I have had the SA-100 mk3 for over a month now and still can't believe what a great amp it is. Every time I pull out a CD that I haven't played for a while I hear musicality, richness and detail that just wasn't there before. Initially I used a burn-in track for about 125 hours but for around 70% of this time the amp was set to Class "A/B" as I wasn't home and didn't want the amp glowing like a furnace in Class "A" while I was out. After this time the soundstage had grown, there was a greater openness, along with better harmonics - strings were now rich with a satisfying woodiness and body to them - and smoothness without loss of detail. The very first thing I noticed when I hooked up the SA-100 was the huge "presence" it put forward. Upgrading each component in my system has yielded more natural, realistic and smooth sound which "sounds" closer to the real thing, but the SA-100 goes further and actually "feels" like the real thing. The performance has such an amazing tangible presence which your body and soul feels rather than your ears hear. You can virtually touch the performance it has so much body and naturalness. In a word the presentation is BIG ! Bass is deep, tight and authoritive. The midrange is indeed "tubey", "warm" and "liquid" as others have said. Highs are smooth with no fatigue, harshness or grain. The whole frequency range is beautifully balanced with no area being more or less prominent than it should be.
Since the initial burn-in most of my listening has been in class "A" and a weird thing happened about a week ago. Almost, overnight the class "A" sound became even more liquid and warm with an even greater openness and naturalness. I guess it was not enough to burn-in the amp in class "A/B" mode and it is NOW fully burned in. The class "A/B" is quite good too but class "A" just seems to make the amp disappear and give a less solid state sound which is more relaxed, open and natural.

I find myself listening to more and more orchestral material as it really highlights the ability of the SA-100 to pinpoint each instrument on the soundstage and to create an amazing sense of room space. The sections are beautifully layered from front to back of the soundstage and you can almost see where the first violins stop and the second violins start. In contrast I have played some rockier type material at a steady 90+ decibels and the SA-100 sounded about as stressed as a V12 Jaguar at 500 RPM. Nothing phases this baby. Closing your eyes you would swear that you were sitting in a club before a live band.

After reading several expert reviews and the audioreview.com owner reviews I was looking for a big improvement, but I certainly didn't expect it to be this HUGE. It has made my old monoblocks sound lean, undetailed and feeble. But they will do very nicely bi-amping my centre speaker and powering my surround speakers.

Anyone in the market for a very "neutral" and "natural" sounding amp at this price point or several orders higher, would do very well to audition the SA-100 and quite likely save a bundle. FIVE stars all the way.

Equipment (2 channel):
Pioneer DV-717 (as transport until DVD-Audio players & titles are available)
Acurus ACT3 pre-amp
Plinius SA-100 mkIII
Jamo Concert 11 floorstanders

Equipment Reviewed
Perreaux SM6 Classic partnered with Perreaux 250P

Versus

Plinius M16 partnered with Plinius SA100 Mk3

Associated Equipment

Marantz CD17KIS, Cardas 300b, Kimber PBJ (balanced), Ocos, Dynaudio Contour 1.8 Mk2, DH Cones & Squares under CD player.

Opinion

Firstly, I am generally not quick to form opinions on audio equipment and this is no exception. I need prolonged exposure to really work out what is going on. That said, the Plinius & Perreaux both transformed my system. The difference was enormous. I was not previously aware how power starved my current system is. The big amps opened the soundstage dramatically & let the music effortlessly wash over the listeners. My 60 watt integrated (Marantz PM17) now sounds miserly by comparison, still enjoyable, but you have to work harder to get into it.

I liked both the Plinius & Perreaux, selecting a favourite was not easy. The Plinius produced a soundstage that was more forward & had more depth, but the Perreaux's soundstage had enormous height & greater width. The 20 x 14 listening room has a ceiling height of approximately 18 feet (speaker end) sloping to 8 feet. The Perreaux effortlessly filled the available vertical space with a huge wall of sound, so much so that questions were raised whether it was a little overblown on the live Marianne Faithful track "Time Square" (Blazing Away) sounding a touch more stadium than cathedral. Alternatively it could be considered that the listeners were moved from row 20 to the front row.

