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Review 1 of 1
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from not yet Summary:
Plinius Odeon versus Classé CA-5200
I had invited my Classé dealer at home. We intended to audition both amplifiers not knowing which one was playing, listening to some different tracks, and then changing the interconnects respectively the speakers.
I beforehand can explain that I started first with the Classé, then changed to the Plinius Odeon. (Nothing was seen)
My dealer, who has 35 years of experience with high-end audio, and who also knows very well the sound coming from Classé and B&W, was completely out of his behaviour. Without seeing what amplifier was playing, (he first heard the Classé), he admitted that - whatever was playing - it was not that good sounding as he expected. After changing to the Odeon and listening to the same tracks again, he honestly told me that it was simply sounding better. How much better is another issue, let’s say between 5 % to 10 % ? According to my dealer, the Plinius sounded completelyer, fuller, more adequate, with some more bottem-end and mainly easier going into the upper midrange and highs. I can add to this that the Odeon sounds a little more musical, somewhat calmer, sweeter above 8 KHz. I particularly liked this a lot more with classical music. Its highs are also a bit more extended, giving the amp. a very detailed image and slightly warmer sound together with exact instrument placement while never going too wide or too small into any other matter. The Plinius bottem-end however, let’s say the basslines under 250 Hz, is somewhat on the heavy side, meaning that less booming or less bass-rolling (note that nevertheless bass is very well articulated and tightly controlled) in some lower frequencies might give this amplifier a less persistent “being there” feeling. I dit not feel this with the Classé, nor with the Plinius SA-Reference stereoamplifier that I also auditioned later this week. But of course this Reference amplifier is of a whole other pricetag !
As far as vocals or voices are concerned, with both amplifiers they come exactly from the middle as they should. But with the Classé they were a little more elegant and expressive, more present, nicely open too and with good coherence with the rest of the instruments.
The Odeon did not do any better or worser at that point. But I can be satisfied, after reading documents about the building-up history of the Odeon and all the rather technical stuff about close-miked recording techniques, I do have the idea that in the end, the Odeon really sounds great in every aspect. The Odeon has a rather “normal” spaciousness. I admired that, nothing was exaggerated but simply pure as it was intented while recording.
I even would like to make some suggestions to the technical staff at Plinius. I personally prefer this Odeon would get a little more warmer (hot to the touch, but not like the SA Reference) in order to put out some more watts into Class A. At Plinius they claim that only the fist 2 - 5 watts are biased into Class A. I guess with some goodwill and some real fine-tuning ánd with the SA-Reference sound in mind, this amplifier can even do a lot better. As people at Classé state that about 1/3 of the potential power of their CA-5200 is given into Class A, I would also like the same amount of Class A amplification from the Odeon. Strangely, the Classé does not generate remarkable heat at all. My Test-Plinius however definetely generates more heating. (Or they are not truly revealing their amount of Class A biasing in my demomachine…) If people (like me) are willing to place the amp. into a well ventilated aera, heat dissipation may not be a problem.
I suggest they make some more and bigger ventilation gates into the upperface plate just as on the Theta Dreadnaught amplifier. I wonder if the Odeon could not even reach almost the same high levels of presentation as their SA Reference amplifier does.
Another issue that somewhat bothered me was that the Odeon is not dead quiet. Not in the speakers, even without any connections made to it, not in the amplifier itself. I believe the 4 transformers make some dark noise, a sort of hum. This is fully in contradiction with the Classé which is completely silent in either ways.
Again, here I dare to suggest to better decouple the trafo’s, separate them from each other and eventually encapsulate each of them (or at least the towered couple) into a housing, even when the issue of some warmth developpement is to take into account.
One other very important and intresting suggestion may be the possibility to toggle on/off both the stereo channels
(FR+FL) separately from the other multichannels (SL+SR+C) with just one added button (eventually with extra led)
So this way I could use 2 channels for stereo, and if multichannel is the case, I could take the 3 other channels out of standby. If unused, the 3 channels just use current, get warm, make noise in the speakers and do nothing else at all. It would be a welcome feature to leave them in standby. Strengths:
All as specified above while concluding that I did prefer the Odeon over the Classé but at a very small amount and on a very personal base.
This choice could only be encouraged if at Plinius they are willing to accept some ideas, suggestions as to make things better as they already are.
I believe a smaller company as Plinius is able to do so. At Classé I guess they won’t even think or bother about it. Weaknesses:
None, while hoping at Plinius they are willing to follow my suggestions :
- better decouple and encapsulate the transformers for less hum and better noiseground in speakers
- change the pattern of the ventilationgates to allow better cooling from the top-plate
- extrapolate somewhat more biasing into Class A operation to about 50 - 70 W
- add an extra button to enable/disable 2 stereo channels / + 3-4 multichannel output + extra LED Similar Products Used:
Classé CA2200 + Preamp CP500
Teac Esoteric DV-50S
B&W Speakers Nautilus N803
Belcanto Design Pre6 pre-amp
Accuphase CX-260 pre-amp
MacIntosh C-45 pre-amp
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