PrimaLuna Prologue 8

I have had some interest in this player since it came out. On the Primaluna-usa website are links to the two Stereophile reviews, the TAS review, and some european reviews. The reviewers generally liked the sound although JA had issues with the lack of very low bass and the TAS review commented about some upper frequency grain compared to an $18K player. Of more importance is a system matching issue. I find it curious and shortsighted that Primaluna would offer a CD player with an output impedance rising to 12K ohms at 20hz! It simply did not work with JA's JC2 preamp (27K ohm input impedance), and I would be concerned with only a 4:1 ratio if used with my 50K input impedance preamp. By comparison, my Lector CDP has a reported output impedance of only 150 ohms. I could not find this output impedance specification reported in the online owner's manual, or anywhere else on the Primaluna website, nor could I find any recommendations regarding the potential equipment matching limitations. If S'phile hadn't reported it, many would simply think the player had crummy bass, and not be aware the issue had to do with impedance mismatch. Why would a company market a CD player that requires a preamp input impedance of about 100K or more so that the bass does not sound rolled off? That issues seems to be a glaring flaw in an otherwise innovative and well executed design.

Mitch,

I also took note of the measurements from the reviews. With other Primaluna products it shouldn't be a problem. My linestage has an input impedance of 100k so it could possibly mate well. If I were to upgrade to another linestage having a lower input impedance, then there might be a problem.

I agree that there might be more interest in this CD player if they would address the impedance matching issue.

So glad I didn't buy it at the time I was interested. I would have done so without knowledge of this impedance matching issue.