Plinius amp and Conrad-Johnson 16LS

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 JD

Remember those Plinius amps need 3 months of decent use to come right. You will also find the SA102 to be warmer and more liquid than the SA100 MkIII. I doubt that a tube preamp is the way to go since you will lose the pacing of the Plinius (will get me some reactions to that one, I'm sure).

Contrary to what Peter Thompson says (Mr Plinius) I find the Cardas Neutral Reference, or Cardas Golden Reference are great with the Plinius (Peter recommends Siltech - but hey, he also listens to Shahinians).

Plinius uses a very hard footer that can dry things out a bit. I keep recommending them - so maybe I should buy some shares - but the E-A-R feet are what I use under my Plinius.

I sincerely hope you are well JD. Sorry about being out of touch for so long.

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?

I have the plinius sa100 and have paired it with the audiovalve eklipse. I tried a number of different tube preamps with the amp (one of the lower CJs, not the 16ls), and the eklipse got me. It is clean, clear, felt remarkably transparent and has a remote control, which is important to me. I never felt like I lost anything from the Plinius, instead I got wonderful imaging, a precise soundstage, and great musicality.

There is one on sale at audiogon at half price (sadly, it came up after I had already bought mine).

I like the Placette buffered preamp - has none of the hard grain of most moderately priced ss preamps, and has the pacing that is so hard to find in valve preamps. Can be had on a money back trial - but its construction is tenuous. My advice is don't open it and you will never know. The E-A-R feet will only handle about 10 to 20 lbs comfortably each. Six or eight of them ought to be right for the SA102. The Walkers are very good, but with less warmth that the E-A-R feet. In fact the E-A-R are just a finishing touch - the key issue is those Neuance shelves (or something similar) - I have not tried Ken's new version for heavier components.

By the way JD - are you using the SA102s bridged, or bi-amping? There are downsides to using Plinius amps in balanced or bridged modes.