Siblings in PrimaLuna's EVO range, so they share a design and a house sound. It comes down to power, features and price.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | B | PrimaLuna EVO 400 Integrated has more power - 70W against 40W into 8 ohms. That is about 2.4dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate PrimaLuna EVO 100 Power the better fit for desk or near-field listening and a small room, and PrimaLuna EVO 400 Integrated for a mid-size room, a large room and a very large room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Analogue inputs | B | PrimaLuna EVO 400 Integrated takes more analogue sources - 5 against 1. |
| Shelf space | depends | PrimaLuna EVO 100 Power takes up about 28% less shelf area (1128cm² against 1559cm²). |
| Price | A | PrimaLuna EVO 100 Power costs less - $3,095 against $6,495 at list. |
A PrimaLuna EVO 100 Power B PrimaLuna EVO 400 Integrated
depends neither is better in the abstract - it turns on your room, your system or how you will use them. Only specs published for both amplifiers are judged; anything missing on either side is left out rather than guessed.
Which should you choose?
The usual trade-off: PrimaLuna EVO 400 Integrated measures better, PrimaLuna EVO 100 Power costs about 52% less. With most speakers in most rooms that gap is smaller in practice than it looks here. Start with the room. In a large or open-plan room, or with speakers that are hard to drive - low sensitivity, or an impedance that dips - PrimaLuna EVO 400 Integrated has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 40 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 30 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate PrimaLuna EVO 400 Integrated poorly for near-field use for exactly that reason. Think about the whole system: the roughly $3,400 saved by taking the cheaper one would buy better speakers or a subwoofer, which does more for the sound than the difference between two competent amplifiers.
What a spec sheet cannot show: how either sounds with your speakers, how the controls feel day to day, and what the app is like to live with - which is where most all-in-one amplifiers are actually won or lost. Power figures are the manufacturers' own and are not measured to a common standard, so treat small differences as noise. If you can hear both, that will tell you more than any row above.