I have a Plinius M14 phono stage. The rest of my system is a Plinius SA-102 amp, LAMM LL2 pre amp, Michell Gyro TT, Shelter 501 cartridge and B&W Nautilus 803 speakers.
My previous phono stage was the MM/MC phono stage in a Sonic Frontiers SFP1 signature pre amp. Before that I had a MM phono stage in a Conrad Johnson PV10 pre amp.
The Plinius with the LAMM completely out classes these two units but then it is a separate phono stage. I bought it because I wanted a SS phono stage to minimize noise and match with a very quiet tube pre amp like the LAMM. I also liked its high/low gain and cartridge load adjustability and the fact that it also matched visually well (black with front handles) with the pre-amp and amp (I know true audiophiles aren't supposed to care about looks but I do!)
I am very pleased with the unit which matches well with my setup - quiet, clean, crisp, fast with lots of gain. I actually prefer to use the low gain setting most of the time even with my .4MV Shelter MC cartridge because it gives me more adjustability and headroom in the preamp and is plenty loud (about 11:00 setting is good for normal listening). Someday I would move up to the LAMM phono stage and one of their top amp/pre-amp setups but this would be a quantum leap in cost.
My previous phono stage was the MM/MC phono stage in a Sonic Frontiers SFP1 signature pre amp. Before that I had a MM phono stage in a Conrad Johnson PV10 pre amp.
The Plinius with the LAMM completely out classes these two units but then it is a separate phono stage. I bought it because I wanted a SS phono stage to minimize noise and match with a very quiet tube pre amp like the LAMM. I also liked its high/low gain and cartridge load adjustability and the fact that it also matched visually well (black with front handles) with the pre-amp and amp (I know true audiophiles aren't supposed to care about looks but I do!)
I am very pleased with the unit which matches well with my setup - quiet, clean, crisp, fast with lots of gain. I actually prefer to use the low gain setting most of the time even with my .4MV Shelter MC cartridge because it gives me more adjustability and headroom in the preamp and is plenty loud (about 11:00 setting is good for normal listening). Someday I would move up to the LAMM phono stage and one of their top amp/pre-amp setups but this would be a quantum leap in cost.