Description
The PrimaLuna EVO 400 tube power amplifier makes owning a tube amp so simple you have no excuse not to have your tube dreams come true! Housing PrimaLuna’s largest toroidal transformers the EVO 400 also boasts XLR inputs and remote controlled Triode/Ultra-linear switching (in addition to the high-end EVO standard inclusions). With 14 tubes on-board, the EVO 400 plays with ultimate analogue muscle and finesse.
LARGEST…CUSTOM SUPER-WIDE-BANDWIDTH OUTPUT TRANSFORMERS
Output transformers are the most important part of any tube amp. They determine how low the bass will reach and how high the top end goes. 250 watts of power will have no top and bottom extension if the output transformers don’t have the bandwidth. PrimaLunar uses lower power to extend tube life, and bandwidth to give you slam. Transformers are the most expensive components in an amplifier, so manufacturers save money by using ‘off the shelf’ units available on the market. PrimaLuna output transformers are custom-designed, wound in-house, and massive. One reason why no other brand sounds like a PrimaLuna. “The flat tops and bottoms of these square-waves correlate with the amplifier’s extended low-frequency response; PrimaLuna’s output transformers are of excellent quality.” -John Atkinson, Stereophile Magazine
LARGER…CUSTOM TOROIDAL POWER TRANSFORMERS
Power transformers generate two types of noise, magnetic and acoustic. That’s why toroidal power transformers are used in the very best audio products. Compared to standard transformers, toroids radiate about 1/10 the magnetic field that pollutes music and obscures detail. Additionally, the absence of an air gap typically means toroids have an 8:1 reduction of acoustic noise. As transformers are the most expensive components in any audio product, manufacturers will even house cheaper C-core and EI-core transformers in an outboard power supply box with an umbilical cable rather than upgrade to an expensive toroid. The increased cost is significant, but PrimaLuna doesn’t cut corners. All PrimaLuna products use massive, potted toroidal transformers. PrimaLuna transformers are enclosed in a metal housing and then potted in a non-microphonic resin to further reduce noise and to protect the windings from moisture and deterioration forever. Housing PrimaLuna’s largest transformers the EVO 300 plays with the ultimate “unpolluted” body.
Takman Resistors
If you bought a lesser amplifier, you would pay hundreds to make this upgrade. Easy to identify through their pink color, these premium resistors from Japan are popular with those who rebuild and upgrade their gear. “Modders” love TAKMAN for their low noise, linearity, and musicality.
AC Offset Killer – A PrimaLuna Exclusive
AC Offset Killer is about goose bumps. The ones you get when music comes out of a background so quiet, you may say to yourself “Just how is this possible?”
PrimaLuna custom-winds their own massive toroidal power transformers that are low in hum and EMI. But they wanted more. Engineers designed the AC Offset Killer to lower transformer noise to a place no other manufacturer dreams of going, regardless of how bad your electricity is. The result? Sense of space. Texture. The resonance of an acoustic guitar or violin string that seems to trail on forever. The AC Offset Killer will amaze you.
SMARTWATTS – EXTENDED TUBE LIFE
Tube life is simply a matter of how hard you run the tubes. That’s it. The only way to extend tube life is to run them as close to zero as you possible can, making sure it is not so low you go into crossover distortion. The life of a tube will depend on two things: Plate and screen voltage.
If the plate and screen voltage is high, you are more likely to get tube shorts when you turn the amp on and you get cathode stripping which greatly effects the cathodes ability to spit out electrons. Manufacturers that run the hell out of tubes to pump up their power ratings will never tell you what voltages they use. They’ll say it’s “proprietary” as if it’s some secret sauce. There is no such thing. But if they told you that they used 575, 600, or even 625 volts you probably wouldn’t buy. We proudly tell you our tubes run at just about 417 volts for the plates and screens.
PrimaLuna runs their output tubes at a minimum dissipation without going into crossover distortion. When you look at PrimaLuna amps, they provide less power from each tube…
To get more power the right way is expensive. It requires bigger transformers, sockets, wiring, resistors, capacitors, and the tubes to do it. Which is exactly what PrimaLuna did. But they didn’t stop there.
Read this carefully:
Power has nothing to do with sound quality. Or bass slam. You can buy a 200 watt receiver for $299, and it will even have surround sound. Do you think for a minute it will sound better than a 50 or 100 watts high end amp costing $10,000? Of course not. Only first-time buyers think that way. Experienced audiophiles know that for the majority of listening sessions, you use maybe 10 watts of power.
ADAPTIVE AUTOBIAS
What most companies call Auto Bias is actually “Cathode Bias”- A commonly used method that is cheap to make, and often found in guitar amps, but also $20,000 high end audio amps. It reduces the available power of the amp and runs the tubes hard, meaning shorter tube life and failures via “shorts”.
PrimaLuna’s Adaptive AutoBias is a true, smart technology employing an array of sensors to monitor tubes and make adjustments seamlessly in real time. More important, it is the ONLY circuit of its kind that is truly “adaptive” by addressing “tube pinch off” at higher volumes, therefore reducing distortion by over 50% and greatly extending tube life. Adaptive AutoBias is completely passive and NOT in the signal path. The result is low to no maintenance, long tube life, and the lowest possible distortion for amazing sound.
Adaptive AutoBias also provides unparalleled flexibility by allowing use of almost any tube on the market today. It even has a fine-tuning switch for EL-34 and KT88/KT120/KT150 tube types.
POINT TO POINT WIRING
You spend a lot of money on interconnects. So why have the signal go right from the RCA jacks or speaker terminals into circuit boards with copper traces so thin you can hardly see them? What’s high-end about that?
PrimaLuna employs Point to Point Wiring on all products. The entire signal path, including resistors and capacitors, is painstakingly hand wired with heavy-gauge cable by craftsman.
Swiss Made Wiring
EVO 300 & EVO 400 models use Swiss-made, silver-plated, oxygen-free continuous crystal (OCC) copper with a Teflon dielectric in the critical signal path for superior signal speed and increased clarity.
Remote Controlled Triode/Ultra-linear Switching
Do you have some classic rock albums you used to love so much that have now ended up left on the shelf, un-played for years? How about jazz or classical recordings from the 60’s? Every audiophile has albums that they used to play, but stopped because they are harsh, brittle, or bright. There is a solution.
Triode and Single Ended Triode (SET) amps are popular for their warmer, fuller, and easy to settle into sound. But triode amps have limitations! Ultra-linear has more extension on the top and bottom, not to mention greater power. They have greater “pop” with a bigger difference between light and dark, and loud and soft. Having triode only is VERY limiting.
KT150 Compatible
In 2006 PrimaLuna introduced the original DiaLogue series; the first amplifiers designed to be as close to being future proof as humanly possible. Back then nobody imagined a tube like the KT120, let alone the KT150, which combines the sweetness of a 300B with bass and control never seen before. Now other companies are scrambling to make a product built to handle the demands of this incredible tube.
EVO 400, 300, & 200 poweramps and integrated amplifiers are built with huge power transformers and filaments supplies needed to run KT150 tubes.
KEY FEATURES:
• High quality tube power amplifier
• Switchable mono/stereo output
• 2 x 44 Watts
• 1 x 85 Watts
• Tube compliment: 6 x 12AU7, 8 x EL34 (KT150 compatible)