hold on to your hats ladies and gents! The amplifier’s ample power reserve allows it to convey subtle dynamic shadings easily, from the softest pianissimo (pp) to the loudest fortissimo (ff). The diminutive Ms. Kodama must have had a field day with her piano recording this album. She would have been doubly delighted if she had heard the recording with the DiaLogue Premium HP power amplifier.
Cassandra Wilson possesses a natural deep voice, and the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP adds fullness to her already sonorous vocals. This is evident on the track “If Loving You Is Wrong” on Glamoured, where I have not heard her or the rhythm section sound so full before. The same can be said in her cover of Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” on the same album, where the bongos, drums and bass guitar establishes such a firm foundation that my neighbor must be wondering if I hired a band to irritate him.
I was startled when the kick drum started pounding on Wilco’s “At Least That’s What You Said” from A Ghost Is Born and half expected the band to jump out of the speakers, such was the sudden impact. The song’s drive and tastefully distorted guitar work is captured wonderfully with the DP/Rogue Audio/AAD 2001 combination.
In my system, the KT 120 doesn’t quite have the same midrange sweetness and smoothness of the EL34, but provides an overall fuller and weightier sound. For example, bass guitar and piano sound closer to the size and weight of real instruments on Holly Cole’s “I Can See Clearly Now” track. The same can be said of “Ride On The Train” with its propulsive beat stronger and more prominent than with the EL34 in place.
As previously stated, vocals tend to sound deeper, as if sung at a slightly lower register. Joni’s voice in the two songs from Blue I noted seems to drop by about a half octave, as if she sung more with her diaphragm than with her throat–which is a positive for me. However, this is at the expense of a slight loss of presence in the mix, resulting in a little less transparency.
Near the end of my auditioning process and with Kevin Deal’s permission, I dug into my stash and pulled out several vintage pairs of 12AU7 and 5814 to get different sonic flavors. My two favorite alternatives in the input section are Mullard long plate square-getter 12AU7s and RCA black plate square-getter 5814s. The Mullard provided greater midrange presence, while the RCA presented a warmer and slightly darker sound. I felt the other vintage brands I tried did not improve the sound of the stock 12AU7s, but merely change it somewhat.
While I ultimately ended up preferring the Mullard 12AU7/EL34 combination slightly more than other tube combinations, I applaud the fact that I can substitute the KT120 or a different 12AU7 when my mood for a particular sound needs to be satisfied. This demonstrates again the flexibility of the DiaLogue Premium HP to alter the sound characteristics by simply changing a tube.
The combination of my Rogue Audio 99 Super Magnum preamplifier and the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP power amplifier (with stock tubes) are close to neutral or linear sounding, especially in ultralinear operation. Even when using the triode mode the sound never approaches the overly warm, thick delivery of the majority of vintage tube equipment. Of course there are some who prefer that type of sound, and I belonged in that camp early on in my audio journey. What the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP produces exceedingly well are complex harmonic textures and an ability to hear into the recording.
I like the warmth of tubes. Just like a cup of hot chocolate in wintertime, the sound relaxes me and gets my emotional attention. But if the sound is overly warm and euphonic, music becomes too muddy by obscuring detail. I can report the Dialogue Premium HP is not that type of tube component.
Through the generosity of friends and audio club members, I have had on numerous occasions been able to listen extensively to several PrimaLuna ProLogue or DiaLogue models (both integrated and power amps) and thought the dynamic range good for relatively low powered amplifiers. With this beefed-up HP version, the dynamic needle has swung farther up the scale decisively. In fact, the dynamic range is nearly outstanding. While not quite reaching the dynamic level of a kilowatt solid state amplifier, I doubt if anyone will be complaining about the dynamic range, unless one owns very low efficiency–either dynamic or electrostatic speakers–and there’s a good possibility they may even be satisfied.
The amount of resolution and transparency are excellent (especially with EL34), allowing the listener to hear well into the recording without stepping beyond the boundary of realism to hyper-realism, an area where I hear digital noise or hash and what some proponents believe to be ambience or atmosphere, but what I find as unnatural and unrealistic.
Sine qua non
Although I have auditioned or listened to thousands of components since my interest in audio began at a young age, I have never found the perfect or ideal piece of equipment so far. This PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP power amplifier is perhaps among the three or four best I have heard to date. Certainly the synergy created by one’s associated equipment will bring out the best in each of the individual pieces, resulting in a gestalt sounding system. The DiaLogue Premium HP sound is so captivating in my system that I can’t seem to resist. You win PrimaLuna! My Rogue preamplifier, AAD speakers and the rest of the motley crew welcome the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP into our extended audio family. I was in the market to buy a reference amplifier and the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP came along at the right time. Thanks Kevin. My check is in the mail. I strongly urge anyone who is looking for a truly high-end power amplifier to audition this one. Until next time, I wish you happy listening.
Comment from PrimaLuna USA:
It’s a great review. It would be super to elaborate on the Chinese manufacturing. No matter how you cut it, it’s a negative to consumers. And everybody is either making product there or having circuit boards stuffed there. Frankly I don’t like China even being mentioned in our reviews as it makes it seem we are different when Krell makes entire amps in China as does Cary, Sonus faber, etc. REL is made in China.
PrimaLuna is the Apple of high end audio. Nobody manufactures like this. Each amp has five coats of hand-rubbed finish. Swiss watches that are certified chronometers are held in different positions and measured, and must keep accurate time no matter what position. PrimaLuna products go into a robotic arm, where they are rotated into six different positions while playing test tones and being measured.
We supply our own parts to the factory as we want the best. We decided to use Littlefuse branded fuses because we like the way they sound. We bought them from a supplier in China. Herman went to far as to take pictures of all the marking at the end caps, and sent them to Littlefuse engineering to make sure they were real. They were fake. Now we ship fuses there. I know how freaky Herman is about perfection.
DiaLogue Premium HP Power Amplifier Specifications
Price
$3,899 single
$7,798 pair