my 2 cents
if plenty of cool features, an excellent website, and value for $ is more important to a user than ultimate sound quality, primaluna offers a lot
otoh, audio research reference series is still superior for most applications when it comes to sound quality (somewhat to significantly superior, depending on speaker matching and system resolution)
primaluna has definitely taken a big bite out of arc’s business on the lower end of the tube amp market (as seen by arc, and as such under renew ownership they are trying to implement more convenience features etc etc), but this is largely a function of high and ever escalating prices of the arc gear - that said, arc’s sound quality remains unimpeachable, and a cut above
no affiliation to either arc or pl - but a current owner of amps from each maker