A misunderstanding: During my first two weeks with the EMT 997 tonearm that I wrote about in my July 2008 "Listening" column, whenever it seemed that the azimuth of the pickup head in use was a little bit off, I would loosen the teensy-weensy grub screw at the bottom of the end of the armtube, carefully rotate the pickup head a fraction of a degree, retighten the grub screw, then look back on my busy day with pride. That regimen continued until curiosity got the better of me and I took a really close look at that teensy-…
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Art Dudley wrote about the EMT 997 in September 2008 (Vol.31 No.9):
There's a retro, Heathkit vibe to the curiously capitalized PrimaLuna ProLogue Eight CD player: a shelf of glowing tubes and a chunky transformer case perched atop a plain black chassis. But on closer inspection, it seems there's much more going on here. The chassis is made of heavy-gauge steel, with (according to the manual) a "five-coat, high-gloss, automotive finish," each coating hand-rubbed and -polished. The tube sockets are ceramic, the output jacks gold-plated. Inside, separate toroidal transformers power each channel. Custom-designed isolation transformers separate the analog and…
And, back to the Górecki, in the middle of the first movement, when the basses growl right before the crescendo, the PrimaLuna didn't let me hear the growl. Fast transients and accurate overtones can go only so far in disguising an absence of truly deep bass.
Dynamic range was compressed a bit, but peaks weren't distorted or clipped; it was more like someone slightly easing up on the pedal. The high octaves were also rolled off a bit (hence the shortage of air), but the rolloff was smooth; there was no sense of a brickwall filter, no harshness.—Fred Kaplan
Comparisons from John…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-box, fixed-output, remote-control CD player with tubed output stage, SuperTubeClock to minimize jitter, and SoftStart circuit for extended life of tubes. Tube complement: two 5AR4 rectifiers, two 12AX7, two 12AU7, subminiature triode in SuperTubeClock circuit. Analog outputs: 1 pair (RCA). Digital outputs: S/PDIF on coaxial (RCA) and optical (TosLink). Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.5dB. Channel separation: 90dB at 1kHz. Maximum output level: 2V, ±3dB. Signal/noise: >96dB. Dynamic range: 120dB. Distortion and noise: <–70dB. Power…
Sidebar 2: Fred Kaplan's Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Krell Evolution 505 SACD player, Simaudio Moon CD 5.3 CD player.
Integrated Amplifier: Krell FBI.
Loudspeakers: Verity Audio Parsifal Applause.
Cables: Nirvana.
Accessories: Bybee Signature Model Power Purifier, Monster Cable AVS2000 voltage regulator, Black Diamond IV Racing Cones.—Fred Kaplan
Sidebar 3: John Atkinson's Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre C-5xe, Pioneer DV-578A, Oppo DV-970HD universal players; Benchmark DAC 1 USB D/A converter.
Preamplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 2, Mark Levinson No.380S.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H.
Loudspeakers: PSB Synchrony One, Epos M16i, Avalon NP Evolution 2.0, Magico V3.
Cables: Digital: Kimber Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU, AudioQuest OptiLink-5 S/PDIF. Interconnect (balanced): AudioQuest Cheetah, Ayre Signature Series. Interconnect (unbalanced): Linn, Canare. Speaker: AudioQuest Kilimanjaro. AC: PS Audio…
Sidebar 4: Measurements
I examined the PrimaLuna ProLogue Eight's measured behavior mainly using Audio Precision's top-model SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and "As We See It" in the January 2008 issue), as well as our Audio Precision System One and the Miller Audio Research Jitter Analyzer for some tests. As always, I experimented with the grounding between the player under test and the test set to give the lowest level of measured hum (see later).
The ProLogue Eight's error correction was one of the best I have encountered. While its digital output flagged errors when the gap in…
John Atkinson auditioned the ProLogue Eight upgrades in October 2008 (Vol.31 No.10):
Back in the July issue, Fred Kaplan and I jointly reviewed the PrimaLuna ProLogue Eight CD player ($2495). Designed in the Netherlands and manufactured in China, the ProLogue Eight features technologies both old and new. While each channel's DAC chip is a highly specified, 24-bit Burr-Brown PCM1792 fed by a Burr-Brown SRC4192 upsampling converter running at 192kHz, the audio signal is handled by pairs of 12AX7 and 12AU7 dual-triode tubes, with 5AR4 tubes used for power-supply rectification. And rather…
The German company AQVOX Audio Devices has produced an innovative moving-coil/moving-magnet solid-state phono preamplifier, the Phono 2Ci, that's as intriguing for its technology and performance as it is for its relatively low price: $1400. The zero-feedback, op-amp–free circuit uses a compact switch-mode power supply that's built into the chassis and features conventional voltage gain for moving-magnet cartridges via its RCA jacks, and current gain for moving-coil cartridges through the balanced XLR inputs. Rear-panel switches select between RCA or XLR inputs and offer a convenient ground…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state MM/MC phono preamplifier with voltage-gain and current-gain inputs and switchable subsonic filter. Gain: 49–68dB (RCA input), 55–75dB (XLR input). Input loading: 100 ohms, 1k ohms, 47k ohms in paralle with 47pF, 94pF, 147pF, 267pF, or 515pF (RCA input); 10 ohms (XLR input). THD+ Noise at 1V output: 0.009% at min. 0.04% at max. (MM, RCA input); 0.019% at min. 0.09% at max. (MC, RCA input). S/N Ratio (ref. 1V output): 76dB unweighted/84dBA at mininimum gain, 63dB unweighted/71dBA at maximum gain (MM, RCA input); 69dB unweighted/78dBA at…