Rens Jansen: BE
PATIENT!!
So …………. to make a long story short, I bought it on the spot as I was
already looking for a replacement of my class A Aaron #1 amp for a while as I
wanted a smoother, more coherent sound. I had already tried several other amps,
also many times more costly than this one, but always came to the conclusion
that their cost was not giving me sufficient additional sound value. But now I
thought I had found a true upgrade for a very reasonable price of 850 Euro.
Koos warned me that his demo PrimaLuna etc. was fully burned in so I should
count on burn-in time before my amp would start to deliver the same results. And
indeed, after I connected it into my system, it sounded not too bad— voices
were good indeed, but soundstage was rather flat (wide ok, but not too deep) and
lower frequencies were so-so and overall the music was not truly involving. Was
there something wrong?
For your information: For cd’s my system deals with a Njoe Tjoeb including
full options with Upsampler and Siemens tubes, Xanadu DS 14 Magnesium speakers,
Transparent cabling, including an Ultra interconnect which costs a load but
makes your music sound as the brand name suggests(!). For vinyl I use a vintage
Pioneer with Grado Silver. Further I have AH! power cables and NoiseKillers.
As I’m a frequent traveler and have no demanding neighbors, I have plenty
opportunity to let the set play for burn in. If you can, I suggest you do the
same as I did and just connect your TV to the amp and let it go on MTV or so.
Please note: a few days will not do the job as every time when I returned from
my trip I had a new reference point and noticed the improvements in soundstage,
better definition in low frequencies, the voices and instruments became more
free and more stable positioned in space, and
overall the music became more relaxed and easier to listen to. But remember, in
my experience this took several hundred hours playing time!! Also try on which
speaker terminals the amp performs best. It has 4 and 8 Ohm connections. In my
experience the 4 Ohm sounds much more natural, so that’s where I kept it.
In case you wonder what kind of music I play, it varies widely, from jazz, piano
and combo’s (e.g. Jarrett, Sarah
Horn, Blakey, Ahmad Jamal –try his Rossiter Road from 1986 on Atlantic-7
81645-2, recommended by Koos and I got it in the USA),
big bands (e.g. Count Basey), blues (e.g. Keb’Mo’) ,
rock (the Band to Zappa), and all kind of singers (Le Forrestier to
Sinatra), World Music and even Classic. Yes--and also in my set up the quality
of recording plays an important role. Somehow however with my new PrimaLuna
ProLogue amp the older recordings, like Paul Simon’s live concert in the Park,
became again fun to listen to.
Let me finish by complementing the team for this development - an affordable amp
with great sound. I prefer to spend my money on buying CD’s rather than on
chasing the latest and quite often expensive equipment. The equipment the AH!
team developed sofar, provides this
quality/cost balance. I’m looking
forward towards the upcoming AH! speakers, and if these have the same
price/quality as the PrimaLuna , I guess Koos can already order a set for me.