The "naturalness" of instruments (acoustic guitar) was debated, with honours being given to the Perreaux by all. This is very subjective, and impossible to prove unless one was there when the track was recorded.

On some tracks the Plinius sounded a little edgy on the tops, not exactly harsh but significant enough to cause concerns about fatigue over extended listening sessions.

Some may say the Plinius combination extracts more detail, however the Perreaux presented the same detail but in a more natural, cohesive way. Nothing was founded to be missing.

Overall when the enjoyment test was applied, I recall the times when I found myself really enjoying the music was when the Perreaux was playing.

Another Listener’s Opinion

The Perreaux was far more assured and open, laid back and controlled. I remember saying the speakers suddenly sat up and folded their arms (like an obedient school kid). The soundstage was enormous by comparison.
In contrast the Plinius was interesting and involving beyond the initial sample of the integrated amp. But the base/lower midrange tended to run away with itself, especially on the cello track. The overall sound was harsher/brighter than the Perreaux.
The Plinius' soundstage was quite small and more directional, but the imaging was still good.

Conclusion

A close finish but it would appear the Perreaux takes the honours, although I have awarded the same marks (4) to both. I am a tough marker.

This is a follow up review.
My current 2 channel setup:

API AAC conditioners
Audio Alchemy DDS Pro Transport
Camelot Dragon Pro 2 Mk 2 digital reclocker/enhancer
Camelot Arthur 3 DAC with upgraded power supply
Pure Silver Vampire RCA 1 meter interconnect
Morrison ELAD preamp
Pure Silver Vampire RCA 2 meter interconnect
Two (2) Plinius SA100 mk3 in MONO
Four (4) foot Vampire ST-3 speaker cable
Magnapan 3.6r Speakers

I absolutely recommend any of the above products in my system. Now on to the review:

I wanted to try out the Plinius SA100 amp in MONO. After setting the above system up, I felt like Ferris Bueller with the Ferari... Man oh MAN! Plinius makes an astonishingly good 2 channel amp, but you have not heard anything until you get two of them MONOBLOCKED. The POWER. There is something that 665wpc into 4 ohms does to the Magnapans that just is not achieved with 100wpc amps... ANY 100 to 200wpc amps! These amps make music real. Nuff said... As Ferris says: If you can afford this luxury, I most highly recommend it!

Do I really have to state how many stars I think these should get?

Sincerely,

Keith

Great amp Indeed,wide open sound stage,give a great image of the over all picture of performance of the event of music,Krell your not there yet,And yes I do have a lot of time on my hands or you can say on my ears.I can say that about Krell cause I owned it.ANd its not better than the plinius amp,maybe the binding post are better but binding post is not an amp,its part of it.I will say there is an amp out there thats better than both ,ITS the sim audio amp W3 amp,its amazing.Or the w5

With some speakers it can be on the bright side but thats the speaker,Ive tried more than one speaker with this amp.Speakers that are like dynaudio or gershamacoustics or soliloquy would make a great pair in heaven.Just dont blast the soliloquys to hi youll be ok.there loud to begin with and wide open.so you dont have to drive the amp loud.there 90db.easy load.8 ohm.

