PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP Power Amplifier

PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP Power Amplifier – Between S$5,000 – S$6000

HP means High Power

If you have read about the incredible Stereophile Class A rated DiaLogue Premium power amplifier, you already know that at $3199 it competes firmly with amplifiers costing $10,000 and more while being better built, more flexible, and easier to use.

MORE POWER, NOT MORE HASSLES

All PrimaLuna’s have incredible slam because of bandwidth. Power is secondary, and can in fact be bad news for unwary customers. To learn more about power, read Less Power, More Bass. But for customers with speakers that are 86dB efficient or lower, that have larger rooms and play at higher volumes, they may need more power.

The cheap way to get more power from a tube amp is to raise the tube’s plate and screen voltage, and bias them harder. It costs nothing to do so as a manufacturer, but we refuse to follow the pack. You will see claims of as high as 100 watts from a pair of KT120’s. Initially, the customer is happy. But talk to the same customer in a year when his tubes are worn out. PrimaLuna amps are famous for long tube life, running cool, and being absolutely the easiest amplifier to own.

The best way to add power and keep running cool is an bigger build. We increased the size of the power transformer, added all the supporting circuitry including tube sockets, Swiss silver-plated OFC wiring, Takman resistors, SCR Tinfoil caps and a second Adaptive AutoBias board. And of course, four more EL34’s for unrelenting power. And if you want the ultimate, add a second HP later and flip the switches to mono. Incredible!

Dare to Compare

Compare PrimaLuna construction to any other brand, at any price. You’ll be amazed.

Primaluna DiaLogue Premium Remote Controlled Trioded/Ultra Linear Switching - Norman Audio

Remote controlled Triode/Ultra-linear Switching

Do you have some classic rock albums you used to love so much that have now ended up left on the shelf, un-played for years? How about jazz or classical recordings from the 60’s? Every audiophile has albums that they used to play, but stopped because they are harsh, brittle, or bright. There is a solution. Triode and Single Ended Triode (SET) amps are popular for their warmer, fuller, and easy to settle into sound. But triode amps have limitations! Ultra-linear has more extension on the top and bottom, not to mention greater power. They have greater “pop” with a bigger difference between light and dark, and loud and soft. Having triode only is VERY limiting. The best option is to have both triode and ultra-linear. PrimaLuna engineers in Holland designed an ingenious circuit that lets you change from triode to ultra-linear with a push of a button on the supplied remote control. No need to get up and stop the music. Make an instant comparison while you listen and choose what you like best for that song or album.

PrimaLuna AC Offset Killer - Norman Audio

AC OFFSET KILLER - A PRIMALUNA EXCLUSIVE

DiaLogue Premium is about goose bumps. The ones you get when music comes out of a background so quiet, you may say to yourself “Just how is this possible?” PrimaLuna custom-winds our own massive toroidal power transformers that are low in hum and EMI. But we wanted more. Our engineers designed the AC Offset Killer to lower transformer noise to a place no other manufacturer dreams of going, regardless of how bad your electricity is. The result? Sense of space. Texture. The resonance of an acoustic guitar or violin string that seems to trail on forever. The AC Offset Killer will amaze you.

Primaluna DiaLogue Premium Stereo/Mono Operation - Norman Audio

STEREO OR MONOBLOCK OPERATION

It's as simple as flipping a switch, and the DiaLogue Premium instantly switches from stereo to monoblock operation! Buy one, and as your budget grows your system can grow too. The benefit of monoblock operation is the amp now has dual output transformers for the best coupling with your speakers, and the addition of a 2-ohm speaker tap added to the 4 and 8-ohm taps. While all PrimaLuna amps are made for ribbons like Magnaplanars and electrostatics like Martin-Logan, you haven't heard anything until you have heard a PrimaLuna monoblock!

DIALOGUE CLASS POWER TRANSFORMERS

Power transformers generate two types of noise, magnetic and acoustic. That's why toroidal power transformers are used in the very best audio products. Compared to standard transformers, toroids radiate about 1/10 the magnetic field that pollutes music and obscures detail. Additionally, the absence of an air gap typically means toroids have an 8:1 reduction of acoustic noise. As transformers are the most expensive components in any audio product, manufacturers will even house cheaper C-core and EI-core transformers in an outboard power supply box with an umbilical cable rather than upgrade to an expensive toroid. The increased cost is significant, but PrimaLuna doesn’t cut corners. All PrimaLuna products use massive, potted toroidal transformers. PrimaLuna transformers are enclosed in a metal housing and then potted in a non-microphonic resin to further reduce noise and to protect the windings from moisture and deterioration forever.

