I'll start by saying thank you to all who took their time to read and reply to my post. Special mention and massive thanks to Al for suggesting this wonderful amp. And also a mention to my wife who when she's heard out of nowhere I was about to take a 400 mile round trip this Sunday afternoon, only asked if I wanted anything to eat before I go
It's been a couple of days and after the intial scare of amp making some clicking noise in standby the issue is completely gone. In fact it was gone after 24 hours of plugging it. Seems it was to do with the warm up after all.
It's worth pointing out that I am blessed by being a novice. I'm sure so many things I'll write about below are what many people simply expect from their amp. Ignorance is bliss
Without further ado, I have listened in full to the following to form an opinion as to how good Primare is and what sets it apart form Arcam "Kind of Blue" Miles Davis / "Blue" Joni Mitchell / "Couldn't Stand the Weather" Stevie Ray Vaughan / "Sap" Alice in Chains / "Division Bell" Pink Floyd / "Ella and Louis" Ellas Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong / "Raising Sand" Robert Plant and Alison Kraus / "Yield" Pearl Jam / "Euphoria Morning" Chriss Cornell. As well as selected tracks by Soundgarden, Tool, System of a Down, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots, Steely Dan, Esperanza Spalding, Diana Krall, Frank Sinatra.
It took a good while to nail down the positioning of the speakers. Initial impressions of the amp were of warmth, big bass, outright musicality, lovely rhythm.
Physically it's a massive and heavy unit, very well built. It also looks good with a rather understated but clean quality design. My wife rather likes the look of it but I doubt it has anything to do with 3 massive silver knobs (in before anyone else...). Dual mono with absolutely no bells and whistles. No dac, tone controls, balance knob, loudness, phono stage or even a headphone output. That last feature is the one I miss the most. But it does have balanced inputs for even better sound quality.
First up was Miles Davis and what a treat. It draws you in with atmosphere. Bass rounds of music really well, no shrillness on the treble so ever present ride cymbal is rich in tone and decays perfectly. Horns sound great, rich in tone with great timbre. With a bit more warmth Alto Sax sounds divine. What struck me a few minutes into listening is two things. The presentation is so that the trumpet (located where normally vocals would be present) is deeper into the mix (vs Arcam) but it has this ethereal quality. It appears out of nowhere and seducts with the richness of it's tone. The second thing that struck me even more is the dynamic range. The difference in perceived volume between the quieter fills and full blasting of an impro is stuning. I must say I've never experienced anything like it outside of live performances. It is usual that while recording the instruments and vocals undergo such an amount of compression that this quality is often lost.
Further listening yielded more pleasure. Soundstage is wide and deep. It's somewhat easier to place instruments. The ambiance of the room is well reflected in each recording. The amp is happy to be expressive when it needs to but is more than able to draw in with the intimacy. This was the case with Joni Mitchell and Ella and Louis. Musicality is also a very strong. I couldn't shake off the feeling when listening to Ella and Louis that I should ask my wife to dance
The precision and control can be described as assertive and self confident vs Arcams obsesive compulsive nature.
A bit of criticism... overall warmth of the amp is a good pairing for my speakers but especially when listening to Louis Armstrong's voice I slightly miss the rasp and his voice is a bit too silky for my liking. The huge improvement in musicality is ofset by slightly less detail. The instruments sound bigger and closer to one another eventhough the soundstage is much bigger and more organised. It's more difficult to pick out individual guitars in rock recordings but the overall feeling is much more in tune of what the artist was trying to express. Bass is big and bold but could have a little bit more texture but that may simply be down to my speakers inability in this department. (EDIT: Bass issues are down to imprecise positioniong of the speakers. Unfortunately can't have them close enought to walls which would be ideal. Done a test using some home made bungs and the bass tightened significantly. The texture is actually there but with slight boom wasn't obvious at first. Now I just need to fine tune it.)
The above criticism may well be to do with a choice of my dac and interconnects / speaker cables which I will be looking into over the next month or two. I considered an Audiolab MDac for a while and having an amp with balanced inputs may finally tip the scales in favour.
The biggest surprise is how dynamic it is that I mentioned earlier. Listening to Frank Sinatra and feeling the power of big band is a spectacular experience. It's better than a double espresso in the morning.
Overall it's a fantastic amp. Can it rival Arcam in the things that Arcam is so good at? Well, yes and no. Arcam is still more precise out of the two in my eyes and more forward with vocals. And for someone looking for lots of detail I'd still recommend Arcam. Arcam is also brighter in comparison but that's a feature and not criticism. But could Arcam A85 rival in all the other characteristics? Simply, no.
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