bluestream
New Member
Cool setup there bluestream
A little surprised that the Miniwatt trounced the Prima.
Thanks!
The Miniwatt was much preferred by both of us over the Prima. To be fair, I just unboxed the Prima Luna over the weekend and gave it only a handful of hours with each of the EL84's and the KT150's. Like the EL84's better on this system between the two, and the Triode mode over the Ultralinear mode. The tone sounds most natural in this setting and with the EL84's. The Prima is a powerhouse and I think will do very well with speakers that would not normally pair well with typical tube amps. However it does sound like a solid state amp in comparison to the Miniwatt, which is much more delicate and sweet sounding with warmer and richer mid range and bass. The Prima has more extended HF's, but that's not always natural sounding to me (I grew up an enthusiast musician playing a dozen instruments and sitting in orchestra pits or in jazz bands so that's always my reference point, to the extent my memory is still valid - like some people with smells I guess, when a system takes me back to my youth... I've found a sound that's right for my ears/brain/etc.). One person's general observation - a lot of hifi gear these days has over emphasized bass and high frequencies, guessing it sells in shows and showrooms and has more immediate sizzle (find silver does this in general too which is why I try to avoid it). Not trying to start a flame war, just one dope's opinion and as always YMMV.
I also have a couple pairs of Quad 57's for the other member's reference. The Miniwatt does not do a great job driving them. One of the pairs I have was reference upgraded by Kent McCollum and are absolutely wonderful sounding, but I drove them with ASR Emitter II monoblocks as they were very stable and able to handle the wide range of behavior of the Quads. While I love that setup, eventually migrated to lower power SET and higher efficiency speakers (which is a well worn path of course), but will _never_ let go of the quads.
Best regards
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