DIALOGUE CLASS OUTPUT TRANSFORMERS

Output transformers are the most important part of any tube amp. They determine how low the bass will reach and how high the top end goes. 250 watts of power will have no top and bottom extension if the output transformers don't have the bandwidth. We use lower power to extend tube life, and bandwidth to give you slam. Transformers are the most expensive components in an amplifier, so manufacturers save money by using ‘off the shelf’ units available on the market. PrimaLuna output transformers are custom-designed, wound in-house, and massive. Our DiaLogue Class components feature the largest, widest-bandwidth output transformers we’ve ever made. One reason why no other brand sounds like a PrimaLuna. "The flat tops and bottoms of these squarewaves correlate with the amplifier's extended low-frequency response; PrimaLuna's output transformers are of excellent quality." -John Atkinson, Stereophile Magazine

ADAPTIVE AUTOBIAS

What most companies call Auto Bias is actually "Cathode Bias"- A commonly used method that is cheap to make, and often found in guitar amps, but also $20,000 high end audio amps. It reduces the available power of the amp and runs the tubes hard, meaning shorter tube life and failures via "shorts". PrimaLuna's Adaptive AutoBias is a true, smart technology employing an array of sensors to monitor tubes and make adjustments seamlessly in real time. More important, it is the ONLY circuit of its kind that is truly "adaptive" by addressing "tube pinch off" at higher volumes, therefore reducing distortion by over 50% and greatly extending tube life. Adaptive AutoBias is completely passive and NOT in the signal path. The result is low to no maintenance, long tube life, and the lowest possible distortion for amazing sound. Adaptive AutoBias also provides unparalleled flexibility by allowing use of almost any tube on the market today. It even has a fine-tuning switch for EL-34 and KT88/KT120/KT150 tube types.

PrimaLuna Point-to-Point W/ Swiss Made Wire - Norman Audio

POINT TO POINT WIRING W/ SWISS MADE WIRE

You spend a lot of money on interconnects. So why have the signal go right from the RCA jacks or speaker terminals into circuit boards with copper traces so thin you can hardly see them? What’s high-end about that? PrimaLuna employs Point to Point Wiring on all products. The entire signal path, including resistors and capacitors, is painstakingly hand wired with heavy-gauge cable by craftsman. DiaLogue Premium models use Swiss-made, silver-plated, oxygen-free continuous crystal (OCC) copper with a Teflon dielectric in the critical signal path for superior signal speed and increased clarity.

SMARTWATTS – EXTENDED TUBE LIFE

Tube life is simply a matter of how hard you run the tubes. That’s it. The only way to extend tube life is to run them as close to zero as you possible can, making sure it is not so low you go into crossover distortion. The life of a tube will depend on two things: Plate and screen voltage.

If the plate and screen voltage is high, you are more likely to get tube shorts when you turn the amp on and you get cathode stripping which greatly effects the cathodes ability to spit out electrons. Manufacturers that run the hell out of tubes to pump up their power ratings will never tell you what voltages they use. They’ll say it’s “proprietary” as if it’s some secret sauce. There is no such thing. But if they told you that they used 575, 600, or even 625 volts you probably wouldn’t buy. We proudly tell you our tubes run at just about 417 volts for the plates and screens.

PrimaLuna runs their output tubes at a minimum dissipation without going into crossover distortion. When you look at our amps, they provide less power from each tube. With KT-120’s as an example, a PrimaLuna will give you only 21 watts per tube. So running a pair of them you get 42 watts. That’s a lot of power, but the demands per tube are a fraction of some manufacturers that give you 100 watts from a pair of KT-120’s. It’s a cheap way to get big power, and it’s cheap. In fact, free. To get more power the right way is expensive. It requires bigger transformers, sockets, wiring, resistors, capacitors, and the tubes to do it. Which is exactly what PrimaLuna did. But we didn’t stop there.

Read this carefully: Power has nothing to do with sound quality. Or bass slam. You can buy a 200 watt receiver for $299, and it will even have surround sound. Do you think for a minute it will sound better than a 50 or 100 watts high end amp costing $10,000? Of course not. Only first-time buyers think that way. Experienced audiophiles know that for the majority of listening sessions, you use maybe 10 watts of power.

OUR AMPS ARE PERFECT. BUT YOUR SYSTEM MAY NOT BE

Ask any seasoned tube-head what the most musical output tube is and they will most certainly declare it the EL34. Other amp manufacturers would love to use it. Only PrimaLuna, through our proprietary output transformer designs, can give you EL34 midrange beauty with top-end air that goes on forever. And, bass extension with so much slam, our amps are used to power subwoofers. However, every system is different. What if you bought a speaker with bass that overloads the room? Or, that is too dark? Or, too bright? What if you just want to have fun trying the different colors of sound from a vast pallet of tubes? With other manufacturers’ products, you’re stuck. They’re a one-trick pony. How are you going to fine-tune your sound? Buy some different cables?! With PrimaLuna, you get to choose. Go for it. 6L6G, 6L6GC, 7581A, EL34, EL37, 6550, KT66, KT77, KT88, KT90, KT120, even the monstrous KT150. A future-proof design, PrimaLuna is compatible with NEW tube types not even thought of today!