R 32

The Primare R32 preamplifier is a properly mature device: the design of restrained
elegance with well-ordered material strength makes it right – especially given the price
tag.
Unscrew the cover (which is a few millimeters thick) and you’ll see lots of interior space and very little phono amplifier - clearly even more minimalist in phono pre-amp design. There are two amplifying stages and RIAA equalization, plus a MC amplifying stage and that's about it. The electronics are divided into three "sites" that are cleanly separated and shielded. The actual phono board is located at the rear of the power transformer. The power supply board is a good 20 inches away from the other components. The parts quality is very good and the dual mono design potentially makes for a very clean performance. Our measurements in the lab showed the usefulness of the large housing: hum is not an issue in the Primare R32 – other phono amplifiers have to fight it a little more. The gain is a good 40 decibels in the MM operation (internally, you can switch to 46 decibels). There is a 62 dB gain available for MC signals and that is enough for the most current pickups. The values for the impedance matching at the two step switchers (one per channel) are constructed accordingly: the input can be adjusted between 10 ohms and 47 kohms, where the values of MC are indeed graduated finely enough. For me, the 1000-ohm setting is still missing, but that is a matter of taste. In the listening test, I found the very fine gradation useful for one or other
exotic pickups, and can confirm that the very good measurement values in the product
specifications are accurate and conservative. I found during our tests that performance exceeded these values on occasions.

Product: Primare R32
Origin: Sweden/China
Type: MM/MC phono stage
Weight: 8.5kg
DIMENSIONS: WxHxD: 430x95x380mm
Features:
• Impedance settings: 10; 20; 50; 100; 200; 500 and 47k ohm
• MM Gain: 41.5/46.5dB
• MC Gain: 62dB
• Colour options: black, titanium