I heard the first one in Covina. I felt the system they had set up smaller but very nice Arial 6t's and Primare integrated. I was originally planning on a classic 3 with 3d arm but unfortunately way out of reach with a working man's budget. The Prime to me sounds very liquid like the Classic 3/3d combination but with not quite as much gut wrenching low end extension. I think because the table was set up with a very good mid priced Sumiko Blackbird cartridge, the soundstage was dead on, but the smaller speakers kind of got lost in the huge room they were playing in. The Primare electronics had the classic BBC sound(very good thing for me) I would have loved to hear this rig with the Wilson Sophia or upcoming Sabrina. Could be scary good. I would also love to hear a mid line Soundsmith cartridge on it too. I presently now enjoy a Classic 1 with Dynavector 20x2, it too is an awesome set up for me. I was lucky enough to pick it up used. If I didn't just buy the Classic 1, I'd have been all over buying this one. After having heard all three, I feel I could be very happy with any of the combinations for a VERY long time. Jury is still out on pulling the trigger, don't get me wrong, it is an awesome table in every aspect, true work of art, but still pondering total table with SDS too if I do. Seems kind of silly since IMO we already own a world class rig. To do better you better go the Classic 3/3d-SDS, Classic 4, or the 'Direct' route, all a hell of a lot more $$. If you do...you better have at least 20-50K upstream and a huge room to take advantage of all of that goodness. I think the Prime could be forgiving enough for state of the art rigs under 10k, but be good enough to grow into 50K rigs too.
