Lovely system. I’m a Naim man myself, but only 200DR and 202. Will be upgrading the 200 to an Avondale NCC300, a total interior case change and users report it’s as close to a 500 sound you can get:musical_note:
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Kudos Titans - nice.
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Thanks - They’re amazingly musical and really groove…
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Interesting! …there are lots of rumours about major refreshes in the Naim range, so keep your eyes open for that too 
…I’m certainly intrigued as to what will come next…
I bet it is. The 500 series in the Fraims with those speakers looks amazing in that space. Well done you.
Hey, you’re in London as well!! Can I borrow you entire system to compare it to my humble Naim DAC, Supernait 3 (stuffed into a modified Ikea shelving unit) and old baby Proacs? Go on, you know you want to…
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Awesome setup!
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I had the PL EVO400 preamp and power amp combo and I did not like the gain on that preamp. I know you had this negative experience with the PL integrated, but it may be the same issue with their preamps. I was using a Holo Audio Spring 2 KTE DAC, with Cardas Clear XLR cables to the PL EVO400 preamp to EVO400 power amp with Cardas Clear speaker cables to Spatial Audio X5 speakers that have a 97db sensitivity. The PL gain always sounded too loud and forward. Things didn’t calm down and sound right until I replaced it with a Luxman L-509X. Best decision I could have ever made. Since that replacement, I upgraded to the Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE DAC and a Lumin U1 Mini streamer. Much better sound quality over the PL setup. I think you made a good decision to use the Aurelic DAC as your preamp with the PL EVO400 amp!
For the gain issue, did you ever try bypassing the preamp? You could have used the Lumin volume control (if you already have the Lumin at that time), or the DAC preamp (if you have purchased this optional module).
@wklie Unfortunately, I didn’t have the Lumin at that time, nor did I have the built-in preamp in my DAC. The Holo Audio Serene preamp had not been released at that time.
Interesting that you experience the same issues as well. The more I pay attention to PL pre-amp or integrated amp users, the more I come across users experiencing the same thing.
I contacted Primaluna and spoke to Herman van den Dungen, but he said they developed their pre-amp stages in such a way that the widest variety of equipment can be used. I do believe that they design their pre amp stages with a load of 1Vrms in mind thought. Which looking at the current industry is not very representative anymore. Lots of DAC’s have output stages with 2.5+ Vrms these days. I believe this is the reason for the oversensitivity in PL pre-amp stages.
I was impressed with a lot of music using the PL EVO 400 preamp & amp, but I couldn’t live with it. I swapped out interconnects, speaker cables, power cables, new power conditioner, cable
lifters and even dressed the room up with lots of acoustic treatments, but nothing worked until I replaced the PL gear. A lot of people love PL gear, so I doubt they will change anything with the gain?
The excessive gain can only be managed by scaling down the output Vrms of the source or introduce a pre-amp with a significant lower gain. I do hope that they lower the gain though. They are gonna lose customers in the future if they don’t.
I am waiting for a possible hybrid power amp. The EVO 300 hybrid is up till now the best sounding amp I have heard. Being able to ditch the pre amp section would be golden.
^^^ Funny I found the same thing. Lots of PLuna love out there so a few years back I took a flyer on a ProLogue preamp and KT-88 based amp. They were local so no shipping sealed the deal. I liked the build quality of both, but found the amp just not to my liking, even after several rounds of tubes. I really liked the pre but it just had WAY too much gain. Sold them for what I paid, so a silver lining I guess.
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The EVO 400 series has a beautiful bloom that I will never forget. As you and others have mentioned, they have to deal with that gain issue. It may work well with certain systems because I rarely hear people complaining about the PL gain.
I am digging my Evo 400 preamp/amp pair. After reading the complaints about the preamp gain, I listened intently for that artifact. Sounds good to me.
I have changed the preamp and rectifier tubes, so maybe that made a difference. Dunno.
Also, I have EL34s in the amp, which I run in triode mode.
Maybe the EVO 400’s just didn’t jive with my speakers; Spatial Audio X5? As you know, a lot of gear is system dependent to sound their best. I’m glad to hear you are having no issues with the combo because I still think it is a great buy for the performance!
Speakers, yeah. Currently GoldenEar Triton Fives.
A pair of Tannoys on the horizon. Hoping they work as well. 
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The only way I would swap my tannoys is for a bigger pair.
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I heard nothing but good things about Tannoy speakers. Unfortunately, I have never heard them before.