PrimaLuna ProLogue Classic CD Player

"superb clarity, sensuous mids, and lovely harmonic bloom" Dick Olsher, The Absolute Sound

Introducing the world's first tube-based data clocking device: the stunning ProLogue Classic CD Player with SuperTubeClock.

Revolutionising the audio world by incorporating a low-noise mini-triode vacuum tube into the digital clock, this boldly conceived design provides vastly superior resolution, detail retrieval, improved clarity, increased definition and detail from top to bottom.

The ProLogue Classic CD Player is a true dual-mono design, right down to the dual vacuum tube rectification - another first in a CD player. The state-of-the-art player also has a Burr Brown SRC4192 24bit/192kHz upsampling circuit and Burr Brown PCM1792 DACs.

Other notable qualities include high quality resistors, mosfets, and Solen capacitors that yield superior transient response, detail, and channel separation. The power supply is adapted from the award winning ProLogue Three preamp, while the ProLogue Classic CD Player also features the Super I/V op amp board installed (previously only available as an upgrade).

The ProLogue Classic CD Player comes equipped with:

• True Dual Mono ouput stage using one 12AX7 and one 12AU7 per channel.
• Vacuum tube rectified power supply adapted from the award-winning ProLogue Three preamp that incorporates eleven separate power supply regulation circuits.
• The SuperTubeClock: An ultra-low jitter clocking device that replaces the solid-state oscillator with a vacuum tube. Yields incredible detail retrieval and dynamics throughout the entire audio spectrum.
• Premium parts including polypropylene coupling caps, triple pi power supply filters, custom designed isolation transformers which separate the analog and digital devices, Resulting in decreased signal degradation and improved sonics from top to bottom.
• Beautiful heavy-gauge anodized brushed aluminum remote control. Controls all important CD operations and will even control functions on the DiaLogue components. Comes with rubber rings on both ends to protect furniture.
• Chassis made of finely finished heavy gauge steel, and five step automotive quality finish. Each coat hand rubbed and polished. Removable tube cage included no charge.
• Conservative design runs tubes easy for long life.

 

About the SuperTubeClock

This is where the magic happens... the SuperTubeClock replaces the solid state oscillator normally found in a CD player’s digital clocking device with a mini triode vacuum tube.

When you reclock a CD-drive, any noise that is generated here appears unfiltered and unattenuated at the input of the decoder chip in the CD player and injects jitter, which from then on is an undistinguishable part of the digital audio stream. No amount of cleaning will ever be able to remove this noise once it reaches this point; it has become part of the audio signal. There is a distinctive loss of dynamics, tonal purity, intertransient silence, and sense of timing. We call this “noise modulation.”

When the clock is used to clock the DAC chip, a similar situation occurs as described above: the noise appears at the location where the digital audio stream is converted to successive steps in a staircase wave, which represents the analog audio signal. Each step has to be EXACTLY 1/441000th, 1/96000th, 1/176400th, or 1/192000th (depending on whether there’s oversampling or upsampling, CD or DVD). The injected noise introduces a deviation in time which is the exact replica of that noise. This means that the audio signal at the outputs of the DAC chip has the noise riding on it, again as an inherent part of the signal. No amount of filtering will remove the noise once it reaches this step. Again we experience that smear and detail masking, with that distinctive loss of dynamics, tonal purity, intertransient silence, and sense of timing.

By replacing the standard solid state oscillator with a tube, PrimaLuna has significantly lowered the amount of jitter and noise, resulting in superior detail retreival. This in turn yields superior detail and dynamics from top to bottom, and improved overrall musicality.

PrimaLuna ProLogue Classic CD Player Reviews

Witchdoctor by Ashley Kramer 2010 (Reviewed with the PrimaLuna Prologue Classic Integrated Amplifier)
The first impression I got was of a soaring quality to the sound, a larger than life experience. I’ve seen a review of a PrimaLuna amp where the reviewer said that the soundstage was wall to wall. Wall to wall? Forget that! I was wondering where the walls went. In fact, the only wall was the wall of sound as the music reached out into the room and backward well beyond the rear wall. Lovely!

