Directly across the hall from the PrimaLuna exhibit, I discovered its somewhat more expensive big brother line, Mystère. While PrimaLuna amps operate in triode mode, Mystère gives you the sound of tetrode. These aren't high power babies—the ia11 integrated amp ($1995) puts out 40Wpc watts and the ia21 integrated amp ($2995) gives you 50Wpc. The electronics are manufactured with a different partner in China, and are the dream project of their designer.

On a modest demo system, I heard the Mystère PA21 power amplifier equipped with KT88s, Concept CA11 preamp, PrimaLuna ProLogue Eight CD player, an ExactPower, and a Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Baby Grand produce some truly lovely sounds. If I ever end up with higher-sensitivity speakers, I'd love to give one of these babies a try.