General Asylum: REVIEW: Plinius 8100 Integrated Amplifier (SS) by Jon T

After an in depth auditioning of integrated amps under $2000 (results of which are in the archive) I decided to purchase the "winner" of the roundup -- the Plinius 8100. My dealer, however, had one 2100i left that he offered for 15% off list. Since both the dealer and an email to Plinius confirmed that the only difference between the 2100i and the 8100 is the name on the faceplate, I purchased the 2100i. However, this review equally applies to the new 8100, which is essentially identical.

The 2100i arrived in a large, sturdy, double boxed packing container -- the better to survive shipping from New Zealand, I suppose. Inside was the amp itself, a rather generic looking power cord, the owner's manual and warrantee card, an extra set of fuses, and a small screwdriver for changing the fuses.

The amp itself is compact: 17" wide, about 13" deep, and about 4" tall, much smaller than the Sony receiver it replaced. The front panel holds the large power switch on the left, along with a blue power-on LED dividing the Plinius logo and model number. The right half of the panel held the three knobs for volume and source selection. The 2100i does not include a tape/monitor switch, instead it has two separate input select knobs, one for the recording source and one for the playback source. Underneath the volume knob on the far right is another LED that lights during remote control operation or when the amp is muted. Barely visible next to this LED is the window for the remote's infrared signal.

The physical build quality of the 2100i is impeccable. The front panel looks to be made of 1/4" aluminum (more likely 5mm) and all the knobs are machined aluminum. Both the volume and source select controls are reassuringly firm and solid. The remainder of the chassis is made of folded aluminum of about 1-2mm thickness. The chassis construction is solid and durable, but still rings a little if you wrap on it, so some users may wish to apply additional damping.

The rear panel holds a single set of gold plated speaker binding posts, an IEC power plug, 6 pairs of inputs, 2 pairs of tape outputs, and one pair of preamp outputs, all gold plated RCA jacks. On the upper left edge of the panel is a tiny mute switch, which is very convenient when switching cables with the remote sitting back on the couch. Underneath the inputs are the holders for the four rail fuses. Adjacent to each is a small LED that is supposed to light when a fuse has blown. Luckily, I haven't had the chance to observe if this system works as it's supposed to.

Connecting my CD player and MD player presented no problems. The speaker binding posts are quite substantial and it took a little effort to get my spades to fit, but they eventually did. The binding posts have hex nuts which can be easily tighted with an ordinary wrench. The power cord as mentioned above is a cheap OEM one, but I haven't bothered to experiment with aftermarket cords yet.

The remote control is minimal -- it only controls volume and mute -- but like the amp is very solidly made, consisting of two pieces of extruded aluminum. It is heavy for its size and looks as though it will withstand a great deal of abuse. The only bad feature is that you have to unscrew the thing just to change the batteries. An additional nice feature is that the Plinius uses the same commands to change the volume (but not mute) as my Rega remote uses, so I can use it as a universal remote. (The Creek 5350 also had this unexpected feature and the mute button worked with it, too)

Upon power-on, the blue power indicator LED flashes for a couple of seconds indicating that the amp is stabilizing. During this time, the output is muted so there is no turn-on thump. After a couple seconds, the LED stays lit, the output is un-muted, and we're good to go! The 2100i runs in class AB, but is supposed to be biased for about 5W of class A. Judging from the heat pouring out of the vents at idle, I believe this -- it never runs hot, but does get nice and toasty warm even just sitting there.

Playing around with it revealed that I have a bit of a ground loop in my system. Turning the volume control up to 1-2 o'clock revealed a bit of a 120Hz buzz, though strangely turning the volume up further actually reduced the noise. Rearranging the positions of the plugs helped somewhat but didn't eliminate it. However, plugging both the CD player and the 2100i into a borrowed Monster HTS2000 power conditioner dropped the noise flow to the near dead silence one expects. I'm going to have to get one myself (probably a good idea for surge protection, too, since the amp is on 24/7), but in the meantime, the buzz is inaudible at the volumes where I normally listen.

Plinius states in the owner's manual that the 2100i is supposed to remain on 24/7 and that it takes anywhere from an hour to a couple days to reach it's peak performance. They know what they're talking about. The first time I switched it on, it sounded ok, but the magic I had heard at the dealer's showroom was distinctly missing. It was very clear and detailed compared to my previous Sony amp, but it also sounded rather grainy and fatiguing. I was beginning to regret the $1700 I just dropped on this device.

Luckily, as the 2100i warmed up and broke in, the sound improved dramatically. After 2-3 days of use 4-5 hours a day, it began to smooth out and show signs of the warmth and musicality that it had at the dealers. After a week, it was about 90% of the way there.

When I first heard the 8100, I was not able to do a home audition, but I did bring my CD player (Rega Planet) and speakers (Monitor Audio Silver 5i's) to the dealer. When the same setup still didn't completely right after a week, I began to suspect that perhaps the 2100 and 8100 were different beasts after all. An email to Plinius dashed this hypothesis, so the one remaining variable was the cables.

I've never been much of a believer in high end cables. I've seen them make a difference, but on my old system, it was always very slight. I also didn't want to fork over more cash for some fancy cables just to pay for their pseudo-scientific marketing BS. At the time, I was repairing my friend's Belles 150A and had his Analysis Plus Oval 9 cables laying about. Just to see if it would make a difference, I plugged them in to replace the 12ga. zip OFC zip cord I had been using. I'll be damned if that wasn't it. With the AP cables, the system really came alive and the last bit of edginess completely dissappeared. I eventually bought AP Oval 12s instead, and replaced my homemade interconnects with the Van Den Hul MCD 102MkIII's that I liked so much at the dealer's. The 12's sound identical to the 9's in this system, and the VDH cables add just a touch more midrange warmth than my somewhat bright sounding design.

