cleansound

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00 from audiotronic

Summary:
Having bought numerous players over the last 15 years i have found myself looking for a serious piece of equipment at a good price. This hunt brought me to the Primare. After initial running in period i found the player to flounder,what struck me most was the unbelievable tonal balance it offers,the top ends are open and crisp and the bass is authorative but not overbearing,the thing that excites me the most is the midrange which seems to create a tonal balance of its own ad brings out voices like i have never heard before,what does a guitar or a piano sound like in real life? listen to the d.20 and find out for yourself. This is a very open player that brings out every little detail one needs to hear and yet does it with an almost valve like feel. This player looks classy and is a stunning piece of audio equipment to sit and stare at,limited functions and extra's but who cares when you need to sit and listen to music instead of worrying about all sorts of programming functions and other mumbo jumbo.

Strengths:
Nice open and clean sound,with stunningly and minimalist good looks.

Weaknesses:
very critical of poor recordings,but then again is that the players fault?

Price Paid:  $0.00 from Leicester

Summary:
System: Primare D20 Primare A20 Castle Avons (biwired) I`ve had many systems over a 25 year period, from a basic budget system to two active Boothroid-Stuart setups. I was looking for a simple solution that would give me superb styling, excellent detail retrieval and timing, together with an overall presentation that could be listened to for hours without fatigue. This is the first system i have owned that i can honestly say i have installed and just played music on. I haven`t felt the need to tweak or try to improve. The system is so musical, detailed yet rich and relaxed, with superb presentation of piano and female voice. Its so good that i have played disks that i haven`t seen the light of day for years. The service from Primare (C.S.E York) has been as outstanding as the product and i can recommend a listen to anyone.

Strengths:
Superb styling and build quality Detailed, relaxed, powerful, musical presentation Exemplary Primare service

Weaknesses:
None yet

Similar Products Used:
I couldnt take the negative views of this system writen below seriously. My brother is a senior BBC sound engineer with a £15K system and he stood for an hour shaking his head and smiling. Don`t buy a

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from Audiostar, Helsinki

Summary:
Testbed:
Monitor Audio Silver 4i (Rosewood)
Primare A20 amplifier
Primare D20 CD player
QED QNECT 2 interconnects
QED Silver Anniversary Biwired cable
Atacama Nexus 6 sand filled stands.


After reading many reviews on the net and magazines, the general result was inconclusive, some loved this CD player, some didn't. However, I decided at the end of the day, the only way to tell was to audition this player myself.

My initial impressions of this CD player were good. The build quality is quite remarkable, tactile metal buttons, add to the quality finish. The facia is clean and simplistic, which in my opinion is how CD players ought to be.

The sound compared to my old NAD 5425 CD player was more dynamic and gave a slightly broader soundstage than before. This was especially noticeable in vocal pieces. e.g.
Neville Brothers - Bird on a Wire,
Super tramp - Logical Song

The way the CD player was able to seperate the voices, instruments, background beats was quite remarkable. The sound is warm, smooth and very listenable. Though I am under the opinion this CD player does take sometime to burn in, because on the final day of listening, I noticed the music was flowing even more from my speakers, the little "clings and clangs" became ever clearer!

Some people may think the music is too smooth, but I certainly enjoyed this CD player.

Strengths:
Subtle, warm and fully involving sound, with a wonderful soundstage. Rock solid build quality

Weaknesses:
None

Summary:
This player puts you THERE! That's it. I can't see how anyone gave this one star. Be sure to listen to this one. For the money it's the best I've heard. Very smooth, and built like a tank. The drawer is alittle slow, but no big deal, what does that have to do with enjoying the SOUND! I think players that jump out at you and sound really forward usually have a problem. This one just draws you in and keeps you listening.

Strengths:
great imaging and detail.

Weaknesses:
strange function controls

Price Paid:  $1050.00

Summary:
This player hasn't received good reviews in the UK magazines, but I auditioned it against the Musical Fidelity players (which have had rave reviews).

Aesthetically, the MF gear looks very cool, but the Primare's understated looks are also fine.

Setup: Dynaudio Audience 50 speakers
MF X-A2 amplifier
Primare A20 MK2 amplifier

Right, in a nutshell, I started with the MF/MF pair, and was astonished at how muted and veiled it sounded! The tone sounded neutral, but with all my cds, the mix seemed to be coming from 50 yards further back from where they should have been! The stereo image was also very narrowly focused, with no real sense of depth. And you had to strain and concentrate very hard to hear any bass!

I knew my speakers were not the limiting factor, because I'd heard these with the ATC amp last weekend, where there was PILES of scale and surprisingly BIG, FAT bass...

Maybe the MF amp was having a hard time with the speakers; anyway, I hadn't dismissed the MF CD at that point.

Then we switched to the Primare D20 and the difference was like - KABOOM! There is the same smooth, clean tone, but this time, the stereo imagery had returned BIGTIME, the bass was very fine, and the music had detail and real energy. It really was clear as night and day.

Now, I was really surprised by this, cause, like I said, the Primare CD player has had indifferent reviews in the magazines, but like, I have to live with this stuff, and my ears were telling me the MF sounded pretty pathetic, whilst the Primare ROCKED!

We then switched back to the MF CD, this time with the Primare amp, and again, the life and drive of the music completely vanished. I couldn't believe it.

So the other side of this coin was that the MF CD, which has had rave reviews in the UK, actually sounded pretty terrible.

I really cannot objectively comprehend how anyone could prefer the MF CD to the Primare D20, and would want to urge any interested readers to :

1 use the magazines as a guide, but your ears as a judge
2 if you're in the market for a quality midrange CD player
I really recommend that you at least audition the Primare
D20 and see for yourself!

Mine's coming next Saturday! Cannot wait!

Strengths:
explicit/3D stereo imaging, natural tonal balance, dynamic sound

Weaknesses:
cd drawer colour does not complement front panel colour

Similar Products Used:
Musical Fidelity A3 / X-Ray