New Prima Luna Amp In Distress / Me Too


Prologue II 40WPC Integrated – (4) KT-88s (2) 12AX7s (2) 12AU7s. The amp arrived new six weeks ago and has maybe a bit over 200 hours operation. Today, sequences of double popping began coming over the speakers. About a second between each pop then after a minute or so another double pop. There was no input signal at the time.
I switched the input selector from phono over to CD and the popping continued.
I then played a CD and noticed a gain and fidelity increase in the middle of the pops (the short sequence). I then noticed that the blue glow from one of the KT88s increased within these short bursts of fidelity/gain that were bracketed by the pops as well.
I shut off the amp and let it cool before swapping tubes to see if the problem followed the tube or was dedicated to that socket. When the amp was powered back up, the popping was gone but both middle output tubes (the ones that were swapped) did not come up to full blue glow and a good part of the bass section has fallen through a trap door in the soundstage – and remains that way. It is now off line. I’m ready to box it up and send it back for warranty work. One note – this amp has a proprietary on-the-fly auto biasing circuit.
Anyone who can explain what’s going on will have praises sung by me until my dying day. I’m heartbroken!
mario_b
Just FYI:KT-88s for the Prologue 2 run $35 each.Anybody throw any different 88s in??
Thanks all - will wait out the weekend. Tube failure and replacements would certainly make me sigh with relief. Might even take the opportunity to roll in other offerings and use the Luna replacements (they are, in fact, covered by a 90-day warranty)as back-ups. Thanks again.
Just got my PL2 on wednesday and rolled in 4 jj E34L and voila what a difference! With auto biasing on this amp you can try many combinations. So far the hype is for real.