Downsizing: can I get a similar sound for much cheaper?

[Jasonovich]

Annnnnd, ta da!

Primare SC15 purchased for the bargain price of £600.

I’m excited to hear it, just one small problem: still waiting for the xlr to phono adapters so I can connect the speakers 😬😬😬

Very nice Matt, it's a streamer, preamp and DAC. Looks good on the specs, plays DSD256. Congrats, enjoy!

 

[RTHerringbone]

For a downsizing, it sure looks like a good one!

 

[Revolutions]

Very nice Matt, it's a streamer, preamp and DAC. Looks good on the specs, plays DSD256. Congrats, enjoy!

Thanks, and yep minus the phono pre it’s got all the features of the Linn. Let’s see how it sounds - considering I paid 90% less than for the Selekt - will be interesting for sure.

 

[Jasonovich]

Thanks, and yep minus the phono pre it’s got all the features of the Linn. Let’s see how it sounds - considering I paid 90% less than for the Selekt - will be interesting for sure.

Peter Tyson is selling £999 reduced from £1,799, that's quite a bargain!

 

[Al ears]

Peter Tyson is selling £999 reduced from £1,799, that's quite a bargain!

Only 1 left..... Be quick

 

[Shrek]

Annnnnd, ta da!

Primare SC15 purchased for the bargain price of £600.

I’m excited to hear it, just one small problem: still waiting for the xlr to phono adapters so I can connect the speakers 😬😬😬

DaM I would hate that waiting for cable to connect it but worth the wait 👍🍺

 

[Al ears]

DaM I would hate that waiting for cable to connect it but worth the wait 👍🍺

Annnnnd, ta da!

Primare SC15 purchased for the bargain price of £600.

I’m excited to hear it, just one small problem: still waiting for the xlr to phono adapters so I can connect the speakers 😬😬😬

Why does it need adapters??

 

[Revolutions]

The adapters turned up! I managed to get cd playing quickly. Took a while to get the unit recognised on my network, but all sorted & Spotify connect working lossless 👍🏻

@Al ears need adapter as the unit doesn’t have xlr output. RCA only.

It’s sounding… fine? Been a bit of a manic few days so hard for me to tell the difference between this & the Linn. Maybe it’s missing a touch of the delicate, warm homeliness. But that’s exactly what I wanted from my hifi: something with the same clarity but with more punch.

Spotify sounds pretty good & so does cd. Will take a while to give this some proper listening over the next few days. The phono pre should arrive tomorrow; that will be the biggest test.

 

[Revolutions]

early proper listening & things were sounding a bit like a (quality) car stereo when you turn the bass & treble up. It felt fun, yet a bit relentless & empty.

Then I was leaning in & realised there was a much better sound here, warmer & less aggressive. So I pushed out the toe-in on the speakers & like magic the sound was transformed.

There’s a lot of things that don’t quite live up to the quality of the Linn: sometimes when you select a track it plays & misses the first second, also playing from a NAS gets lots of clicking/noises skipping between songs & sometimes it loses connection. But tbh none of those are dealbreakers for me. Also the Primare App is possibly 10% less crap than the Linn app, which is painful at best.

The sound, it seems to have a lot more bottom end, which I don’t dislike. It sounds great & I’ve been enjoying everything I played via Spotify & the NAS. There is one thing the Linn sound gave me, which was the music feeling like a hug. Still, super impressed with the sound on the Primare so far. Really decent bit of kit, would definitely recommend from a sound quality perspective.