One thing you have to be careful about when auditioning Plinius gear - they take around 4 months to run in!! No kidding. During the 4 months the power amps will sound pleasingly forward and lively, but a bit rough and grainy, perhaps shouty on vocals. This overexuberance goes away and you are left with the dynamics but none of the roughness. During the 4 months the preamps sound unbearably dead and boring and then transition to dynamic and lively but hard on top, and then gradually softening to sound right.
And if you think the sound will be mainly right after the first month and the rest is small beer? Think again, the last of the 4 months has as much or more change in it as any of the others.
Only take heed of reviewers that have given the Plinius adequate time.
This is not an attempt to disagree with Hififile as I have never heard the McIntosh he refers to. But if you are curious about the sound of a Plinius amp it is very difficult to try one unless you know it has had continuous use of at least 4 months. It makes the purchase decision tough.
I used to be a critic of the Plinius gear as I believed that there were other NZ made amps that were superior. You will never have heard of the ones I preferred as they are not marketed outside of NZ. But in recent years Plinius has begun getting it right.
In my years in this hobby, certain conclusions have emerged. One important one is that you should never let into your system a component that deviates significantly from being tonally neutral, or is recessed or forward, within reason. And you should not tolerate compressed dynamics. The reason I believe this is you end up wasting a lot of money trying to compensate for such a deficiency, or you get tired of the persistent character of your system and spend even more dough moving on.
The Plinius are not perfect. But they have adequate neutrality once run in, and no lack of dynamics. Therefore they make for a great foundation for your current choice of front end and speakers. For those that want to be gripped by dynamic or rhytmic music, they are extremely hard to beat. For those that want mouth-watering vocals they are adequate. But those that beat the Plinius in this regard usually do without matching the dynamic swing the Plinius achieves.
