Using a tube pre can be fun and I owned a few of them myself with other than Naim amplifiers. The problem is that after a while you start wondering if that nice sound couldn’t get any better with another tube brand. NOS?
Ah ok, these are good and these not so good and then you realise that you have a drawer full of them. Lastly, you found the ultimate valve but after a few months you start worrying if your glowing bottles have aged too much and aren’t due for replacement…
Then you go back to a Naim preamplifier! At least, that’s what I did.
i have tested 2 famous nos tubes on mine pre, and have stayed since ones of them. No need of change for me ( nos ecc88 telefunken).
The tubes can live around 3000 hours in a pre, so around 10 years for me.
Generally speaking, tubes amps are on the romantic, mellow side. But not always, as ear yoshino, which are really dynamic and involving.
I recently demoed 282/SC-DR + 300 DR into Focal Sopra 3 and to my ears it’s a fantastic and well balanced combo.
Regards
Roberto
7 years ago in my apartment my new dealer replaced my phono preamp with a new brand a Herron, it has tubes at the beginning of the signal then boosts it with solid state so they are not overheating, It was amazing sound 3 days later my Sunday listening buddy was over and at the end of one side of Ella Fitzgerald he said “whatever you did was brilliant.” 4 years ago when I moved to the CA desert I ended up buying the line preamp and mono amps, I was using the NAP100, if that’s right? They have a naturalness that fits well with Harbeth Super HL5 speakers and my new Star is for digital and streaming.The inline pre has a few nice additions one is a button for mono recordings and the Beatle mono sound incredible as well as some of my jazz albums.
@mech how did you go? I am in a similar position. Trying to decide between PrimaLuna based on @perizoqui’s experience, or a naim pre (non naim streamer into a NAP 300).
I am still rocking a Uniti Star with Dynaudio S40 currently. Not in a rush. But my options look like:
- NDX 2, PrimaLuna pre-amp, 300DR
- Auralic Vega G2, 300DR
- Mytek Manhattan 2, 300DR
The only 2 safe bet I can make is NAP 300 DR and Sopra 2 (I will switch from Dynaudio S40)
The rest is still considering.
The Auralic Vega G2 and Manhattan act as pre-amp, so I am intrigue somewhat.
That sounds to me like a dangerous assumption, unless you have heard then in your own room and system, especially if your source and preamp are still undecided.
I wish you were in Indiana, as the first is my exact system, and the bottom two I could get on loan from Upscale Audio for a demo. Would be fun…
Best of luck in your decision making! Couldn’t be happier with my own setup.
I don’t see why. It’s the very same combination Naim recommends, Martin Colloms used in his glowing review of the 300, and Naim takes with them on the road (at least in the US).
Much to your credit, you resisted temptation to try only 2 tubes. My experience is that swapping tubes in a preamplifier makes way more difference than changing cables and amplifiers. Aren’t you curious about GE 6DJ8s? Some are nos Mullards ecc88s! 
Has anyone managed to compare a 282 + Psu and a Primaluna pre amp into a Naim power amp.
I too am interested. My local dealer has Naim but I will need to go else where for Primaluna
the problem is that you can’t return them and these nos tubes are often expensive. Mullard are a bit more romantic vs the telefunken.
But if i had not found these rare nos telefunken for a good price, i would probably bought some mullard.
I confirm that changing tubes can bring a relatively important uplift in sound.
I have tested telefunken pc88 ( more forward and less refined), tesla and amperex.
Having listened to a number of Naim/Focal demos, including several Sopras, the one thing that is particularly noticeable is that nobody’s foot is tapping, so I don’t think you can take that as a recommendation. That is beside the point, though, even if they work well in one room, that is absolutely no guarantee that they will work in anybody else’s room or system, or to their personal taste.
foot tapping is not everybody priority. Perizoqui is more classical music i think remember…
I was using foot tapping as a metaphor for ‘enjoying the music’ generally.
My best personal experience with Focal speakers was with tubes lamm pre and amp: refined, fast, dynamic, open…
With all naim pre and amp, i found the sound tiring and bright.
Perizoqui uses now a primaluna dialogue ( tubes) pre, so it must be different…
Well if you’re saying “no one” … " enjoying the music" when using a 300 DR into Focal Sopra II, I think you’re being a little over the top!
I certainly do, as did Martin Colloms, as I believe do many of the Sopra 2 owners on this forum. Perhaps Naim enjoyed it too, prior to recommending it to all their customers…
So roon’s got this nifty pie chart where it shows what you play most. Here’s mine
Difinitely mostly classical. Plenty of latin, jazz, and rock though. Anyway, I’ve never found foot-tapping to be lacking in my system. Neither have our guests during our dinner parties with follow on dancing…
That is simply my observation of people’s reaction during the Naim/Focal demos I have attended. If others enjoy them in other circumstances I’m not trying to criticise that in any way. My point, though, is not to stir up some sort of anti-Focal frenzy, simply to say that the fact that Naim carry out these demos is not a sound basis for purchasing them unheard, which seems to be what @mech is proposing to do.