Why is there no love for Prima Luna?

@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.

Off topic, but Prima Luna SQ related.

If there's anyone who has done a coupling cap mod to their Dialogue  HP  Integrated, please PM me. Would like some insight. With a few mod's, I understand the PL and similar imports can be put in another league? The foundation is there, so I'm thinking the right mods put it higher up the SQ ladder?

@tablejockey

i too would like to know, anyone has done this successfully (pls supply spec of the caps) - i think the primaluna amps (even with tube upgrades) lack that last bit of transparency that the best tube amps convey, while still giving you the tube amp goodness/magic

@fsmithjack

i have not tried more current cary gear, it has been 10-12 years since -- i stopped when dennis had sold the company and checked out, my faith in the company was with my knowing him personally and that got me into his gear... that being said, the cary amps in my experience are fairly overtly tubey sounding amps in sq (in a good way) - more rounded, romantic sound, absolutely lovely with the right speakers, and if you are seeking that type of sound - very listenable, makes poorly recorded music very pleasant, voices and instruments have a sweet rich tone very dimensional, big wide deep image, bloomy bass... i still keep their 12wpc 6sn7 octal/300b se-i integrated amp for when i want a dose of that lovely sound...

Perhaps someone can identify the coupling caps from this pic. Scroll 1/4 down, under "dare to compare"
https://www.primaluna-usa.com/dialogue-premium-hp-integrated

There has to be  some components although "selected for performance" were chosen to meet price point requirements. Sorry for the hijack.

Carry on, Prima Luna  haters.