I would like to say to the people out their that deffend krell enjoy it,But it wont be there for long,I have owned krell amps,tried it with a lot of different equipment and also components that werent krell stuff and IM in this hobbie long enough to know what is a better product.Ive had many cd players many amps,tried many,had many spreakers,and I dont take this as a loss its a lesson to learn from. ,Cause we ALL LOVE AUDIO AND MUSIC it goes together.So IM not bashing KREll IM just telling peole what I know, AND what I hear.And I think where all listening for the same thing,at least most of us.There is one good preamp out there that does make a great match with the plinius,And dont say oh my god cause its a krell,Its the KRC3 preamp,thats an exception try it youll hear that its a good one,They have to make something good or else,About the plinius, My freind and I match this amp up against enough amps to know this is a good one.A great cd player with this set up was the Naim 3.5 and flat cap power supply.And cable... monster cable and yes it out performs transparent I know cause I had it, and had it too long,Junk.So if you can get that whole set up going,email me back and tell me what u think,the plinius is a great amp.DONT WAIST YOUR MONEY ON A KRELL AMP.BUT I CAN SAY ONE GOOD THING KRELL MAKEs, IS THE KRC3,I WONDER WHY STEREOPHILE DIDNT GIVE IT AN A RATING,POLITICS.OR WHAT a GAME IT IS.THE cable i was using was the sigma Retro from monster not cheap but cheaper than transparent and many more.But thats not why I bought it.well enjoy, hope I didnt hurt any hard core krell fans but the truth is the truth.Get rid of that stuff.If u have the krc3 keep it,theres an old saying of krell that the amps are better than their preamps,wrong its the other way around.EMail me mlbtonite Im on aol.I have had the plinius amp for ONE year.

Similar Products Used:

I had a krell kav 250, a krell fpb 300.McCormack dna1 dna>05 Crown macro tech E,ROTEL 990 amp,SonicFrontier amp 1, Aragon 4004,McCormackDNA 2,ROTEL 981 amp,and more.

After two week break-in period, this marveolous amp plays great music. Bass is articulate and authoritative. Mids are natural and musical. Highs--angelic. Matched with a Sonic Frontiers Line-1 (Amperex NOS upgrade).

Superb dynamic bass handling ability as well as ability to resolve complex orchestral & organ music.

None detected

This is a review of the Plinius M16 preamplifier combined with Plinius SA250 IV and Plinius SA100 III amplifiers via an electronic crossover. The system is, in a word, superb.

TAS recently had a critical comment about net reviews of equipment by "amateurs" such as myself and this has validity. It is valid from the point of view of a critic who is familiar with a variety of items and gives the honest reviews that TAS does. However not all reviews by "professionals" are completely honest under advertising pressure so it is useful to read critiques from grass roots consumers as long as the context of such articles are kept in perspective.

So what is the context of this review?

Over the decades I've listened to music (not hi-fi!) with the aid of various high profile brands such as Leak (my last flirtation with tubes - I could not be bothered with constant fiddling with bias etc that the latest gear requires), Quad, Levinson, Luxman, Audio Research, Rotel, NAD, Forte, Threshold, Wharfedale, KEF, B&W, Celestion, Rogers …. At times I could detect improvement with an "upgrade" although this was not always evident to my long suffering wife. I have attended live concerts so know how music should sound. However the change to Plinius has been dramatic. Never have I experienced such a quantum leap in clarity etc of reproduction and, to underline this, my wife is as enthusiastic as myself and freely admits so. We both find the Plinius sound awesome.

Before proceeding further with the Plinius side a word about the listening room etc. We recently designed and built a new house with the music/lounge room the hinge point of the whole plan. The basic design criteria for the room were no parallel surfaces, a high cathedral ceiling and 32 foot of clear path in front of bass speakers to allow for clean LF sound. The final shape was an irregular pentagon. LP's, LD's & books are on shelves on the 20 foot rear wall behind the main 9.5 foot high electrostatic speakers. 33 ft side walls fan out to the listening area which is in front of two bay window walls angled at 150 degrees to one another. The centre beam of the ceiling is 14 ft high and total room volume is estimated to be 6300 cubic feet. Walls are plastered over double brick, the floor is carpet covered concrete and the cathedral ceiling is covered in special compressed mineral tiles (from Japan) which have inherent sound absorbent as well as fire resistant properties. The equipment is set in a wall between this room and another with rear access to it all from behind in that room. Because of the heat emitted from the Plinius amps they are located in the room next door on a metal stand for maximum ventilation.

