Why is there no love for Prima Luna?

having lived and worked in asia (and in hong kong and china specifically) for many years over my professional career, i would tell/remind folks:

1. you think america is a big country, lotta people, china is substantially bigger - so many kinds of people, many kinds of business people, greatly varying in professionalism, values and capability - they have a very capitalist mindset and act on economic interest, and are very willing to cut corners if they can get away with it... it is as much a comment on capitalism as it is on the chinese business people

2. chinese government control is pervasive, and self interested, though their chosen path to self interest (essentially self preservation) is to try to improve the economic well being of its populace and expand its reach/status outside the country so its citizens can ’feel proud’ of being chinese - one just needs to understand chinese history over the past couple hundred years to understand why these buttons are very effectively pushed by the government in gaining the support of the population

3. yes, rights of free speech and protest are not available to chinese citizens and the government does extreme and heavy handed things to protect its position and quash ’unrest’ as it sees it - no doubt about it; furthermore chinese government sponsors a very ’aggressive’ approach to gaining intellectual capital it does not have - a real problem for ’more advanced’ countries who develop that capital, and the chinese need to be actively deterred on this front

4. many many foreign ventures exist in china, though they usually have at least a minority chinese interest, not to mention sourcing agreements by non chinese companies to take advantage of lower costs of production compared to home countries the foreigners could try to make their products in

5. so it is true that if you buy something that is made in china, or made with parts inside that are made in china, the chinese government and chinese people (indirectly) benefit - but is it practical for us as consumers to stop this, given the extent of globalization -- of how so much of the world’s gdp is manufactured in a global/multinational supply chain? my personal feeling is no... china as a country and its government has to be contended with by the US, EU and Japan/Korea at the geo-political and geo-economic policy levels... which is leadership of these countries and alliances among them are so critical in this time

6. we should not forget that in america, there are many many people who work at wage rates they cannot really live on, and there is tremendous oppression in that sense too -- yes americans have ’freedoms’ the chinese do not have, but at the end of the day, what are the prospects for these unfortunate americans to live better lives?  my point is there is much injustice in this country as well, which i don’t need to enumerate - what has happened in this country in recent years certainly weakens our standing to call out how oppressive regimes like the one in china operates, as offensive as they are to our sensibilities

said my bit here with this, thanks for your patience, now back to normal programming...

I'm using the DiaLogue Premium HP Power Amplifier with my Revel Ultima Salon2.  Unlikely a speaker load one would expect with PL as its not super efficient.  I do run it with KT150 in ultralinear mode mostly.  I also have a Wells Audio Immorata as my SS amp and comparison.

Sound wise, its been very fine.  Yes - its not a neutral amp in a detailed sense of the word.  But for my listening (wide mix from classical piano thru to industrial electronic) it makes a very listenable and engaging show.  The Wells is very well regarded and probably one of the great underrated and still affordable SS amps - its is also wonderful.  But the PL has nothing to forgive given its price and flexibility in my setup.  I personally love my PL and have no desire to change it out.  Unless I need a real big kick and high transparency and super balanced tonality in my listening day, I tend to keep the PL hooked up - otherwise the Wells.

I own a pair of PL Prologue 6s monos driving MB Quart Vera floorstanders  VS1F w/ a Jolida fusion dac pre and I am very happy with them.  I use either the JJ EL34s my favorite or Psvane type II Kt88s for an occasional change.  I also have a pair of Carver 350s monos, now the PLs are no 350s but for their price and sound they are very very good.  In the PLs as in the Carvers I changed the front end out to Psvane type IIs and they make a big difference in sound as many others have found out. 

PrimaLuna is good stuff but not great. I’ve done side by side comparisons with their items against some very well regarded items and place PrimaLuna in just a good category. I think you will do completely fine if you purchase their products and build a system with it. But if your a audiophile that only demands the best, then there are many items out there for the same money that will outperform PrimaLuna. I feel their products are made well, look fine and function very good. My friend who owns a lot of their products prefers his other components over PrimaLuna and I agree. But then, I have another friend who’s using PrimaLuna in his system and he’s receiving world class sound. - Bottom line, there’s  absolutely nothing wrong with PrimaLuna products. They can sound wonderful if put together properly.  But standing alone as a single piece, there are better sounding components at same price on the market.  My evaluations that have been done to judge the PrimaLuna line have been done with their line of components in the $5,000 -$8,000 range compared to other brands in the $4,500 - $17,000.  Hope this was helpful.  

The American business community is responsible for foreign manufacturing as their main goal is generally to make as much money as possible (shocking!)...our lobbyist driven government allows this. Note that Apple could make everything in the USA and still be ridiculously profitable (after training some local workers).

Prima Luna is one of the most reviewed (I've never seen a bad review of their stuff) and relentlessly advertised product lines so they don't need any "love" from around here. Sort of accidentally (as I have no beef with China and think keeping the manufacturing connection with the behemoth helps with foreign relations) I own lots of USA made gear including my speakers, piles of Schiit products and my power amp.