Listening to the A35.2
Contents
We use the volume control on our Sonnet Morpheus d/a converter. That one is transparent and linear and adds little to the signal. In combination with the A35.2, this worked out very well.
A great advantage of this amplifier is that it performs optimally immediately. No start-up time, warm-up or loosening up. None of that. Great!
A nice detail is that this power amplifier wakes up from standby via an AutoSense system when music starts. After 20 minutes with no signal, it goes back into standby.
Very quickly we notice tons of control and “drive” combined with an open and neutral soundstage. Class D still needs to shake off a lot of preconceptions but this A35.2 does so without a problem. Not once did we think about the type of amplifier that was playing here. Indeed, we liked the sound immediately. And after a few days, we completely understood the Primare A35.2.
Besides power, there is the wide soundstage and precise placement of voices and instruments. There’s not a bright, direct spot of light on the music, but rather a broad radiating overhead light.
This amplifier can also present finer and more sensitive work with nuance but, of course, don’t expect a romantic sound. No coloration or warmth, which we do not consider desirable anyway, but an honest reproduction of the music.
“Joey” by Samantha Crain, a small and fragile song, is brought without artifacts which makes the lyrics and feeling of the song come in all the more solid. Pure, simple and bloody beautiful.
When we hear “From up Here” by Heather Nova pass by, we notice that the bass sounds very ‘plump’. That’s just the case with this song. But it does say a lot about how this amp presents bass. The A35.2 goes deep. Very deep. This plays out wonderfully well with our Cantons. It feels like our monitors are turning into little floorstanders. The A35.2 delivers a lot of power and tests the tungsten mid-driver of our speakers to the max. “There’s no substitute for power.”
Our Moon and Sonnet amplifiers are less powerful and bet more on timing and speed. The Primare is certainly not slow but bass is a fraction less punchy and slightly less tight. However, they go wonderfully deep and sound a bit rounder and fuller. But, and it’s an important but, everything always remains controlled and never gets “boomy”. This is something Primare has done really well.
Listening to the wonderful, complexless music of Waxahatchee, there is again that control but also a certain fun factor. Vocals, especially female ones, sound excellent. Clear and full of feeling. Pure without sharpness. This is a particularly quiet amplifier that indeed hardly distorts and presents music very neutrally and straightforwardly. On the song “Arkadelphia,” it is the percussion that propels the song with the bass guitar accompanying it. But singer Katie Crutchfield’s signature timbre is what it’s all about. The A35.2 brings a coherent whole that never distracts or disturbs and makes the listener relax.
