Why is there no love for Prima Luna?


I have noticed fairly negative comments on Prima Luna in various discussions. Granted, I’ve never heard their gear but they seem to offer quite a value proposition. Point to point wiring, auto bias, protection circuits, easy tube rolling, good parts and build quality. I had considered looking into the Evo series integrated but the brand seems to be downplayed on this forum. Anyone have direct experience as to why?
cincyhound
As a first time tube amp owner (Muzishare X7- KT88,) I wanted to get back to the warm sounding, lush days of my hippie youth - sans the Lava Lamp. I looked at many tube amplifiers including Primaluna lower end models. The Muzzy was around a grand cheaper through Amazon Prime and it has a headphone jack plus Triode and Ultra Linear mode - which was important to me since I do listen late at night with my wired Grado headphones in the Triode mode. 
Matching your speakers is absolutely imperative with a tube amp. Much more than with a SS amp. I was lucky to score a pair of used Danish, Dali Evidence 470 speakers (4 ohm, 90 dB sensitivity) that were in excellent condition. Maybe folks across the pond can comment on this but it seems to me that European speaker manufacturers take into consideration smaller apartments and houses compared to the U.S.  Therefore, they build speakers that are not as power hungry and are more efficient. At any rate - the Dali 470’s absolutely sing with my Chi-Fi Muzishare tube amp. 
I think you’ll find many dedicated and happy Primaluna owners. You’d be surprised at the number of Chinese components in so called U.S. “built in the U.S.A.” Products. It’s the nature of corporate America to look for the lowest labor and parts cost.  Don’t forget - there are a lot of Korean and Japanese electronic products on the market, as well. The lowest price wins, most of the time, all things being relatively equal. It’s an interconnected world  and if I can buy American, I do. I have love for all my toys no matter where they came from. 


When my main SS amp was sent for service I bought a PL Dialogue HP integrated amp to use. I wanted to try an inexpensive tube amp that was hassle free and easy to sell when my main amp returned. I used it with Wilson Audio Alexia’s. It got me through those two months without being disappointed, but no match for my main amp which costs almost 6 times more.  When my main amp returned, before selling the PL, I tried it in my second system with Wilson Audio WP 7’s. Performed so much better (dynamic, detailed, holographic...) with these speakers, so much so I could not sell it. Still have it. 
I think this thread actually shows that there is quite some decent love for PL. Let’s remember Agon is a small subset of an already small subset of the population (audiophiles). There are many happy PL owners out there that wouldn’t even know Agon exists to post their positive impressions.

I find here that many seem happy to compare apples and oranges and convince you one is better than the other. It does depend on your means and the system you are trying to put together. My system, which includes a PL Evo 300 integrated, might be around the $20k mark. It sounds very good to me, and I’ve benchmarked, but it could sound better if I spent $200k, but I would argue it wouldn’t sound 10x better.  That’s PL’s sweet spot: QPR that’s tough to match.

And just for fun, last weekend I brought my PL to my buddy’s house who is running Focal Grand Utopia’s with Mac Monoblocks and a slew of other high end components (think $200k+ system). I really thought swapping in the PL would reveal a lot of weaknesses and might make it look a little ridiculous. It wasn’t. At all. We were both quite surprised at what we heard. Definitely can’t match the speed, transients and power of the Macs, but it tamed the brightness of the Focals and it was very pleasant to listen to, with it really only struggling to drive those big woofers...

Lot of love for the PL here. 
This is only my experience and I’m not trashing the brand but my amps had difficulty albeit these were early versions. Not sure if they’ve changed over the years. My local tech is as good as they come and he said the transformers were very poor quality. He said it’s like a beautiful house without a concrete foundation. They sounded slow and sluggish and when trying to drive real world speakers they failed (more than just sonically). They are over marketed as giant killers but with poor transformers their point to point wiring, active bias, quality caps etc only takes them so far. I’m speaking about their monos, not their other gear that I haven’t experienced. You are way better off buying a used tube amp and retube it immediately - it’s the same money!
Both PrimaLuna and REL are manufactured and 
MADE IN CHINA Yes, that REL. Including the reference lines. Get over it. I own both and couldn’t be happier with my gear.