Set-up
Contents
We decide to test this all-in-one Primare I15 Prisma as a whole and see how well it performs against our reference set consisting of a Bryston B60r, Metrum Acoustic Onyx and NADM50. Speakers at your service are our loyal Audio Vector QR1.
We have the Primare I15 Prisma also a while on a set of Audio Physic floorstanders connected and that went very well. There is enough power and control to drive almost all speakers. We stream via Tidal, and play hi-res via usb.
Listen
We stream Aldous Harding’s latest album “Designer” through Tidal and hear a very pure sound. No unpleasant sharpness in the high, clear vocals and a very dry bass. Completely different in terms of sound than the Audiolab 6000a we recently tested. It’s still extraordinary how different each component sends sound to the same speakers. Harding’s voice sounds extra fragile because of the airy, light-footed rendition of the Primare I15 Prisma and the album really comes in. That Class D amplifiers really can sound sensitive we already knew and have experienced ourselves in the test of Ps Audio Stellar series. In short: don’t judge directly.
The latest album “Lacuna” by the great Trixie Whitley is rather electronic with lots of dynamic songs. This is where the Primare feels at ease. These fast songs full of tempo changes are a piece of cake for the I15. The songs sound very open with again a lot of space between the instruments. In this recording there is quite some emphasis on the voice of Whitley, we hear this on different amplifiers, but this is not extra turned on by this Class D version. Because of its open and detailed reproduction you can hear better errors or shortcomings in lesser recordings, but everything remains surprisingly listenable. But the better the recording, the greater the reward with the Primare I15 Prisma.
To illustrate this we play a beautiful hi-res recording of BB Kings “Deuces Wild”. If you love Van Morrison sounds fantastic. The guitarwork and the rest of the instruments are nicely distinguishable from each other and nowhere do we notice an edge. With even better amplification, the sound comes even more apart from the speakers and we get an even better 3D picture but that’s the only limitation we can think of with this excellent, affordable integrated amplifier.