Prima luna Pro Logue intergrated amp.... Will it make my Martin Logan's sing?

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I heard the sound of the prima amp and was very impressed, so I thought it would be a great match. I see that I will need a lot more power. I am now looking at the following amps. 

An old  Krell Kav-250
Bryston 4d-sst 
Parasound A23
Audio research Di150

The somewhat limited power capability of the PrimaLuna amp is not the only concern I would have in pairing it with the M-L Vantage speakers. Although the output impedance of the amp is not specified, nor is its damping factor from which its output impedance could be calculated, I suspect (based in part on measurements I recall having seen in Stereophile of either the same or similar PrimaLuna amps) that its output impedance is somewhere between 1 and 2 ohms on its 4 ohm tap. That is typical of many tube amps, btw. The interaction of that output impedance with the impedance characteristics of the Vantage (specified as 4 ohms nominal, 1 ohm at 20 kHz) will result in a significantly different tonal balance than if the speaker were driven with a solid state amp (nearly all of which effectively have output impedances that are near zero).

Given that the manual for the Vantage recommends 100 to 200 watts of amplification (which seems suggestive of solid state amplification), and also states that ideally the amplifier should double its 8 ohm power capability into 4 ohms and should double it again into 2 ohms (which tube amplifiers cannot do), I would expect that the tonal effects resulting from pairing it with the PL amp would not be what the speaker’s designers intended.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Since you already have the preamp covered, you will need to add a robust SS amp, just like rotarius said 

Matt, the Primaluna is not Class A but that has nothing to do with the ability to drive the Logans.  Even though they have powered woofers, the panels are not an easy load for low powered tube amps.  Having owned Martin Logans, I say use a robust SS amp. 

Depends on your room size and volume habits . I just picked up a dialogue one from craigslist yesterday and I am trying it with King Sound electrostats and a small pair of Innersound Isis electrostats . It plays the larger kings but does not have extra power on hand which is needed . That is in a 15' x20' room . The inneround's are in a smaller room and the Primaluna is a good match in that situation .

Thanks for the input. I was hoping that since the Prima Luna was 36 watts of class A tubes, that it would be enough to power my ML.

I have had the Prima Luna PL2 integrated and PL5 power amp for the last 10 years.  These amps are truly wonderful ... great detail, musical, just a touch of warmth, easy to tube roll.  But they do run out of steam.  

When I playback a movie (blu-ray) in the PL2 system which is connected to Omega MK7 high efficiency monitors, the system gasses out when I try to go too loud.  Now granted, the Omegas as single driver monitors will only play so loud, but the PL2 does gas out.  I live in an apartment and mind the noise house rules.  The listening space for the PL2  is 10X15X8.  The room is carpeted and the windows draped.  

I do not know the ML Vantage speakers that you own.  I have never owned MLs.  Without knowing how loud you listen, I would think though that they would require more power than 36wpc.  


Rich 

"My question is, will 36 watts be enough power for my Martin Logan Vantage speakers."

IMHO, I seriously doubt it. Read this,

http://www.martinlogan.com/learn/faq-electrostatic.php#8