Primare 130 Integrated Amplifier and CD31 Compact Disc Player

A winning pair of aces

The second recording is an odd duck. I’ve found three rock or folk or whathaveyou groups whose sheer musicianship excites me: Lunasa, Nickel Creek, and the Portland, Oregon trio, Sneakin’ Out, the newest of the lot (self-described as “post-apocalyptic electro-acoustic throw-down”). Sneakin’ Out is eclectic and brash, with art and skill to burn. I loved its first recording, Train Wreck, and now it has a new CD, O.T.T.O. (go to www.sneakinout.com for ordering info). This one just happens to have all the tests you need for the Primares, or indeed any system. O.T.T.O. was well recorded, and the venue is interesting. There is some acoustic stuff, as well as EQ’ing and electronicking, which, combined, make it a complete musical exercise for your system. First of all, and throughout the sound spectrum, the Primares bring out a sense of breath-catching musical drive, which I believe in this case owes its glory to lack of distortion and noise. As to soundstaging on this studio recording, sometimes the space will suddenly go all small, as if it sucked in its breath. Then it will open out to fill your room beyond the speakers. I don’t know how this was achieved, but it was all faithfully reconstructed by the Primares and Acoustic Zen speakers.

A third CD, McPhee’s Tabuh-Tabuhan [Mercury], demonstrated a slight graininess in high hats and piccolos that I hadn’t heard before. I exchanged the Primares for the Musical Fidelity units, and heard it there, as well, but not as bitingly. I don’t have the LP to see if this is a digital effect, but I didn’t hear it in any other (good) recording.

I’ve recently become addicted to good power cords and both the Primare units were wearing the Acoustic Zen Tsunami II ($350). With them, their virtues became more evident, particularly in soundstaging and the low frequencies. No vices, at least to these ears, were added.

My main conclusion about the Primares is that they are remarkably musical, accurate, exciting—on all kinds of music, loud and complex as well as soft and subtle. With good, clean speakers, you really can’t go wrong with this pair (about $4800 for both). Of the two, the 130 integrated is the star, because at $2495 it performs beyond anything in its class I’ve heard. Sweet, clear, full, deep, untangling musical lines without separating them into an amusical mosaic. It’s built with great attention to detail, and even has a 0/180º polarity switch on the front panel. You might have to double your money to better this amp.

At $2295, the CD31 costs only about $200 less than the Musical Fidelity A5, which is still my benchmark. The A5 has richer, more extended lows than the Primare, and provides an overall greater sense of the power and force of a musical tutti. The A5 without a good power cord slightly out-soundstages the CD31 with one. The CD31, on its side, has greater clarity in the treble octave than the A5, and it doesn’t pay the all-too-ordinary price for that by sounding wimpy in the midbass or too thin in the lows.

Now, put this Swedish pair together, and they win the day. They seem to double their family virtues: sweet clarity across the musical spectrum, and golden silence between the lines. TAS