Detail coming from the combination is excellent and the treble isn’t at all rolled off – bright or harshly recorded cymbals still have a definite edge to them but without making you wish you were at the dentist. The overall sound quality is warm and a tad lush without being cloying or submerging everything in a morass of artificial richness.

The PrimaLuna pair does something special to any harmonics on a recording, and instruments just fade beautifully and realistically away. This adds a sense of space to the sound and it’s particularly appealing on live or acoustic recordings, especially combined with that soundstage depth.

Textures are richly and subtly presented. Horns through the PrimaLunas are especially good, with a gritty edge to them, which is a real treat for Jazz fans (or classic fans or blues fans.)

I’d rather have my warmth from wasabi than from slippers, so I prefer energetic hi-fi systems. This valve combo makes for sonics that will excite and cosset in just the right proportions. They’re both built to a standard ahead of much in their price class and they sound great, whether they’re paired together or with the other components I matched them with.

The Absolute Sound by Dick Olsher 2009
Dutch-based PrimaLuna has in recent years garnered much critical acclaim for the phenomenal price-to-performance ratio of its line of tube gear.

It’s fair to say that the Eight easily distanced itself from players priced almost two times higher. In heads-up competition with the Esoteric SA60 (US$4600), I preferred the Eight’s clarity, low-level detail resolution, and soundstaging. Its most endearing characteristic was rhythmic drive to die for: Unflagging energy that propelled musical lines forward. High on pace, or more descriptively, foot-tapping-friendly, the Eight managed to convey one of the essential ingredients of live music. It brought me a major step closer to the analog experience, and I mean that as a compliment.

What a find!  At its best, with the board upgrade and outfitted with vintage preamp tubes, the PrimaLuna Eight closes in on even the most expensive competition and seriously threatens to upset the high-end pecking order. It is capable of superb clarity, sensuous mids, and lovely harmonic bloom. Its portrayal of the soundstage is wonderfully transparent, allowing easy exploration of its inner recesses. The music’s drama is clearly communicated. And its gift of rhythmic drive is bound to captivate even the most jaded of audiophiles. A no-brainer recommendation at even several times its asking price and a must-audition!

Stereophile by John Atkinson / Fred Kaplan 2008
The good things we've grown accustomed to hearing from tubes were all there: gorgeous midrange, sweet strings and saxophones, lifelike female singers, a soundstage with acres of depth.

... it did one thing superbly well: it threw the widest, deepest soundstage from CDs that I have experienced with any player. Perhaps even more important, individual images within that stage were clearly delineated, with a palpability more akin to what you get from SACD (or LP).

In sum, the PrimaLuna ProLogue Eight is a very fine CD player for the money. Its designers seem keenly aware of the machine's strengths and weaknesses, and they know how to maximize the former and finesse the latter.

Hi-Fi World by David Price - 2008 - 5 Stars
... brings vanishingly low jitter to the game, and its associated clarity and rhythmic ease. The way it recreates the phrasing of a piece of music is breathtaking considering its price - very few machines at any market position can compete in this particular respect.

This is one of the most liquid soundding digital disc players I've heard, in the way the different dlements of the mix seem to live and breathe by themselves. An essential audition.

PrimaLuna ProLogue Classic CD Player Specifications

Freq. Response: 20Hz-20kHz +/- 0.5dB
Output Voltage: 2V +/- 0.5dB
Distortion & Noise: Below -96dB
Channel Separation: 90dB
Dynamic Range: Greater than 120dB
 Power Consumption: 50 watts
Tube Compliment: 2 - 12AX7, 2 - 12AU7, 2 - 5AR4 (The 12AX7, 12AU7 and 5AR4 tubes will have a life of about 10,000 hours.)

Analog Outputs: 1 pair RCA
Digital Outputs: 1 coaxial / 1 optical

Dimensions (WxHxD): 280 x 190 x 395 mm
Weight:  11.5 kg

While online registration isn't required for your warranty, it's recommended that you register at the Australian Prima Luna distribution website to ensure you get important technology updates related to your model. It's also a great way to record your serial number safely for insurance purposes.