Home Review Primare duo: i15 and SC15 Prisma

Review Primare duo: i15 and SC15 Prisma

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Pros

  • What a sound!
  • Lots of functionality
  • Eyes tight
  • Future proof

Cons

  • App could be better

Price: € 3000

Build quality
Usability
Sound
Price
Primare I15 SC15

Listening

Contents

Fast, open, honest, rich in detail… vivid…. involved. Oh… and dynamic…. and fast… fast… fast. It seems as if the Scandinavians have discovered an adrenaline rush for audio. This amplifier fast. As if the rise-time of this amplifier is 0… instant. Very special in this price range.

Class

There are devices that immediately tell you that they belong in a certain class. And that’s fine. If a streamer costs 250 euros, you don’t expect performance in the class of 1000 euros or more. A little sharpness, for example, is accepted. And the same goes the other way around: a 50,000 euro loudspeaker system simply has to perform top-notch. Mistakes are no longer accepted.

With this Primare it feels very odd. The Primare i15 amplifier costs 1250 euros. With the optional phono pre-amp it costs 1500 euro. That’s really not a lot of money for a serious amplifier. The SC15 costs 1500 euros. So that’s 2750 euros for a complete amplifier and a streamer, dac, WISA pre-amp. OK… What? With phono pre-amp we are at exactly 3000 euros. How can that be… if it also sounds very good?

Because then we come to class. This set just plays crazy good on the Focal Sopra No1 speakers that really let you hear everything. Not only do we hear almost no sharpness – a few ‘s’es will pass – but the stereo image is also very acceptable. We hear depth, width, and looseness. Music just doesn’t stick to the speaker. Certainly not if we connect the Denon CD player to the SC15 via coaxial input. Then we go even a step further than the built-in Prisma streamer.

In short: the Primare-system can deliver quality for a normal amount of money. The only point where we really hear differences with, for example, our own reference set – the Pass Labs with Bryston – is the richness in the mid-bass and the deep bass. In Ill Wind by Radiohead, the Primare doesn’t know how to get that bizarre deep bass out of the Focals very convincingly. The Bryston with 300 watts can do that… but yeah: gosh… We’re guessing that if we set up a comparative test with amplifiers around 1250 – 1500 euros, this Primare is going to score particularly good in terms of speed, purity and imaging.

Matching

Good: so this is a very nice duo. Matching won’t be very difficult in our opinion. The Focals are fairly open and are neutral. Maybe even a bit freshly tuned. Every now and then we hear a little bright ‘s’. But then – we guess – it was also present in the recording. The Yamaha A-S2200 would round it off a bit. And the Pass would also be less articulated in that range. But if we would take a slightly friendlier speaker – think of a Sonus Faber – then you have a very nice system.

Type test
Single Test
Inputs
  • Analog RCA
Outputs
  • Analog RCA
Product type
D/A-converter
Amplifier type
Integrated
Bridgemode
No
Amplifier inputs
  • Analog RCA
Amplifier outputs
  • Analog RCA
Build in dac
Yes

Winkels met Primare

Sint-Antoniusstraat 15
2300 Turnhout, BE
Joseph Bensstraat 21
1180 Ukkel, BE
Bredabaan 1031
B-2930 Brasschaat, BE
Pelikaanstraat 126
2018 Antwerpen, BE
St. Ceciliastraat 28
5038 HA Tilburg, NL
Markt 3
3131 CR Vlaardingen, NL
Korevaarstraat 2 e-f
2311 JS Leiden, NL
Koningsstraat 35
2011TC Haarlem, Noord Holland, NL
Theresiastraat 151 - 157
2593 AG Den Haag, Noord Holland, NL
Beethovenstraat 9-b
1077 HL Amsterdam, Noord Holland, NL