My philosophy is to strive for simplicity in the 2 channel path and add subtle ambient sound as a separate entity. . I have been a fan of added ambient sound for some time, starting with the interesting but flawed Audio Pulse systems many years ago. The trick is to create a subtle effect and to keep the rear channel at an appropriate level. I'm horrified by the current trend towards complex controllers with everything converted to digital & then back again to analog. There is no way that approach can achieve the sound quality reproduced by the Plinius M16 preamplifier.

At Peter Thompson's suggestion, the main interconnects are Sitech. The audio sources are Koetsu/Fidelity Research/Townsend for LP's, Theta Data III for CD's & LD's into a Theta DSPIIIa for digital + Yamaha tuner + video signals from satellite & tuners. Surround sound (Dolby prologic only) is via a Fosgate 2 with only the side, rear & sub channels used. The 2 channel signal goes into the Plinius M16 preamp, from there to a Dahliquist LP1 electronic crossover (about to be replaced with a Bryston 10B) with above 80 hz to the Plinius SA250 IV to the big electrostatics and below 80 hz to the Plinius SA100 III's to large solid sealed bass bins each housing Alpine DDW-F30A drivers (superb bass drivers designed, inappropriately in my opinion, for in car use). The side speakers are Celestion SL6's and the rear ambiance drivers AR6's. The sub signal from the Fosgate feeds to KEF B139's in transmission line enclosures. The Fosgate is cranked up for appropriate movie viewing (we have a BARCO VSE40/BARCO 808s video projector also but that is another story) but it is kept down for audio only use.

We use the system a lot for viewing opera & ballet on LD's (& now DVD's) with musical taste in our 3000 LP collection covering most classical fare of instrumental, chamber, orchestral, choral, opera plus jazz and some more modern vocal artists, excluding heavy metal & rock. The CD collection is limited mainly because of the extensive repertoire already there on LP and, up to now, dissatisfaction with digital sound.

But digital sound through the Plinius equipment has been a revelation. On first hooking it all together I proceeded to start sampling various items to see how it sounded. My first sample was a CD of "Pictures at an Exhibition". The sound which came forth from relatively cold and "green" amplifiers set in class A/B bias mode was electrifying! So much so I could not stop listening. Here was clean string sound, superb harmonics from woodwind, hard hitting tympani, deep clean bass…… Result was I heard the whole work with the hair on the nape of the neck bristling throughout. WOW!

If the class A/B biased amplifier sound is good then the class A biased item is even better. I can distinctly hear the edge going off the digital sound as the A bias cuts in and the amps warm up. For some time now I have decried the digital sound of tenors on some laserdiscs in our collection. Put Plinius to class A bias and the sound loses its unpleasant bite.

The penalty of class A amplifier biasing is weight and heat. These amps are very heavy and run very hot in class A bias mode. To my eye they are beautifully sculptured although are not aesthetically pleasing enough for my wife to allow on display in the lounge. The remote has a phase reversal switch and it really does make a difference to the soundstage on some recordings. The volume control is designed with a gentle action on first press so minute changes are possible. Clever.

Away from the mainstream and living in the peaceful and beautiful island State of Tasmania, Australia, I have not had opportunity to hear many of the excellent amps of today so cannot give any definitive comparisons. I leave that to TAS. However I can describe the sound coming from the Plinius preamp and amp system thus - absolute silence using RCA connects (even with the phono cranked up full), brilliant soundstage, superb dynamics, absolute clarity and resolution on complex orchestral passages and organ music (which on lesser equipment sounds jumbled and somewhat incoherent), awesome bass, and a breakthrough for me in digital sound with raspiness and previous unpleasant artifacts minimised or gone. I am still coming to terms with this and find it hard to believe. It is contradicting one of my long held prejudices about digital sound.