After breaking in and tweaking the cables, the 2100i proved itself to be an extremely musical amplifier. (It also gets up to full potential after only 2 or 3 hours, now, too.) Many have compared Plinius products to tube amps. I would not agree with this assessment at all. The 2100 does not sound like tubes, but it does have the same sense of musical correctness and emotional palpability that good tube gear has. Unlike tube amps, though, the Plinius has abundant extension both high and low.

Bass is fast, tight, and very powerful. I was amazed with the amount to low bass that could come from the small 5 1/2" drivers in my speakers. Highs are sweet, smooth and grain free, even on the fairly bright sounding metal dome tweeter in my speakers.

What really sets the Plinius apart, though, is its midrange performance. So many solid state designs today have great frequency extension, but seem to forget that the music is mostly in the midrange. The 2100i proves that you can have both wide bandwidth and a sweet, musical midrange. Instrument timbre is accurate -- this is the first amp I've had in my system that can consistently reveal the differences between different woodwinds. Unlike many revealing amps, though, the Plinius is never fatiguing or grating, even on badly recorded material. The ultimate indicator of its quality to me is that since I've had the 2100i in my system, I've been listening 1-2 hours more everyday and now listen at volumes that before would have driven me crazy on the Sony amp.

It's difficult for me to pick individual listening selections, since I've listened to a good portion of my collection over the last few weeks with this system. However, here are a few that have been in heavy rotation:

The Richard Hickox performance of Respighi's "Ancient Airs and Dances" (CHAN 9415), which is ordinarily a very good recording, really comes alive on this system. The colors of the instruments are conveyed with their full vividness. This was the recording where I first discovered that one of the flutes was really an oboe. Brass instruments that sounded grainy and harsh still can not be called "sweet" but the Plinius/Rega combination really smooths over some of their edginess. Detail resolution is suberb: the last track has several musical lines player against each other, and the each can be heard equally well. The sound stage seems to extend far back behind the speakers and instruments are well focused in space. The width of the image, though, does not ever seem to extend much beyond the speaker positions, but this may be due to the setup of my (less than ideal) listening space.

On track three of the "Thin Red Line" soundtrack (RCA 09026-63382-2), the Plinius renders the "ticking clock" percussive drum/woodwind line in the foreground with the spooky precision it demands while conveying an incredible sense of weight to the rest of the orchestra playing in the background. As the background melody moves into the foreground and the brass comes in, the Plinius pours out a wave of sound that simply engulfs you in the performance. Again, the soundstage is incredibly 3D with great focus, but could be a little wider.

Track 10 of the same disc is mostly vocal with instrumental accompaniament that slowly builds as the same refrain is repeated several times. This is one of the tracks that sold me on this amp, and the 2100 is one of the few products in my price range that was able to provoke the sort of emotional response that the intensely beautiful track is capable of giving. I can't really dissect this one in audiophile terms; you just have to hear it.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's "BTTB" is a selection of unaccompanied piano pieces by this Japanese composer best known for the soundtrack to "The Last Emperor". It is one of my girlfriend's and my favorite "candlelight and champagne" CDs, but can unfortunately sound very harsh and bright. The 2100i handles this very forward recording with aplomb and shows off the sweetness of the melodies while reigning in the ear splitting upper midrange that can make this CD fatiguing at high volumes. It's still obviously not the best recorded disc out there, but it is much more enjoyable on the Plinius than on most other amps I have heard.

Since most of the music I listen to is instrumental, I did not have much of a selection to choose from for the all important "female vocal" test. What I ended up using was track one ("These are the Days") from the 10,000 Maniacs "MTV Unplugged" album (Elektra 9 61569-2). This is a live recording from a number of years ago and it really shows how well the Plinius can capture musical truth. Unlike the symphonic discs, which for all their emotional involvement could never get me to believe there was an orchestra in my living room, this small acoustic ensemble really did sound like they were performing 3 rows in front of me. Natalie Merchant's voice was coming from exactly the point it would if she were standing 8 feet in front of me and on a low stage. Her rough sounding voice was there in its full glory but without any additional grain or sibilance added by the playback chain.

Finally, "South Side" from Moby's "Play" (BMG 63881-27049-2) proves that the sweet natured Plinius also likes to get up and dance from time to time. Bass was full, tight, and remarkably low -- my speakers are normally polite mini-floorstanders, but the 2100 was able to coax enough low bass out of the tiny 5 1/2" woofer to let me feel it rather than just hear it while seated on the couch. There is no comparing this heavily processed, all electronic track to any reference of musical "reality" but the Plinius lacked much of the grain on the complex rhythm track that many other amps showed.

The highest praise that I can give this amplifier is that since I have put it in my system, I have been truly satisfied with the listening experience. I had planned to upgrade my speakers sometime in the coming year -- they are the widely recognized weak point in my system right now -- but I am now reconsidering that plan. The Plinius/Rega/Monitor Audio combo just sounds musically right to my ears. It involves me emotionally with the music I'm hearing in a way most systems don't, but it doesn't give up anything in the resolution or accuracy departments, either. Sure I've heard better, but I'd have to spend a whole lot of money I don't have to get there. In the meantime, I'd much rather spend that money on new music and just enjoy every minute of listening.

-Jon T.

REVIEW: Plinius 8100 Integrated Amplifier (SS) Review by Jon T at Audio Asylum