Review Primare SP25 – A35.8 and Perlisten R5t

Intro

We could start talking about Higge and Lagom again, but we’ve already done that extensively in other reviews of Primare products. In this test, we grab a complete system, namely the SP25 Prisma surround processor, the A35.8 power amplifier and the Perlisten R5t floorstanders. A system totaling 17735 Euros. Certainly a serious amount, but you really get something!

A serious surround system usually costs a serious amount of money. If you want equal quality in surround, you can in fact take your stereo system and do that amount times 2.5 for a surround system. After all, you need 2.5 times as many channels in the preamplifier, power amplifier and also in terms of speakers. Now that’s a simple rule of thumb and it doesn’t go all the way, but it gives you an idea.

Primare SP25 Prism and A35.8

In this case, we are testing the Primare SP25 Prisma (streamer) and Primare A35.8 as the beating heart of this surround system. However, we are testing it in stereo. Not because we can’t test surround – we can – but we wanted to go and see how well this system reproduces stereo music. In other words, can this system from Primare also be used well as a stereo system?

The SP25 Prisma has five – single ended – analog inputs as well as USB, coaxial and optical digital inputs. Of course there is also a series (4) of hdmi inputs and this SP25 also has the Prisma streamer of Primare (wired and wireless). That makes this surround processor incredibly versatile.

The conversion is provided by two ESS Sabre 9028pro dac chips. Those are dacs that have eight channels, but we estimate that Primare runs in a sort of “stacked” mode, and thus uses four channels per chip. (‘stacking’ two channels to bring the noise down).

Outputs are also plentiful. We see two hdmi outputs (aux and main (eARC)). In addition, we see nine analog outputs: front 1 and 2, center, surround, surround back, height front, height back and two sub outputs. There is also a “regular” line-out.

Finally, it is possible to work with Dirac room correction (definitely recommended if you work multi-channel) and trigger the power amplifier and pass and receive the ir signal with an external receiver.

We discussed the A35.8 in detail in this review. This is an 8-channel power amplifier based on nCore class D amplification from Hypex. However, Primare did make some changes, including the power supply. This is quite large and has the necessary reserves to give a nice dynamic character.

The beauty of the Primare A35.8 is that stereo pairs can be put into bridge mode, increasing the power (375 watts per output). It makes the amplifier enormously flexible. We played around with that in the full review and it really is quite audible. Incidentally, you then have to watch out for impedance dips, but that’s always true with bridge mode.

Perlisten R5t floorstander

We previously tested the Perlisten S7t in a group test. This flagship made quite an impression. The Perlisten S4b is also a very nice bookshelf, but is more suitable as a surround speaker rather than a main speaker. Perhaps with a nice subwoofer it could work.

The Perlisten R5t costs about 8000 euros per pair. Again, that is certainly a lot of money, but frankly you get incredible value for 8000 euros. The build quality is excellent and the reproduction – about which more later – is remarkably good!

Like the S-series, the R-series features the DPC-Array with three tweeters. In the R-series, these are three 26mm soft domes. These tweeters are complemented in the case of the R5t by two 16.5cm woofers. These are made of HPF pulp. All units are set-up in a 3-way configuration. The crossover frequencies are not shared.

The speaker has a bass reflex port that faces down. Open, it is simply a bass reflex speaker. However, with the included foam plug, it can also perform fine when closed. This may cost you about 10Hz of low-frequency range: however, it can solve a low-frequency problem. Moreover, the bass is then slightly tighter. In short: definitely try it!

Talking about range: 24 Hz – 32 KHz in bass reflex mode and 38 Hz – 32 KHz in closed mode. Impedance is 4 Ohms nominal and 3.2 Ohms minimum. In short: not a troublesome load.