You can add an integrated phono stage for 249 plus some light labor. If I remember correctly it takes over the input 2 rcas.
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What tt are you thinking about?
I have a personal bias against Primaluna. It’s a product that Kevin (who is a partial owner) from Upsale Audio seemed to pushed to death. Having gone to their physical store… meh. Long story if you want to hear it. The models and build quality of the Cayin and Line Magnetics are so similar that I feel once the LM brothers passed away a designer jumped over to Cayin… no facts to back this up, but if you place their lineup side-by-side you get that feeling.
Personally, of all the tube IA that I have tried and heard the LM 845 was pretty awesome at 3kish used. Heavy, hot, and 30ish watts.
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Leben CS300XS
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You do realize a lot of other dealers carry and sell Primaluna? I would not write them off because of UpScale Audio and however their owner tries to sell his stuff.
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Technics SL-1200MK5 with a NOS van der haul cart and a new tonearm from audio mods. The owner did the following:
“…so I redid the bearings with new ones, cleaned everything, added a new speed controller, recalibrated speed settings to be more precise, replaced the plinth with solid aluminum with laser engraving, replaced all old fluorescent bulbs with white efficient smd lights, replaced the footers, added a funk firm platter and record weight, replaced dust cover with NOS”
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sorry for my late reply but i’m overloaded lately…
the meze 99 can be a bit boring but i found you can tune that with a clean energetic chain and silver cable. in my case it’s also a birthday present from my love so selling doesn’t feel right. But it’s a real easy driver, i take it on holiday with me.
seems you already have a nice collection of usual suspects. any chance he could try? that would already provide some direction. sundara is also a popular choice in that entry level
I just added a LPS to my tt and the improvement was dramatic. I’ve been listening to a ton of records lately even after recently adding some cables to my digital setup. I was thinking… could you add your tt to your current chain? You might be able to better identify the SQ and presentation of the tt.
I loved listening to vinyl with a tube amp, but I currenly have my phono set to low gain and am glad I have 225W to make up the difference.
Edit: with a MC cartridge.
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I tried my current entry level turntable (Fluance RT85) with the ifi zen phono, AIC10 and Susvara and it was nice but clearly not a balanced system lol
My limited understanding is that the technics with a decent+ phono pre (let’s say $1-2K) will be a significant jump in quality that is more likely to help win some listening time over here.
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My friend has a Rogue Audio Ares II Tube Phono with his Rega P8 and Sugden. A tube phono might accomplish what your looking for without geting a new IA and in my limited experience the phonos in IA aren’t too great.
Edit: i just looked up the RIVIERA AIC-10 Bal lol
I quite liked the Gallion ts120 when i had it. Compared and perfered over the primaluna evo 300.
Had more detail, air, layering, better imaging.
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I’m assuming I will run separate components hence the nice to have requirement. Just simpler and cheaper if I can avoid. Especially considering this is a second system and I’m not as critical with the turntable/speakers listening
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Yeah, I think that’s the way to go with a second tt setup. It can get mental when one starts upgrading both a tt setup and digital while continually trying to best the other.
For sure, youll be jumping a couple of tiers.
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Actually depending on your speakers, a used Vinnie Rossi LIO isn’t bad.
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For those of you with tube dacs…
I know some of y’all typically turn off tube gear when not in use but what about dacs with tubes? Do they take a long time to warm up? I know my non-tube dac takes at most 2 days to sound its best. If that were the case with some tube dacs, then leaving it on 24/7 would be ideal…
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I think Lampizator and SW1X recommend keeping them on 24/7
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Most of the stuff I currently owned is vintage/discontinued phones so you can’t really get those through normal means. Plus he’s from EU and I am from the US, so I can’t really let him try my stuff unless I ship my stuff which I am not going to do. I told him to demo a lot of stuff, so I am sure whatever studio headphone he is looking for his needs, I’m sure he is going to find it.
I would think it depends on the design, and the specific manufacturer recommendations. For example on both my tube DACs, they are meant to be kept on 24/7 given they are R2R Multibit.
They both have a standby switch to enable the DAC to keep operating temp, while reducing the tube use to a minimum. Kind of like keeping the tubes in a low idle, where it doesn’t shaves thousands of hours on the life of the tube.
They also recommend if one will not be using it for fo say a week, then fully shut it down.
If you are looking at a tube DAC, hopefully they follow a similar approach with a standby switch. Given the many brands out there who put out tube DACs it would be a crap shoot. Now my other DAC, which has an outboard tube component doesn’t care if the DAC is shut off or the external tube buffer, as it’s an old school Burr-Brown, so keep it on or off it doesn’t matter.
Hope this helps, curious to know how the others approach the situation.
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I left my amber 3 om 24/7 for a couple of months when I owned it, I’ve left the pacific (and most of my tube gear at various points) on over night, I’ve never really noticed a big difference over an hour or so’s warm up, but generally I turn it on in the morning and off at night.
You probably could leave the lampizators on 24/7.
I will note not everything is powered off when they are off the tubes are, but at least the part that controls the front panel is still “powered” because they behave differently after an actual power loss.
I usually figure an hour for tube gear to warm up.
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Ran across this new USAM post today, interesting amp, don’t know much about it but it meets your power requirements. You’d need a volume though but I kind of like the vibe of this one especially if it’s going into an analogue system.
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That’s the best USAM background story ive every read. Lol
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