Primare SPA25 Prisma 9ch AV receiver

A hi-fi company's answer to home cinema

The Primare SPA25 Prisma is a nine channel home cinema amplifier with eleven channels of processing, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X decoding, Dirac Live room correction and the full Prisma streaming platform. It is built the way Primare builds two channel amplifiers, which is the reason to consider it over a mainstream receiver: fewer channels, more attention paid to each one. Nine channels supports 5.1.4 or 7.1.2 on its own, and 7.1.4 with an external stereo amplifier.

Why You'll Love It

• Dirac Live, included. Room correction from Dirac comes with a Limited Bandwidth licence as standard, which is the single most effective thing you can do to a cinema room.
• Music is not an afterthought. Two ESS ES9026PRO converters and full Prisma streaming with Roon Ready mean it is a genuine two channel source, not a receiver that tolerates music.
• Nine channels, properly rated. 90W per channel with all nine driven, rather than a headline figure measured two channels at a time.

Under the Hood

• Nine amplified channels with eleven channel processing, rated at 90W per channel with all channels driven and 145W into 8Ω with two channels driven.
• Dolby Atmos, TrueHD, Digital Plus and Surround, plus DTS:X, DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution, over four HDMI 2.0b inputs and two outputs with eARC and 4K passthrough.
• Two ESS ES9026PRO converters handling 768kHz and 32-bit and DSD512 over USB, with Dirac Live room correction and Prisma streaming over Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

CHT Insider Verdict

This is for someone who wants one system to do cinema properly and music seriously, and is willing to pay for build quality over channel count. Two practical notes. HDMI is 2.0b with 4K passthrough, not 8K, so confirm that suits your display plans. And Dirac's Full Bandwidth licence is a paid upgrade bought from Dirac rather than included, though the supplied Limited Bandwidth version does the important work below the transition frequency.

Pro Tip: Run Dirac with the measurement microphone at seated ear height across all the seats you actually use, not just the middle one. A correction optimised for a single point makes the centre seat superb and the outer seats worse than they were before.