PrimaLuna makes it easy to own and love vacuum tube audio.
Two key price increases coming very soon: Focal on March 10, PrimaLuna on March 15.
Today, March 8, is our 'Battle of the Boxes' in-store event, and when we decided to pitch a separates system against the all-in-one reference Focal Diva, we chose the PrimaLuna EVO 400 integrated amp and Focal Sopra No2 floorstanders. The weight, warmth, and musicality of the PrimaLuna's EL34 tubes pair beautifully with the speed, detail, and incisiveness of the Sopra's beryllium tweeters and W-cone mid and woofers.
In addition to the technical benefits, separates let you pick components that complement or contrast each other, tuning the sound of your system to best match the demands of your household.
With Focal going up in price on March 10 and PrimaLuna on March 15, we know this is short notice, but many audio brands are having to make quick decisions in the current business climate. If you've been considering PrimaLuna or Focal (or both), here's a rundown of why we love these brands so much.
Tube Audio Without the Headache
All-Tube: Very few vacuum tube audio brands are as "all tube" as PrimaLuna. Consider the EVO 100 DAC, which is not just tube rectified but uses a tube even in the clock. The SuperTubeClock is a rugged, long-life Russian mini-triode specifically designed for oscillation, producing a beautiful square wave in the final circuit that results in extremely low jitter.
Similarly, the EVO 100 Phonostage offers tube gain for moving coil and moving magnet which is common, but also uses 5AR4 tube rectification. Using tubes in the power supply to convert AC to DC isn't just for the sake of completeness. Writes Dick Olsher of The Absolute Sound, "The 5AR4 happens to be my favorite tube-rectifier type due to its low voltage drop and preservation of natural musical textures without yielding an excessive tube flavor. I happen to agree with the PrimaLuna design team that tube rectifiers are more musical sounding."
Sensible Voltages: If you think of your tube amp as a horse-drawn carriage, many tube brands hitch two horses to a cheap, creaky carriage and get good performance by whipping the living daylights out of the steeds, running them way too hot and hard. PrimaLuna, meanwhile, hitches four or eight horses to a smooth, well-machined carriage, coaxing amazing performance at a steady clop that can be sustained for years.
In addition, PrimaLuna's technologies ensure you never have to set tube bias, replace blown resistors after tube shorts, or play weird guessing games when locating bad tubes.
If you're fascinated by tube audio but are put off by the perceived hassle and expense, PrimaLuna Audio is the solution. You get all-tube audio with none of the headache.
The Complete Speaker
There are many loudspeaker companies that make their own cabinets, but not their own drivers. Drivers are expensive and challenging to manufacture, and so are cabinets. Not all companies have the ability to do both. It's like expecting every restaurant to farm its own food.
The Focal Aria Evo X series in Moss Green High Gloss is one of the most handsome speakers we sell.
Focal started off as a driver manufacturer, and in the course of making transducers for famous audio companies, thought, why not do the cabinets as well? Coming into high-end audio from this direction, means Focal has the rare ability to manufacture subtle variations of every driver for every cabinet. The beryllium tweeter in a Sopra is not the same as the one in a Scala, which in turn is different from the one in a Maestro. The same applies to each model's mids and woofers, even if they're the same size and material.
Having drivers customized for each cabinet means a far more linear response, with the crossover doing less electronic compensation. Luckily, Focal turned out to be as adept and meticulous with its cabinets as with its drivers, and so when you buy a Focal you really are getting the complete package.