Is Plinius 9200 bright sounding?


In a couple of reviews of the Plinius 9200 - What HiFi and TAS - the authors seemed to imply that this amp is bright sounding, but they don't come right out and say it. I am interested in purchasing one of these amps, but since I don't have a local dealer, I can’t audition first.

So, what say you Plinius 9200 owners? Does this amp sound bright in your system?

My speakers are Martin Logan Vantage and CD player is Esoteric X-03SE.

Bob R.
rmrobinson1957
I only have the 8200 MKII, but one would have to reasonably assume that the 9200 shares the "Plinius house sound".

Mine drives Vandersteen 2Ce Signatures...and I never get any kind of sound that I'd describe as overly bright.

I'd be pretty shocked if you were disappointed with the 9200.

I've used it in a listening room with McIntosh separates, and it sounded just as good as the Mac stuff costing around 3X as much. The Mac owner felt the same way. He was a little surprised.

And strangely enough - that test drive was done with Martin Logan Odysseys!

Hope that helps...
Thanks everyone. Seems the consensus is not bright, but neutral and very transparent to the source.
I've never owned a Plinius, but have heard them more than once and consider them an excellent amp; they seem quite neutral and smooth in the highs to me.
It has been mentioned, but not confirmed, that some Plinius products can be sensitive to higher capacitance speaker cables in some setups.
I currently own the 9200 and love it. IMO, excellent amp. I agree with jaybo, dead netural top to bottom. Also, a very nice phono stage.
I used a Plinius P-8 amp for a while driving Shahinian Hawks in a well-damped 2000 cubic foot room. The P-8 is the amp section of the 8200 and is, according to the distributor, virtually identicalto what they are now using tin the 9200. I listen mostly to large scale Euro-classical orchestral stuff. The P-8, and the SA-100MkIII I now have, both seem to expose wll the brightness present on your source material. Mellow cd's and lp's can sound beautifully full and powerful. But, anything less than smooth on top will sound almost (to me) unbearably bright, especially on violins and trumpets. I noticed this the very first time I hooked up the P-8 and still notice it, to my chagrin, with the more expensive and sophisticated SA100. If you have speakers that are trelatively flat on top, this could be a problem. It could be that the Plinius is a very accurate reproducer and you get out what you put in. It could also be that the Plinius is best matched with speakers that are a bit rolled off in the treble.
Otherwise, these struck me as very fine amps.
I owned the 9200 and it was not bright in my system. I will not say however that it cannot be. The highs had a shimmer and slight sparkle which was good, but that was in my setup. For you it could be a bit different. I have only heard of one person (here in these forums) complain about the highs of the 9200. Everyone else has been complimentary. Your amp-speaker match and source play a role in what you ultimately hear but in and of itself I would not characterize the 9200 as bright.