The latest issue of Stereophile magazine has just been released, featuring the highly anticipated Recommended Components 2026 list.

We are incredibly proud and grateful to see several of our products included in this prestigious selection. Over the coming days, we’ll be sharing each of the products that have received a Recommended Component Award 2026.

We’re excited to kick things off with the PrimaLuna EVO 100 Tube V2 Phono Preamplifier. Here’s what Stereophile had to say:

The EVO 100 features dual-mono 5AR4 tube rectification; dual-mono choke-input EL34-regulated power supplies; two 12AX7 twin triodes per channel for the RIAA stage; and one 6922 twin triode per channel for its moving-coil stage, which sits in its own shielded, cushioned box. The gain choices are 40dB for MM, 52, 56, and 60dB for MC, and there are five MC loading choices—50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 ohms. PrimaLuna distributor Kevin Deal warns that the EVO needs three days powered on to sound its best, following which HR commented that the PrimaLuna “completely eliminated the EMT JSD 6’s tendency to sound tight and analytical, giving me instead a cartridge-phono stage combination that was both lush and heart-pounding fun.”

HR subsequently compared the EVO 100 with the MoFi MasterPhono, noting that with the PrimaLuna, he preferred the Denon DL-103 with a very heavy, 50 ohm load rather than the much higher impedances he liked with the MasterPhono. When HR auditioned the EVO 100, he found that it was “the quietest one I’d heard, ever.” Following 100 hours of warm-up, HR wrote that the music “pulsed and shimmered on a huge soundstage and had an airy, luminous character I associate with great tube circuits.” He then replaced one pair of the 12AX7s with early-1960s RCAs and the stock 6922s with Amperex Bugle Boys. “While this substitution made the EVO 100 slightly noisier,” he wrote, “it also got rid of the glassiness and, tonally speaking, thickened the sauce.”

In late 2025, the EVO 100 received parts upgrades and circuit tweaks—free of charge to owners, other than shipping, if the customer bought their EVO 100 at a dealer. The first and biggest thing HR noticed about the upgrade was deeper, leaner, more natural bass. He subsequently found that the new EVO sounded “prettier and peppier and maybe danced better than before.” “The more I used it the more it seemed the upgraded EVO 100 had become slightly less visible, more invisible, if that is possible,” he decided.

Interested in experiencing PrimaLuna EVO 100 Tube V2 Phono Preamplifier yourself?

We encourage you to contact your local dealer for more information or to arrange a demo.

https://www.primaluna.nl/distributors/