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Plinius Odeon

By John Paul

August 2006

Plinius Odeon multi-channel amplifier. $17,000.

The Plinius Odeon multi-channel power amplifier (click for larger image)

Rear panel of the Plinius Odeon. This picture shows the Odeon with six 200W modules (click for larger image)

Inside the Plinius Odeon (click for larger image)

I’ve owned a Plinius M-16 preamp and their SA-50 “small” class A power amp for seven years. I’ve dearly appreciated their natural, clean, lively musical integrity through whatever material was feeding or being driven by them. But as I want more power, those mega-price Halcro, Lamm, Spectral, and other high-end super amps may be pretty nice, too. So?

So understand, objectivity in high-end audio is capricious. And let me further suggest many audiophile concerns resemble a quip from Victorian era author Samuel Butler who said, “Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises”.

In this conundrum, I did some extended shopping around before spending $17 kilobucks for my 1.2 kilowatts. In business and family matters I had to go to Southern California and New York quite a few times in the past five years. During “in between” times, I took a few favourite discs and made a total and complete pain in the ass of myself (Mr Bean, or Frank Spencer come to mind) at several high end “audio emporiums”. Sometimes I was “purchasing” and other times I just sniffed around and eavesdropped. But I always managed to audition my own discs through one absurd fib or another.

Respected high-end amplifiers I spent time with all had identifiable sonic signatures that weren’t, to my ears, musically correct. I’ve heard soft bass and “caramel” mids (VTL valves), mid-range glare (Classe and Bryston), flat mids and dull highs (Mark Levinson and Rowland) and over damped bass with fizzy top octaves (Krell). Of course, some of this could have been warm-up, cable, or hardware related artefacts in particular set-ups. Though I queried shop staff about their optimised set-up for best performance on auditioned items. (And, was even told by one busy NYC dealer that the beautiful gold plated, sweet liquid sounding Jadis were “very unreliable”. Thanks.).

As a quick aside, I must mention that in these stores many big bucks (US$20k+) connected loudspeaker “statement” systems all sounded distinctly different from the next premium creation. So notions of “the best speaker we can make” is objectively suspect. Then judging amplifier characteristics and colourations vis-à-vis these comparably different speakers seriously tested my analytic ears to the maximum.

Self solution

Happily, I’ve been a music loving (frustrated musician, actually) audiophile for nearly 50 years. I’ve owned more pieces of gear than my thinned wallet wants to remember. And as a DIY madman I’ve built or modified a few nice, and dozens of awful sounding things.

I’m most fortunately aurally imprinted with five solid years of superb musicians playing mainly acoustic instruments live while working as their sound operator at Blues Alley, an internationally respected small jazz club in Washington DC. Before that, I played double bass in “geezer” Dixieland bands and a very un-trendy wedding band enthrallingly named “The Melody-Men”. Thirty or so years in TV production and broadcast technical operations has also taught me what various devices do to the stuff that starts at a microphone, then comes out later sometime, and someplace, quite changed.

So if I say the Odeon pushes my happy button, you can be assured that opinion comes from more live music, hobbyist “gear head” and pro audio experience than your average SWAT (Sell What’s Available Today!) salesman or advertising copywriter can offer. Now after all that qualifying guff, let me tell you about the Odeon.

Getting physical

Though the Odeon is multi channel, it sonically competes in all ways with any premium stereo amp around. An Odeon can be configured as six 200 watt per channel modules, or six stereo 100+100 watt modules. Any combination of six modules can be ordered and dealer upgraded or changed to give you 6 to 12 channels of highest quality amplification.

Balanced or single ended RCA inputs are toggle selected on the 200 watt modules, and single ended only inputs are on the stereos. Provision is made for lifting chassis earth to minimise hum in complex set ups. It also can be 5 to 12 Volt remote triggered on-off. A trimmer adjusts brightness on 6 very attractive, though functional, blue “Module OK” status LED’s that are across the front top lid.

Considerable bulk comes from four huge toroidal transformers with many small capacitors supplying basic power for all the amplifier modules. Then there are additional power supply conditioners on each module. I suspect there is some very slick engineering in the Odeon power supply because even before it earns it’s sonic keep on power-up, it actually doesn’t dim my house lights. Other “normal” amplifiers and bigger appliances do. Understand each Odeon 200 watt module is 40 Amp peak current capable! Lower voltage yes, but still juice-slurping thrills for power supplier Transpower. Thrills too, for me, on big symphonic crescendi, dance thumps, or movie blasts and booms.

