Plinius amp and Conrad-Johnson 16LS

Thank-you Brandon, what are you using now?

I have spent the past two weeks trying some different set-ups with the Plinius. I've found it to be more sensitive to cables and footers than the Aloia. The Plinius can sound edgy and dry or can be very nutraul with the right footers. The Plinius I would not define as one dimensional, in fact the depth is amazing and very well defined. I guess it comes down to personal taste more than anything. If one was coming from Krell the Plinius would tend to sound too warm, where alot of the Plinius intrest has been from tube people, and the Plinius is not tube by any means. At any rate I ordered two Plinius 102-SA's to use as mono blocks, I continue to look for thoughts on pre-amps. I tend to like solid state and digitial over tube and vinyl. Just my personal taste. I find the slam, pace, imaging and dynamics of solid state to out weigh th warmth and glow of tubes. Again, I believe both are great directions and do not wish to start up that old war, Just my taste. I do tend to like a bit of a warmer side of solid state, thus the tube pre-amp has always been my choice.
I should also point out my budget keeps me from some of the elite gear that can do both extremely well. Maybe some day...

Hi Redkiwi my old friend. It's nice to see a Plinius/New Zealand thread brings you north!
I was going to try the EAR footers but was wondering if weight was too much. They tend to deform with very little weight, I'm guessing your saying that's fine. I was also thinking the Walker points might be a good choice in that the weight of the Plinius is too much for the Nuance.
What would you think as a good pre-amp to try?

Thank-you Rayhall, excellant reply. I owned the SA-100 MK II for a couple years before going to the Aloia. I used a Kora Eclipse pre-amp. I had some major equipment failure with the plinius wich blew my Dunlavy III cross-overs and drivers along with the cd player. I have always wondered if it was my emotions or reality that I missed the Plinius. Now that I've had the chance to try a Plinius again I know it's the amp I like best of all I've heard. (I've listened to most) I am interested in your choice of CAT, what did you find between the CAT and CJ that makes you feel the CAT was better?
Redkiwi- I looked into the Placette as you suggest. Very interesting! From all the reviews I still am a bit lost as to the mid-range qualities. Have you had direct experience? As with the CAT it's hard to audition either without taking a leep of faith, even if I can return it. I'm assuming you were refering to using the RCA jacks and vertically bi-amping the Plinius rather than balanced and bridged mono-blocks. I plan to vertical amp and RCA. Why is it that bridged is not as good?

Another thought Rayhall, The Plinius SA102 has two power transformers each about 7 1/2" diam. vs the single in the SA-100This might help the bass and high end roll-off you sensed.

Rayhall, that was an extremely well written and very helpful review. Thank-you, thank-you. My from end is Sony SCD-1 with full Audiocom modifications. The speakers are Dunlavy IVa, Walker high definition links, both up and down, Nordost Valhalla interconnects and I plan on changing my NBS Statement speaker cable with Valhalla. All equipment sits on EAR footers, on Nuance shelves, on an Apollo rigid steel rack. My power comes from dedicated circuits, the pre-amp and SACD player run through a Hydra conditioner.