Upscale Audio and Primaluna

I have no idea when I bought my Primaluna Prologue One from Upscale, but I'm pretty sure Kevin was a one man shop working out of his house. As I remember it, his wife was not happy at having nerdy guys show up and having to listen to stereo being blasted all day. Kevin was/is every bit the high pressure guy, but it was obvious he had a great set of ears.

In any event, my audition with the Prologue One went great. Lovely, immersive sound quality, with a midrange to revel in. It didn't matter to me whether Primaluna was a house brand or not...and I got to tell you I never bothered to explore the issue further.  The integrated has also been surprisingly reliable. (I've posted a list in another discussion topic that tells of the sorry parade of components that has marched through my listening room.)  I've already mentioned the resister(capacitor?) problem I had, which Upscale fixed there and then when I hauled it in. I was still living nearby.

When the integrated's tubes would inevitably lose their luster I'd phone Upscale up and a salesman (hey, not Kevin anymore!) would ask me questions about my tastes and suggest a tube that might serve me better.  I'd show up at their now shiny offices and take them home. I'd put them in their sockets. They'd sound great.  No biasing required. Nowadays I gotta mail order.

To be sure, the Integrated's looks are utilitarian at best. It's hard for me to read where the input knob is positioned so I've taken to writing my input choices on bits of white adhesive tape and sticking them to the Integrated's front. What me worry?

I have bought from Upscale many times. They were always helpful and never pushy or agressive. My PL Integrated works well for me and I am satisfied. 

There are dealers who are knowledgeable, experienced, honest, and treat their customers with courtesy. They get my💰. 

I forgot to mention, above, about my Prima Luna experience.  I was very interested in a new PL Evo 400 amp.  Kevin told me that he didn't think it was a good match for my very inefficient speakers.  Hmm, even though I was interested in PL Kevin advised otherwise.  Now that is contrary to much of what is cited above.  However, he did say that if I wanted to try the amp with my speakers, that I could.  I gave him a deposit in the amount we agreed upon and took home the floor sample unit.  Kevin was right, it did not do well with my speakers.  The mids and highs sounded great, but there was not much in the way of bass slam.  When I took back the amp we discussed a solid state amp from Balanced Audio Technology as the best choice for the sound quality I was seeking along with very solid driving capabilities for my speakers.  Kevin gave me a killer price on a new, factory sealed unit.  It worked fantastic with those speakers.  Since then I sold those speakers and now I have new speakers that are much more efficient. I spoke with Kevin and he worked another killer price for me on a Balanced Audio Technology tube amp.
Like I said above, Upscale Audio is first rate in my book.  They have steered me right to what is best for my needs and provided excellent prices to go along with excellent service.  Awesome sauce!

It depends on your current system and your speakers but the prima luna stuff is good if you have very efficient high impedance speakers other than that it would only be good for background music on most low impedance speakers tube electronics are very sensitive to many kinds of speakers so be careful with tube gear in general but if you mate the tubes with the right kind of speaker magic can happen and frequently does.