Review Primare i35 with DM36 dac board

Intro

We have had the i35 with DM36 from Primare for a while now. A very nice all-rounder that competes with the NAD M33 and, for example, the Hegel H390. Both also very nice performing products. Let’s see if Primare has the punch and power to offer some resistance!

The Primare i35 is not in itself a new amplifier. The DM36 dac board, however, is. But it would be a bit weird and boring to write only about the dac board. So we are going to treat it as a “full package” with the Prisma streaming module.

Primare i35

The Primare i35 with prism and DM36 module is an all-in-one solution. A “Just Add Speakers” product. But with a Swedish slant. The appearance is sleek and stylish. Without countless frills. Lagom, Primare calls it.

Under the hood, however, is a lot of technology. Think of the UPFD-2 amplifier technogy. That’s Class D but from Primare itself. With two times 150 watts into 8 Ohms and 2 x 300 watts into 4 Ohms, everyone has enough power. The powerful power supply provides the necessary control and flow. How it sounds we’ll tell you later.

No shortage of inputs: two times XLR, three times RCA, line out and pre-out. And of course stereo out to the speakers. And yes… those are only the analog inputs.

Then there is the Prisma module with Ethernet, wifi and usb. And the dac module: four optical, two coaxial, USB and another digital out. And before we forget: RS232 for home-automation.

DM36 DAC

The new DM36 DAC has one big difference: Primare has gone from an AKM dac-chip to an ESS Sabre. Now, honestly: we are fans of AKM. So at first glance, this is not a positive development. However, it’s not just any ESS chip; it’s the 9068AS. And that’s a serious piece of technology. The dac can process signals up to 32 bit, can handle native MQA (if you care about that) and has a particularly low noise floor, so a dynamic range of 126dBA should be achievable. That’s not 32 bit, by the way, but still not bad!

The DAC board can be installed in several Primare products. We tested it in the i35. What we really like is that customers can easily upgrade their beautiful Primare products. If only more manufacturers would do that! It pevents a lot of e-waste, and it prevents a huge, unnecesary investment. Not everyone can and not everyone wants to buy a new amp to get a new dac. And that makes sense: digital technology ages much faster than analog technology… In short: it is not always necessary to buy a completely new device!