About the only downside to report about the Plinius equipment is that it makes one very intolerant of other amplified sound. Most commercial theatre sound is too loud & generally awful and I have become super critical of other systems. Most amazing is the price being asked for some very flawed equipment. I attended the Hi Fi show in Los Angeles in 1998 and could not believe the mediocre sound coming from a pair of $US100,000 speakers. Unfortunately some appear to correlate price with quality and may look down on Plinius equipment because the price tag for it is reasonable.

In all of the above do not lose sight of the M16 preamp. I feel this is an essential part of the system. A lot has been (justifiably) written about the glorious Plinius amplifiers but I sense the M16 plays a pivital role in what we hear in our system. I also have the M14 phono amp but feel my 20 year old Koetsu Oynx might be in need of another refurbishing so I feel unable to give a fair appraisal of the M14 at this stage. Problems of VTA etc make critical vinyl listening a much more complex challenge. I'll keep you posted when I come to conclusions about the M14. In the meantime ignore mischievous (commercial sabotage by someone?) postings by the MrB's giving Plinius low ranking. Plinius must stand at least equal, if not above, the best equipment available today. Congratulations to Peter Thomson, Gary Morrison (responsible for the majority of the circuit design) and the rest of the New Zealand team for producing a series of outstanding preamplifiers and amplifiers. May the force remain with them!

Similar Products Used:

Perreaux 2150, 250 watt custom made Mosfet amps

Tight powerful bass, great soundstage, very detail, give a little bit of warmth.

Run hot in Class A mode.

I have used in for about a week (with an Audio Research SP-3A preamp) and is completely satisfied. This amp needs time to warm up as the sound lacks body, sense of 3-D and warmth when it is cold. I haven't do a real comparison between class A and AB mode yet, but just a brief comparison tells me that I prefer class A mode over AB quite a lot.

What I like the amp most is that it is extremely detail while still warm and musical. There are lots of detail that I couldn't hear before in my system but are now all revealed. There are CDs that I have listened hundreds of time but I can still discover new things through the Plinius.

It is very powerful too. I use a pair of Genesis 8300F which I think is a good speaker but needs lots of power. The amp must not sound harsh too or the 8300F will sound horrible. I have tried a few other amps such as the EAR 509mkII but the SA100 is the best amp for the Genesis so far. It has complete control over the bass which was always a problem for me - I can now hear a lot of detail on the bass (not one note, fat bass). For those who need amps with good bass, this is a good choice.

The amp is very musical and is highly recommended for those who like slightly warmer sound, and those who need an amp that is powerful without sounding harsh.

Similar Products Used:

classe audio P-100, EAR 509mkII, assemblage ST-40.

Too many to name

ZIP

In the interest of brevity as I have Zero Tolerance for redundency , I can add nothing to the list of positives already here. But ! as good as it is , when paired with a hi-quality TUBE Preamp such as the VTL 5.5 you will be left searching for superlitives . My hi-fi friend has demoed it with his S.Faber Amator's and isn't convinced ; but it does wonders for by B&W P 5's .
I do however find that it's runs and sounds
better in A/B over an extened playing time .
N'ough said"

Similar Products Used:

Most all

OK, Mr.B: I tried to be subtle and avoid direct confrontation, but your uninformed diatribe against Plinius (did you have a sour experience in Latin, or do you object to New Zealand's pacifist foreign policy?) inspires me to reinforce my comments given on 3/29/99. Plinius makes a fine product -- very well-built, warm-sounding, perhaps a little rolled off on the top end, tight bass, and tubey mids. Does the "B" in your name stand for B_##%*@$? Or, perhaps, are you the Bronfman of Seagram's lineage who had his ear cut off?

Certainly the best amp in its class.

In the summertime it's getting even hotter in your listening room because of the class A operation.

This is the best power amp I've ever heard yet in its price range. And, since I am a professional reviewer, I have listened to a lot of amps. The Plinius sounds powerful, clean, structured, but also saturated, warm, "liquid" and musical. With pure, lifelike dynamic capabilities. The bigger and more expensive SA-250 may be even better, but the SA-100 is without any doubt a best buy.

Similar Products Used:

Power Amps of any price range.