The Odeon is beautifully built and finished to highest professional standards. It’s a very rigid and solid 54kg, is 260 mm high by 460 mm wide and 585 mm deep. Internally, military grade boards with tight anchoring keep all the premium grade bits and pieces plus interconnections inside fixed and steady. To validate this, Plinius gives a five years full parts and labour warranty.

It’s stretching to call it high end jewellery like Jadis, Goldmund, or FM Acoustics. But the broad rounded corners front panel and medium blue, thick enamelled rear panel with its’ chunky gold connections is very tidy, “techno-cool”. It’s much nicer looking than the “tin box” Cello or Theta amps, and friendlier than many other designs with sharp bloodthirsty metal corners and heatsinks.

Using it

The Odeon’s modular flexibility also allows convenient bi-amping of speakers that are normally set for bi-wiring. Superior performance can be achieved with 200 watt modules driving the bass/mid sections and a 100 watt stereo module for the upper frequency drivers.

Another sophisticated option is to use an electronic (active) crossover to do the frequency dividing before amplification. This gives much more precision and control in directly driving speakers. This is how I use my Odeon driving a quartet of Image-Peerless XLS (passive) subs, then other modules driving six Audax Aerogel mid range units, and four Linaeum surface wave (ribbon) dipole tweeters augmented by Audax piezo film super tweeters. Complicated, but capable of presenting sweet, crisp whispered details up to startling high transient peaks in natural clarity and definition from absolutely anything on silver or black discs.

I firmly believe in lots of clean amplifier power. Listen to any live instrument and notice how much body or “welly” it has. A school kid’s flute, a piano, a guitar, anything, in the hands of even the least competent player will make its presence known even if it’s not louder than normal conversation. Yes, there is soft and sweet, but there are also sharp, crisp transients that signal our ear-brain that it’s “live”.

Accurate is more important than “pleasant” sound. I understand the “everybody hears differently” or “my ears, my money, my preference” arguments. But serious musicians and quality musical instrument manufacturers carefully develop particular timbre and textures that differentiates and elevates their artistry.

If Jimi Hendrix or Izaak Perlman sounded less dynamic and smoother, would that be respectful of their art? Do you think anything should deliberately change the sonic character of Henry Rollins, Paul Desmond, a Bosendorfer Imperial Grand, a Les Paul Gibson? And don’t mess with Supermans’ cape either! The musicians and producers of quality music and/or movie tracks know what they are doing and we should appreciate them, or not, via un-coloured, distortion free, accurate, playback devices. Sonic smoothing, sweetening, or glazing are frankly unethical.

The sound of amplification

Listening to any recorded music certainly starts with the previously mentioned “insufficient premises” as to whether it is actually an historical event recording or purely commercial creation. Then there are countless technical variables that deliberately or unwittingly modify that recorded work. From this, we listeners with our “perfected” systems reach sufficient conclusions of appreciation, or not, of that insufficiently specified work.

So again, a lifetime of listening to, into, and through all acoustic source and media material nails the expectation of amplification. And, because it’s all about making it real, which the Odeon does very well, is what it’s all about.

There are wonderful clever things inherent in Gary Morrison’s unique circuit designs that let music timbre and textures become amplified in complete sonic honesty. Flipping the extreme cliché, the Odeon really has no sound to die for.

It has a remarkable number of non-descript qualities. It doesn’t have solid state dryness. It doesn’t have upper octave haze or glassiness. It doesn’t have a liquid or syrupy midrange. It doesn’t have over-damped, constipated bass. It doesn’t sweeten or tighten or mellow anything. Small scale, large scale, soft or loud, delicate pianissimo whispers or bombastic banging, it all comes out through good speakers very much as you would hear it originally recorded.

Most importantly, the life and energy of vocalists or instruments appearing in your “earspace” simply feels closer to “reality”. Here in the room, via the Odeon. Good old audiophile favourite “palpable presence” in all types of recorded material. You audibly enjoy everything in its created continuity and emotional context, blissfully unaware of time or responsibilities.

The bottom line

An important consideration about pricing is that Plinius products compete and excel in a rarefied specialty world market. There are lesser priced multi-channel amps around, but they sonically don’t compare, and there are more expensive units around that also fall short of the total musical excellence within the Odeon. Five year parts and labour New Zealand warranty is also something to keep in mind.

Let’s face it, high-end amps are all fairly good, especially compared to mass market AV receivers. But the Plinius Odeon is simply a better, correct sounding, excellent long term value component when considered against all other premium and exotic amplification devices.