Hi all,

Any Prima Luma owners out there?

I heard the Dialogue Premium HP Integrated with KT88's with T1's last week - wow !! It was in a massive demo room too and cranked very very loud.

That was embarrassingly my first time ever hearing a tube amp with my own very varied music collection and I was delighted with the sound.

I'm looking to upgrade from my trusty and fantastical Peachtree 220se integrated, just to try something different but it needs to be a step up in performance from the Peachtree and the Dialogue Premium HP certainly achieved that I though.

Some difficult decisions to make. My Peachtree has sentimental value, as I bought together with my T1's

Cheers, Sean

Em84

I think the Dialogue Premium HP Integrated would be an excellent choice. I've not heard it but do have the Prologue Premium Preamp, which is excellent sounding. Build quality and everything about it is 1st rate.

The Dialogue Premium HP Integrated looks like a dream integrated. Nothing has been left out. High power, Self biasing, ect...and the choice of tubes is mind boggling. If I had to start all over again, this would be my 1st Choice.

Hi Sean,
Welcome to the crazy world of upgradeitis and TOOBS.
Your Peachtree is surely very good. And the amp you heard is obviously very good.
KT88s can sing and pretty powerfully as you experienced. There are LOTS of Tube options out there.
Can I ask, did they play music on the T Ones like you have???
I have no doubt that if they did, they could sound awesome and really rock volume wise, The Ones are quite efficient.
BUT one word of caution from my experience. Unless you can place the tube amp well away or above or otherwise shielded from the Ones side rocking passive radiators, I think you might have a problem with the sound waves impinging on the tubes and causing induced distortion. I experienced that with the T 2s and T 3s, which are not as bass powerful as the Ones.
Just a thought. And caution. I LOVE TUBES, love the sound, in fact my primary amps all have tubes, but are protected and are only pre-stage tubes, hybrid amps with the power coming from transistors.
IF you can, try to audition the amp you want with the Ones before buying.
Hope this helps, please let us know what you decide and do?
God Bless,
Wayne

WayneWilmeth wrote: Hi Sean,
Welcome to the crazy world of upgradeitis and TOOBS.
Your Peachtree is surely very good. And the amp you heard is obviously very good.
KT88s can sing and pretty powerfully as you experienced. There are LOTS of Tube options out there.
Can I ask, did they play music on the T Ones like you have???
I have no doubt that if they did, they could sound awesome and really rock volume wise, The Ones are quite efficient.
BUT one word of caution from my experience. Unless you can place the tube amp well away or above or otherwise shielded from the Ones side rocking passive radiators, I think you might have a problem with the sound waves impinging on the tubes and causing induced distortion. I experienced that with the T 2s and T 3s, which are not as bass powerful as the Ones.
Just a thought. And caution. I LOVE TUBES, love the sound, in fact my primary amps all have tubes, but are protected and are only pre-stage tubes, hybrid amps with the power coming from transistors.
IF you can, try to audition the amp you want with the Ones before buying.
Hope this helps, please let us know what you decide and do?
God Bless,
Wayne

Hi Wayne and thanks for the reply. As mentioned in my OP I was lucky enough to hear the Dialogue Premium HP with T1's and with my own music selection (via Tidal at the shops demo room) and you are right, this combination could handle anything I threw at it from Pink Floyd to Stevie Wonder to Santana to Kendrick Lamar to Deadmau5. I tried to make the system fail but really couldn't!

One thing which is scary is this side induced distortion you mention. How did this distortion manifest itself? In the demo the PrimaLuna was only a foot or so away from the left T1 , and maybe a foot off the ground. I couldn't hear any distortion even at rocking volumes.

Wonder if anyone else can share their experiences here

Thanks again in advance

Hey Sean, sorry I missed that you heard them with the Ones, awesome!
That sounds like about the same setup I used when I tried my new tube integrated with KT88s. It is a sweet sounding TRI TRV-88SE.
www.highfidelity.pl/@main-71&lang=en
It runs in Triode mode, so it does not have as much output as those tubes can have in a usual push-pull amp. And it MIGHT?? be more susceptible to outside interference, I don't know. But when I tried it in my home theater the more/louder bass I got the muddier and grundgier the sound got. It was obvious distortion was coming in from sound waves hitting the sides of the tubes (I do not have the nice tube vibration guards like in the pics at the site above). But I am an admitted BASS HEAD.
I have not tried this amp with my new Triton Ones, would love to, but that would be a BIG project now.
Anyway, I think you are onto something great. The beauty of the KT88 tube is that it remains pretty true to the input, does not ADD lushness and bass softness as some tubes do. And it plays powerfully. The weakness (for some) is that the sound may not be as soft and "sweet" a tube sound as you get with the 300B, EL34 and others.
Let us know what you decide.
Happy Listening,
God Bless,
Wayne

WayneWilmeth wrote: Hey Sean, sorry I missed that you heard them with the Ones, awesome!
That sounds like about the same setup I used when I tried my new tube integrated with KT88s. It is a sweet sounding TRI TRV-88SE.
www.highfidelity.pl/@main-71&lang=en
It runs in Triode mode, so it does not have as much output as those tubes can have in a usual push-pull amp. And it MIGHT?? be more susceptible to outside interference, I don't know. But when I tried it in my home theater the more/louder bass I got the muddier and grundgier the sound got. It was obvious distortion was coming in from sound waves hitting the sides of the tubes (I do not have the nice tube vibration guards like in the pics at the site above). But I am an admitted BASS HEAD.
I have not tried this amp with my new Triton Ones, would love to, but that would be a BIG project now.
Anyway, I think you are onto something great. The beauty of the KT88 tube is that it remains pretty true to the input, does not ADD lushness and bass softness as some tubes do. And it plays powerfully. The weakness (for some) is that the sound may not be as soft and "sweet" a tube sound as you get with the 300B, EL34 and others.
Let us know what you decide.
Happy Listening,
God Bless,
Wayne

Not a problem at all Wayne. I can confirm there was no distortion in my 2 hours of demo-ing so that's a big positive for the Dialogue Premium HP.

I might go have a listen again on the weekend and crank the T1's subs to see if I can get any such distortion (maybe when the dealer has left the room lol)