Primaluna?

I’ve had a PL Prologue Classic integrated since 2019 and am thrilled with it! It has been my only tube amp and, like many others, I’m hooked now. I’ve sorta wished I’d have held out for one of the higher models that feature the bad tube indicators adjacent to individual tubes but it’s probably unneeded in the grand scheme of things — I’m learning, somewhat late I confess, that when one power tube goes bad it’s pretty much standard procedure to replace the whole set of four. I’ve had three quads of power tubes in my PL since purchasing it - the original PL supplied EL34s.  Sounded very good…in fact was what got me hooked on tubes. I replaced that quad, still working fine, with Gold Lion KT77s which did provide an extra measure of sound quality to my ears but one of them failed in less than a year (mixed reviews on reliability of those particular tubes) and the Prologue Classic handled it in stride. Just a muffled ‘bump’ noise and the single light on the faceplate lit up red and the amp appeared to be in protection mode. I put the original, PL EL34s back in and played it for awhile before replacing them with reissue Mullard EL34s which I’ve been enjoying for over a year now. Still very much a newbie to tube amps but that’s been my experience with PrimaLuna.

I just read and watched this:

I have been a devotee of tube amplification for many decades. I have owned the prima Luna Dialogue Integrated for three years and it is the easiest to use and nicest sounding to my ears. I highly recommend this brand. You can spend a lot more money for probably not a big sonic improvement.

VAC has autobias, the IQ system, in their newer models and protective warning leds. If the led turns green that tube is getting weak, if it turns red, the tube is drawing excessive current and the IQ system shuts down the main power supply in a fraction of a second (from the manual) so that you can replace the bad tube before it does any damage.

I don’t know which autobiasing and tube protection system works better, nor do I know which brand sounds better.

I bought a Primaluna integrated ten or more years ago for my office system. I have been very happy with it. Detailed and pretty natural sounding (I never bothered fiddling with tube upgrades, I am sure this could make it substantially better). I lent it to a friend of mine who is just starting out and it has allowed his system to get to a level where he could start hearing it’s potential.

Always replace matched pairs or quads or whatever the tube config is. Typically big power tubes last less long than small tubes… so it is ok to just replace those if one develops a funny noise or fails. For my main system I keep around a backup set of tubes, but I listen for three hours a day. For my other systems I don’t. I’s only a couple days or a week to get replacements.

Thumbs up for PrimaLuna.