Prima Luna Restock, new products and more to come!

Greetings! Short and sweet one from me today.

I’m over the moon, pun intended, to let you all know that Jon’s dug deep into his pockets and we’ve dived back into the Prima Luna range with gusto. If you aren’t familiar with the brand, Prima Luna are an American valve specialist that excel in making components that are as close to fuss-free as they get. Back in the early 2000’s Prima Luna started as a partnership between designer Herman Van den Dungen and distributor Kevin Deal. Both shared a passion for valve electronics and it was this passion, coupled with Deal’s understanding of the US audio market that lead to the development of the company’s first product, the ProLogue series of amplifiers.

Prologue introduced several features intended to bring back audiophiles who had been lured away from valves by the inherent fussiness that plagues so many valve products. The most important of these was the inclusion of an automatic biasing circuit that constantly monitors and adjusts the bias of the output valves. Having seen many valve amplifiers come through the shop where partial disassembly and an up to date will and testament are necessary to set the bias, I cannot stress enough quite how phenomenally ground breaking a feature this was. To this day, all Prima Luna amplifiers incorporate this function, making changing valves as easy as changing a lightbulb and taking all of the stress out of ownership.

We’ve already had a couple of items arrive with us that are breaking in upstairs:

EVO100 DAC £2,888

Following it’s glowing HiFi+ review, this was a must-have. The EVO100 is like no other DAC that I have seen before, eschewing a traditional crystal oscillator in favour of a tiny triode valve for the clocking of digital signals. Prima Luna boast huge reductions in measurable jitter thanks to the Russian-made valve at the heart of the clock; with the promise of improvements in dynamics and detail retrieval over a conventional oscillator. Whilst I do not have the equipment in the shop to corroborate these claims, I can attest that, on a purely subjective level, the EVO100 served up an sound so smooth and lustrous that one could be forgiven for forgetting that you were listening to a digital source.

EVO400 Integrated £4,598

The EVO400 is the latest generation of Prima Luna’s high power stereo amplifiers, featuring no less than four output valves per channel and providing a hefty 70 watts per channel. Whilst the EVO400 comes fitted with EL34s which give that cherished golden midband, many valve-lovers have a favourite valve that just seems to sing with their particular system. For this reason, the EVO400 is compatible with just about any commonly available valve, from 6550’s to the KT150, giving an almost infinitely tuneable sound.

Amongst the other components arriving soon are another two standout products, the EVO100 integrated and the EVO300 Hybrid. The former of these is Prima Luna’s new entry level offering which retains the adaptive autobias and wide valve compatibility of its peers with a healthy 40wpc output with its supplied EL34s. If you’ve been left cold by transistor designs which impeccable measured performance but a total lack of musicality or engagement, this may be just the ticket at a smidge over £2,000.

I am equally excited to get my hands on the latter of the two, the EVO300 Hybrid. As the name suggests, the EVO300 combines a valve preamplifier section with a 100wpc MOSFET based power amplifier. The power amplifier circuit has been voiced to retain the rich “valve sound” of other Prima Luna amplifiers whilst offering sufficient grunt to drive inefficient loudspeakers that the brand’s more traditional amplifiers would be poorly matched with. The Hybrid being completely new territory for Prima Luna, you may just see it featured one of these mondays as I really am extremely curious to see what this marriage of both approaches actually sounds like with some of the speakers that we carry. The first product to carry the Floyd moniker, the Evo 300 Hybrid is set to land at £6,498.

We’re expecting the rest of the range to be with us imminently and shall be adding them to our website in due course. As ever, if you would like to listen to the range, get in touch to book a listen either in store or at home.

Until next time,

Alasdair

The post Prima Luna Restock, new products and more to come! first appeared on Oxford Audio.

Greetings! Short and sweet one from me today. I’m over the moon, pun intended, to let you all know that Jon’s dug deep into his pockets and we’ve dived back […]

The post Prima Luna Restock, new products and more to come! first appeared on Oxford Audio.