Plinius Int 9200 or McIntosh 6600 for Dynaudio C1

02-08-11: Noelpastor
I used to drive my C1 with a Plinius 9200 and Accuphase CDP. It was decent synergy, but not exactly great. The C1 has a touch of darkish, warm sonic character. When paired with a warmish amp like the 9200 may push it to the edge, and you'll end up using cables to compensate the tuning.

Noted but I can't help but think that the experience might also have been different if a more neutral and higher resolving CDP with a bit more air was used.

I had the C1 with Plinius 9200 and DAC1 USB. The 9200 performed fairly well and gave the C1s adequate juice for my rather large room. I thought it was a bargain for its price, but the C1s deserve even better if you can afford it. The sound was neutral and very transparent, although the Dac1 still exhibited that midrange dryness that I disliked cuz the danes don't lie. :) It's going to be an amazing system if your source has a sound to your liking.
Haven't heard the McIntosh before.

Kiwi, I don't see why a better CDP should solve what Noelpastor described?
The Plnius amp has a specific sound, i rather invest in a better amp than another CDP.

The Accuphase DP500 that I have may be slightly on the warm side of neutral, but only very slightly. It is also quite resolved. I have other CDPs at my disposal including the well regarded CAL Alpha-Delta (heavily modded and NOS retubed). While the souped-up CAL is very good, the DP500 is more accomplished all around.

To me the only way to compensate the darkish pairing of the 9200 and C1 is to feed it with a really bright CDP.

03-11-11: Inpieces
Kiwi, I don't see why a better CDP should solve what Noelpastor described?
The Plnius amp has a specific sound, i rather invest in a better amp than another CDP.

A better CDP was not the point I was trying to make. Nothing wrong with the Accuphase per se. The point is that one often hears descriptions of "amplifier sound" which in many instances is really more correctly attributable to the character of the upstream hardware.