Why is there no love for Prima Luna?

They are a relatively inexpensive China made, mass produced product that sound decent enough and are pretty well put together. Kevin is smart, he has a lot of say into what they are, how they are and what they need to be in so far are as how he sees the needs and wants of the NA market from this semi-upscale-midfi gear. 
They charge a fair price for a pretty good product. Good value proposition for the value buyer that needs a good enough sound. That are happy with the PL sound. It’s a decent enough sound so sure enough many will enjoy it. 
That alone will cover enough people to fuel this little upscale audio cottage industry and fair enough. Not a thing wrong with it. Moreover, he really has done a nice job cultivating this niche in the market. He has expanded the demand by evolving the product offerings and their performance envelope while combining sound marketing with good service and simple to use and safe design. 

Solid stuff business wise. 

The thing is with this hobby there just happen to be people looking for more than that. Some a lot more and others are not. 

Myself, in that price bracket I’d rather buy... hmmm let’s see... VAC, ARC, MAC, CJ, VTL, LAMM, Manley just to name a couple tube brands that are MUCH better in every aspect but that just MO. Yes even used some of these may be more money but just saying. I’ll take a slightly used, late model Honda over a new Kia (one Japanese and one South Korean) any day of the week and twice on Sunday but that’s me. To each their own... 

Anyone here compared the Prima Luna to Cary?  I understand that Cary is made in the USA and appears well made...  

I am auditioning a PL EVO 400 at the moment and it sounds impressive in some ways, however, it lacks the detail that my ARC separates provide... It also costs about 1/4 as much.  

The PL has an ability to bring the bottom end out of old recordings... some mild bass coloration, yet pleasant to my ears on old rock recordings in particular.  I also have notice that I have been using it for about 10 hrs total time and it has been improving continuously for that period.  There are also tube rolling options that are attractive to a hobbyist gear head like me... we will see.

I'd love to know anyones experience with Cary products?  
They have my curiosity at the moment too... Yes they have to be biased and don't offer quite the tube rolling flex that the PL's do.  Also I don't know of a way to audition them locally.

Currently driving Sonus Faber Olympica II's (4ohm) with the Evo 400 integrated and yes the soundstage is further back than my ARC gear.  
I am hoping to find an integrated if possible to reduce footprint  usage without giving up SQ.  

I have owned numerous ARC products, Tube and SS, in fact still do.  ARC has the musical resolution that I like, at a price... Yes the tubes warm the room... Ok in the winter, not so much in the summer...
I have also owned Musical Fidelity gear and found it to be very musical for SS gear, made in Taiwan... NuVista aerospace mini tubes in some of their gear.

I can't speak to Prima Luna amps but I have the Evo 400 preamp. It is a great sounding preamp.  Very deep and wide sound stage with a totally black background and dead quiet. I've rolled in some NOS tubes and the sound is fantastic. I really can't see me buying another preamp. 

@drcjj I have listened to Cary gear.  Step up from PrimaLuna IMO, step down from ARC.  
I would check out the VTL integrated if it is powerful enough in triode mode for your speakers. VTL will be equal to ARC in terms of sound quality.  Made in USA.  
The Musical Fidelity NuVistas are wonderful sounding amp.  They are a hybrid model with a Class A, tube based input stage and SS output stage. The NuVista 600 or 800 would be brilliant and are made in Taiwan, not PRC.  
An even better  option in this design would be the AVM Ovation A 8.3 integrated.  Tube based input stage, MOSFET output stage.  Not cheap, but an amazing sounding integrated amp.  Made in Germany.

I have no affiliation with VTL other than I was a happy owned for a stretch.  I am an MF and AVM dealer.  

Good luck.

Yes I agree. Cary it would seem does land somewhere between the PL and ARC gear.
For some reason it seems the older Cary gear garnered more loyalty and fellowship then their gear of today.
Dennis’s offerings seem to have had a better response among our crowd but that might just be my perception? They seemed to have crept closer to the dark side (Home Theater) since his dismissal.

I think a lot of folks were not real happy with how he got bounced from his own company? It seems to have affected the new product offerings vs yesteryear but I regress.
I love VTL gear. It’s expensive but worth it. Their singular focus on valve tech shows in a constant evolving excellence. SS need not apply here... Fantastic tube offerings. Luke has done his dad proud and for that matter so has his sister to a lessor extent but of course she has the pro market to lean on.

Does anyone have any experience with the German company Octave?
There seems to be a few out there that are reasonably priced and made in Germany.
The Germans are well known for their fanatical attention to detail with most all their engineering. They would be on the opposite end of the spectrum as that of China built gear.
One mass produced in a factory by inexpensive labor and the other build by hand by those known world wide for fanatical attention to detail and lust for over engineering everything just for the sake that they think it is the right way to do things.

The question is do they sound as good as this sounds on paper?
If at the end of day their sound falls between that of Primaluna and ARC then none of the rest matters and curious if anyone has heard them and what their thoughts might be?
This might also help the OP look at them as a possible alternative as I may do as well.