Bert Wiggerman: Bellissimo … When
I entered DÉ Hifiwinkel one Saturday not so long ago, an extraordinarily nice
tube rig, called PrimaLuna ProLogue One, immediately caught my eye. Nice-looking
amp, I found myself thinking, and I asked Rob right away about its price range.
"Listen to it first", he answered, "and then try to estimate its
price".
At first sight the piece already looks very "high end". A beautiful
black/anthracite metallic housing, soberly equipped with a volume button, an
input switch, and a small green LED. The power switch is on the left side. There
are as few trimmings as possible, so as to minimize negative effects on the
sound, making it truly "audiophile"! Its output at 8 Ohms is said to
be 2 x 35 Watts. Another truly audiophile feature is the PrimaLuna’s fully
hard-wired interior. This means that only high-quality internal cables have been
used, and no signal-transferring prints. This guarantees a good signal transfer.
The tubes used are relatively current types: 2 x 12AU7 (ECC82)and 2 x 12AX7
(ECC83) for the pre-amp and two pairs of EL34 for power tubes. I auditioned the
PrimaLuna ProLogue One on a pair of Magnepan 1.6 magnetostats, combined with the
Reference Tjoeb 4000 CD-player. The cables were all made by AH!.
As a boon, the Primaluna offers you a choice between a 4- or 8-Ohms speaker
connection. The Magnepans being 4-Ohm speakers, I chose the 4-Ohms connection.
The warm-up gave me time to pick the right music and to improve the position of
the Magnepans.
The first CD to disappear into the Reference Tjoeb’s drawer was by Bruce
Cockburn. I chose its title track "The Charity of Night". This is a
wonderful CD full of ballads of fabulous recording quality. The voice should
sound big in the middle of both speakers here, and the acoustic bass should
sound nice and loose, right through Bruce’s guitar plucking. Wow! From the
very first notes, the PrimaLuna’s wonderful soundstage and power surprised me.
According to the information, it is supposed to deliver 2 x 35 Watts, but it
seems much more! Everything sounds so full, powerful and dynamic through the
Magnepans, and still the volume switch is only at about 10 o’clock.
Spaciousness is simply great as well! Everything is wonderfully in place and
sounds very airy, on top of that. Bruce’s voice starts out modestly, but when
he gets to the chorus, his voice is rendered big and dynamically by the
PrimaLuna. Yet, what it’s all about is the enormous amount of musicality that
this amp delivers. That is simply very gripping. After having heard this, I was
obviously very curious to find out how much more dynamics this little tube
fellow had left. As a test, master-bassist Marcus Miller was invited to display
his artistry in the song "Tutu" from his live album "Live
More". This is a tremendously rhythmic and exciting song with huge
dynamics. Again, the PrimaLuna did its job more than competently, leaving me
certain that it delivered more than 2 x 35 Watts too. With the volume button
turned up at around 12 o’clock, the amp kept playing without distortion,
dynamically, and clean-sounding. Alright, so the PrimaLuna can do all that.
"Well (Prima)DONNA!"
But how about classical music? Out comes the CD "Aangenaam Klassiek Editie
2000". On it, the Altenberg Trio plays a piece by Brahms (for piano, cello
en violin). The amp captures the atmosphere of the piece particularly nicely,
producing a very fine wood sound from the instruments. Also, the instruments can
easily be kept apart when they intertwine. There is unity and ensemble. Here,
too, the space, depth and naturalness of the PrimaLuna are a joy to the ear.
Several other CDs only confirm what I have just described. This little amp
simply seems to be very good at handling any kind of music, which comes in handy
for all those musical omnivores out there.
Moreover, I had the opportunity of comparing the PrimaLuna to another integrated
amplifier of extremely "famous" descent. I will not mention the brand
name here, and I am almost scared to write this down, but this high-end star was
utterly and completely outclassed. Whether that will always be the case, I dare
not say, but in this combination, with the 1.6 Magnepan speakers, it clearly
was. Thus, if I were to put a price tag on this amp, it would be somewhere
between 2 and 3 thousand Euros at least, given its performance. So when I asked
Rob about its real price, and when he told me it was only 950 Euros, I couldn’t
help laughing a bit. I honestly thought that he was kidding and trying to pull
my leg! In Dutch this is called "EEN KOOPJE", and that is
exactly what it is for English-speaking audiophiles as well: a bargain. This
thing is simply way too cheap! And, though I still find it unbelievable, it
really IS true…! So, people: if you are looking for a great amplifier under
1000 Euros that will give you pure music, without all the fuss, then hurry to a
"Hifiwinkel" and get ready to be convinced.