turntable
09-12-2012, 10:25 AM
I thought I would report on my thoughts of my Teflon premier 8a tube mono blocks and my recently acquired premier 350 ss stereo amp.
I have had the prem350 for around 6 weeks now and a week ago I switched back to the prem8a's.
You do not see many prem350's for sale in Australia, so when I saw one come up locally in Sydney for US$3600 I had to jump on it. Luckily it was still available and picked it up after work the same day. The guy was moving to horns, so had no use for 350 watts of power.
This prem350 has well and truly been burnt in, so no issues other than the normal 30 minutes warm up. After that it sounded reasonably consistent. That said I left it on more often than turning it off - one of the positives of ss, so might as well enjoy it! It will be great during summer as well.
I bought a prem350 when it first came out and really did not like it too much. Lean, a bit thin, no real depth - most of that at the time was the teflon caps but I had no idea at that time.
Forward 7 years or so.
Anyone that says the prem350 is bright/thin is plain incorrect, assuming break in as occurred, this is one sweet sounding ss amp! Being such high gain, it is noisier than my prem 8a's.
Funnily I appreciate it at lower volumes as the more focused soundstage and slightly forward lead instruments makes for great low level listening. It goes loud effortlessly as well however I did notice that the soundstage is lower and smaller than my tubes. Bass is tighter than the prem 8a's but more obvious in the mid/upper bass where the prem 8a's can be a bit thick on some bass heavy music. Overall I feel no real desire to unplug the amp, however something in the back of my head new something was missing.
I switched back in the big boy prem 8a's and played Midnight Oils Diesel and Dust lp again. Playing it pretty loud all of a sudden the soundstage moved from around and focused between the speakers to now covering the entire room, soundstage height seemed like it was twice as high. So much more upper frequency air and detail was obvious, that included the space between instruments.
Top to bottom coherence is just superb with the prem8a's and as you turn the music louder, it just gets louder without any part of the sonic spectrum seemingly out of place. The prem350 when pushed loud speaker sometimes leads a bit to much with the bass - more mid bass to my ears so gives it a slightly unbalanced sonic presentation compared to the prem 8a's. The frequency around lead guitars can be forward as well in direct comparison to the tubes.
I remember back in 1999 when I visited Music Lovers in Berkeley and heard the prem 12's. I loved what I heard and was ready to buy the 12's. The guy said, since I was here all the way from Sydney I should here the prem 8a's for the fun of it. Bad move, the prem 8a's were better in every respect. From that point prem 8a's were for me so I saved and saved.
There is good reason why cj make the 280 watt 8 x 6550 per tube amps as they are just effortless , have superior air, transparency and space and at the same time quick and balanced on their feet.
The prem350 is a great sweet sounding amp but for me the prem 8a's are comfortably better. Great to have both and the prem35 will not be going anywhere. I can really imagine the joy of the lucky ones owning the LP275's and the top of range ART's .:thumbsup: YMMV:D
I have had the prem350 for around 6 weeks now and a week ago I switched back to the prem8a's.
You do not see many prem350's for sale in Australia, so when I saw one come up locally in Sydney for US$3600 I had to jump on it. Luckily it was still available and picked it up after work the same day. The guy was moving to horns, so had no use for 350 watts of power.
This prem350 has well and truly been burnt in, so no issues other than the normal 30 minutes warm up. After that it sounded reasonably consistent. That said I left it on more often than turning it off - one of the positives of ss, so might as well enjoy it! It will be great during summer as well.
I bought a prem350 when it first came out and really did not like it too much. Lean, a bit thin, no real depth - most of that at the time was the teflon caps but I had no idea at that time.
Forward 7 years or so.
Anyone that says the prem350 is bright/thin is plain incorrect, assuming break in as occurred, this is one sweet sounding ss amp! Being such high gain, it is noisier than my prem 8a's.
Funnily I appreciate it at lower volumes as the more focused soundstage and slightly forward lead instruments makes for great low level listening. It goes loud effortlessly as well however I did notice that the soundstage is lower and smaller than my tubes. Bass is tighter than the prem 8a's but more obvious in the mid/upper bass where the prem 8a's can be a bit thick on some bass heavy music. Overall I feel no real desire to unplug the amp, however something in the back of my head new something was missing.
I switched back in the big boy prem 8a's and played Midnight Oils Diesel and Dust lp again. Playing it pretty loud all of a sudden the soundstage moved from around and focused between the speakers to now covering the entire room, soundstage height seemed like it was twice as high. So much more upper frequency air and detail was obvious, that included the space between instruments.
Top to bottom coherence is just superb with the prem8a's and as you turn the music louder, it just gets louder without any part of the sonic spectrum seemingly out of place. The prem350 when pushed loud speaker sometimes leads a bit to much with the bass - more mid bass to my ears so gives it a slightly unbalanced sonic presentation compared to the prem 8a's. The frequency around lead guitars can be forward as well in direct comparison to the tubes.
I remember back in 1999 when I visited Music Lovers in Berkeley and heard the prem 12's. I loved what I heard and was ready to buy the 12's. The guy said, since I was here all the way from Sydney I should here the prem 8a's for the fun of it. Bad move, the prem 8a's were better in every respect. From that point prem 8a's were for me so I saved and saved.
There is good reason why cj make the 280 watt 8 x 6550 per tube amps as they are just effortless , have superior air, transparency and space and at the same time quick and balanced on their feet.
The prem350 is a great sweet sounding amp but for me the prem 8a's are comfortably better. Great to have both and the prem35 will not be going anywhere. I can really imagine the joy of the lucky ones owning the LP275's and the top of range ART's .:thumbsup: YMMV:D