Ad van Spaandonk:
From student to conductor, from Pioneer to PrimaLuna… For quite a while I had
been planning on replacing my old Pioneer set with what is called a more musical
set. Since my student days, the Pioneer had been breaking the silence in my
living space, along with a simple Philips CD-player, and a set of KEF speakers
from the K series, and now it was time for a change. By now a performing
musician, teacher, and conductor, I owed that much to myself!
Then, through some research and with luck, I found a set of Sonus Faber Electa
speakers with stands. With luck, since Sonus Faber is not often found there, so
I’ve been told, and apparently they make a good start. Then, following the
advice of a good friend and owner of an Onix amplifier and an AH! Njoe Tjoeb ’98
CD-player, I set out for The HifiShop in Tilburg.
There, I was welcomed by Mr. Koos Boshoven, who informed me about the options
regarding amplifiers in the 1000-Euro range, which I had set as a maximum. Soon,
I found myself listening to a splendid rendition of Bach’s suites for cello on
a tube amplifier I was completely unfamiliar with, the PrimaLuna Prologue One,
combined with Sonus Faber Concertino speakers. I really spent several hours
enjoying this. I truly went from one surprise to another. As a performing
musician, conductor, and teacher I encounter the many facets of music on a daily
basis. Therefore, it was a surprise to relive that ‘concert-hall’ feeling
again and again through a small 2 x 35 Watt-amp. Overwhelming and reason enough
to sleep on it …
After an uneasy night, I went back the next day to get certainty! With a stack
of my own CDs and my own Sonus Faber Electas! To make a long story short: for
quite some time now, a broad grin on my face, I have been listening to my
PrimaLuna Prologue One tube amplifier at home. Astonished colleagues sometimes
join me. I listen to my favorite Bruckner symphonies: so clear, so completely
transparent, and never with a ‘clinical’ timbre (like they used to sound).
Everything I play revives in a way I have never experienced before. Miles Davis
and Round Midnight, Beethoven’s string quartets, Bach’s suites for cello,
everything, without losing one single musical detail! To me, the PrimaLuna is
sheer musical enjoyment!
Finally I would like to mention the approach of The Hifi Shop. The demos that Koos set up showed broad musical knowledge and his advice was in no way pushy. Koos positioned the amp (and my speakers) optimally at my home and connected them with AH! LS Direkt KB8 speaker cable, exactly the way I had auditioned them in the store. Great job! The PrimaLuna Prologue One? Perhaps somewhat unfamiliar as yet, but already much loved by me!