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Plinius powerhouse
The Plinius integrated is a winner.
By Michael Jones
September 2000
Plinius 8150 integrated amplifier $3395
This is one of the best amplifiers you can buy in New Zealand - and one
of the very best amplifiers you can buy at all, without spending ludicrous
amounts of money.
The Plinius 8150 ($3395) is the second integrated amplifier from New
Zealand’s own house of Plinius. Designed by Peter Thomson and Gary
Morrison, the 8150 is a stunning application of “trickle-down”
in design.
The 8150 combines large parts of the preamp stage of the magnificent
Plinius M16 preamp, along with circuitry very similar to that found in
the Plinius class-A power amps.
Of course, the 8150 is not run entirely in class-A (although it does
get very warm). That factor, along with a smaller power supply, mean that
while the 8150 may retain a high proportion of the sound of a M16/SA100
combination, the pre/power still remain supreme.
Available in black or silver, the 8150 is a substantial box. At 450mm
wide, 115mm high and 370mm deep, the 8150 will fit in most equipment racks,
but without too much room to spare.
The front panel is spartan, with a power switch on the left and volume,
source select and record knobs on the right. They all have a good, solid
fell to them.
The back panel is more populated. There are ten pairs of phono sockets
on the rear. A phono input allows for the connection of a turntable through
a very high quality phono stage.
There are line level inputs labelled for tuner and CD player, along with
two tape loops. The 8150 can even be used as a preamp, as it features
pre-out connections.
Heavy duty gold plated binding posts are supplied for speaker connection.
These will accept banana plugs , bare wire or spades. The are two sets
of terminals for each channel, which can make bi-wiring easier.
Finally, the rear panel includes a loop for a home theatre processor.
Basically this is another tape loop, but with the loop occurring after
the volume control instead of before.
This is a great idea, as it allows the inclusion of home theatre in a
high quality audio system. By having the processor loop after the volume
control, this means that altering levels lies entirely with the processor,
rather than a combination of processor and amplifier.
But the implementation of the processor loop is poor. Part of the reason
for a processor loop is to make switching to home theatre easy. Unfortunately,
the only way to switch the processor loop in is via a small switch on
the rear panel. Not very user-friendly, Plinius!
Rated at 150 watts in 8 ohms, this increases to 230 watts into 4 ohms.
This means that the 8150 should have absolutely no problem driving just
about any loudspeaker you want to throw at it.
As you may have guessed, the Plinius 8150 sounds terrific. So much so
that I bought it.
There’s an inevitable sense of rightness to the sound of the 8150.
It is truly an amplifier that has it all. Tonal purity, harmonics, detail
and dynamics were all there.
The Plinius has a tremendous sense of solidity to its sound. A strong
and vibrant midrange and bass contribute to this solidity. Many amplifiers
sound slightly undernourished (this is more a midrange phenomena than
bass) whereas the Plinius replicates the robust nature of live sound.
I’ve always been a bit of a bass freak - not in terms of wanting
lots of bass or deep bass, but wanting the clarity of bass instruments
that I hear in concerts but very rarely with recorded sound. The bass
response of the Plinius is phenomenal, with a delicious combination of
power, heft, dynamics and articulation.
The 8150 also reproduces the temporal or timing aspects of the music
extremely well. Many hi-fi components appear to slow down or disconnect
the rhythms of music (while others, of course, reproduce this aspect of
music very well).
This is a wonderful amplifier with a remarkable combination of sound
quality and usable power. Very highly recommended (but docked half a mark
because of the home processor switch)
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