Plinius 8150i

I believe the 8150 power amp section is AB while the preamp is presumably A. The Plinius power amps are switchable between A and AB operation. I have yet to hear the 8150, but have heard the MC-1. If the 8150 is near as good as it is purported to be, I would not be at all surprised if you get far better sound using the 8150 as preamp and amp for all your two channel (music) sources. I've gone this route myself, replacing my B&K processor with an Adcom 750 preamp for music sources. One caveat with the 8150 though, the surround bypass switch--the one that sends the L&R from your MC-1 through at unity gain to the power amp sections (bypassing the volume control on the Plinius), is apparently located on the back of the unit and is not on the remote. This is just plain inexcusably bad ergonomic design in my book. If you have a combined HT and music system you will need to access this switch probably many times each day. Putting it on the back was a bad move. I can't think of another integrated off-hand which includes a surround bypass/unity gain input feature. Maybe the Anthem Integrated. And I think some of the Cary tube jobs have a "direct" input for CD players with their own volume control--this'll work just fine for HT bypass as well. There are, however, a bunch of preamps with a HT bypass/direct feature--BAT, Sonic Frontiers, Anthem, VTL, Adcom. You could go this route with a power amp which matches optimally with your speakers. Good luck, --Len

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