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Post by electronumpty on May 5, 2024 16:26:41 GMT
Nice one, always good to hanker after something and get a fair price for a good example of it. Looks great! Hope the Spender chase works out. 👍 Nice one Andy, you've crossed my mind a fair few times, been a while and hope you and yours are keeping well. Hopefully we'll catch up by mine at some point, for some tunes and system evaluation, before the summers out Cheers mate , a catch up long overdue! Would love to hear your new amp once you have got it all settled.
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Post by robbiegong on May 5, 2024 17:38:53 GMT
Nice one Andy, you've crossed my mind a fair few times, been a while and hope you and yours are keeping well. Hopefully we'll catch up by mine at some point, for some tunes and system evaluation, before the summers out Cheers mate , a catch up long overdue! Would love to hear your new amp once you have got it all settled. Yep, and you've heard the excellent Spendor D7 here, they'll be the D7.2 when you come - you in for a treat!
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Post by antonio on May 27, 2024 9:10:42 GMT
Any updates and photos of the Spendor 7.2's?
Are you still enjoying the new Plinius?
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Post by robbiegong on May 27, 2024 10:18:53 GMT
Hey Dave, I've been mad busy with all sorts and hoping to properly update my blog with a comprehensive update at some point.
But for now and in a nut shell, after almost 2 weeks with the Hautonga, it simply wasnt for me. On initial fire up it sounded promising, but as time went on it was clear that Plinius had completely changed the voicing of the Hautonga, compared to the 9200.
Where the 9200 is pure, organic, dynamic, as musical and analogue as you like, the Hautonga's presentation I found to be way too hard, muscular, aggressive, to the point of grating, it was as if the music was coming out of a foundation of granite and so it was returned. I immediately pulled my 9200 from sale and thank God it is plumbed back in, it is too good to get rid of, I enjoy it way too much and that close shave has certainly made me appreciate the 9200 even more.
I havnt picked up the D7.2's as yet, as I was hoping my D7's would have sold by now so I can free up the space. I'm hoping to collect them by the weekend, whether my D7's have sold or not, they can go in the hallway 'til they sell, Mrs wont be happy but I cant leave them with the seller indefinitely, I need them here and dying to get them connected and playing.
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Post by macca on May 27, 2024 11:21:12 GMT
That's a turn up. I did wonder if you'd reject the Hautonga for not being significantly different from what you already had, but I didn't expect you would sack it off for not being as good.
Sadly no measurements seem to be published anywhere for either amp so what they changed will remain a mystery.
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Post by misterc on May 27, 2024 11:33:42 GMT
Interesting the pair (9200/H) I have hear are very similar with the H being a touch more refined with a bit more slam, but otherwise definately from the same pod!
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Post by stevew on May 27, 2024 11:38:18 GMT
Hey Dave, I've been mad busy with all sorts and hoping to properly update my blog with a comprehensive update at some point. But for now and in a nut shell, after almost 2 weeks with the Hautonga, it simply wasnt for me. On initial fire up it sounded promising, but as time went on it was clear that Plinius had completely changed the voicing of the Hautonga, compared to the 9200. Where the 9200 is pure, organic, dynamic, as musical and analogue as you like, the Hautonga's presentation I found to be way too hard, muscular, aggressive, to the point of grating, it was as if the music was coming out of a foundation of granite and so it was returned. I immediately pulled my 9200 from sale and thank God it is plumbed back in, it is too good to get rid of, I enjoy it way too much and that close shave has certainly made me appreciate the 9200 even more. I havnt picked up the D7.2's as yet, as I was hoping my D7's would have sold by now so I can free up the space. I'm hoping to collect them by the weekend, whether my D7's have sold or not, they can go in the hallway 'til they sell, Mrs wont be happy but I cant leave them with the seller indefinitely, I need them here and dying to get them connected and playing. Interesting. I’ll never forget this system which was easily the best I’d heard up to that point at a show. Of course I’ve forgotten where the hell it was. Wam show 2012 ? Maybe
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Post by stevew on May 27, 2024 11:41:20 GMT
Funny how these things can date. An iPod transport ?! What’s that grandad?
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Post by robbiegong on May 27, 2024 12:20:31 GMT
Hey Dave, I've been mad busy with all sorts and hoping to properly update my blog with a comprehensive update at some point. But for now and in a nut shell, after almost 2 weeks with the Hautonga, it simply wasnt for me. On initial fire up it sounded promising, but as time went on it was clear that Plinius had completely changed the voicing of the Hautonga, compared to the 9200. Where the 9200 is pure, organic, dynamic, as musical and analogue as you like, the Hautonga's presentation I found to be way too hard, muscular, aggressive, to the point of grating, it was as if the music was coming out of a foundation of granite and so it was returned. I immediately pulled my 9200 from sale and thank God it is plumbed back in, it is too good to get rid of, I enjoy it way too much and that close shave has certainly made me appreciate the 9200 even more. I havnt picked up the D7.2's as yet, as I was hoping my D7's would have sold by now so I can free up the space. I'm hoping to collect them by the weekend, whether my D7's have sold or not, they can go in the hallway 'til they sell, Mrs wont be happy but I cant leave them with the seller indefinitely, I need them here and dying to get them connected and playing. Interesting. I’ll never forget this system which was easily the best I’d heard up to that point at a show. Of course I’ve forgotten where the hell it was. Wam show 2012 ? Maybe Thanks for the share Steve. There's a whole lot of love for the earlier Plinius integrated amps, the 9200 is a cracker, Plinius had the sound signature spot on IMO/IME, power, depth, rhythmic, dynamic, detail, cohesion, musical and as analogue as you like, draws you into the music, a natural amount of smoothness and warmth, being A/B, heavily biased to class A. They should have never veered from that as it was what made their integrated amps a joy. Their current integrated offerings, Hautonga and Hiato have moved away to a very different cooler, harder sound which isnt for me.
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Post by misterc on May 27, 2024 12:29:45 GMT
Thanks for the share Steve. There's a whole lot of love for the earlier Plinius integrated amps, the 9200 is a cracker, Plinius had the sound signature spot on IMO/IME, power, depth, rhythmic, dynamic, detail, cohesion, musical and as analogue as you like, draws you into the music, a natural amount of smoothness and warmth, being A/B, heavily biased to class A. They should have never veered from that as it was what made their integrated amps a joy. Their current integrated offerings, Hautonga and Hiato have moved away to a very different cooler, harder sound which isnt for me. Robbie
I would suggest that the amp you have have may have an issue, the 9200 & H I have here are very similar with the H just a touch more refined and slam incisive BUT no way hard at all seriously none of the Plinius equipment is hard at all.
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Post by antonio on May 27, 2024 12:29:53 GMT
Sorry to hear that Robbie, I'm surprised in the same way as Macca. If the 9200 is performing how you want, well there's no need to change ( don't go and listen to Audionet amps ) Lets hope Spendor haven't done the same with their .2 upgrade. We've got a pair of Estelon's in our hallway, luckily it is fairly wide being a Victorian property.
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Post by robbiegong on May 27, 2024 13:10:34 GMT
Thanks for the share Steve. There's a whole lot of love for the earlier Plinius integrated amps, the 9200 is a cracker, Plinius had the sound signature spot on IMO/IME, power, depth, rhythmic, dynamic, detail, cohesion, musical and as analogue as you like, draws you into the music, a natural amount of smoothness and warmth, being A/B, heavily biased to class A. They should have never veered from that as it was what made their integrated amps a joy. Their current integrated offerings, Hautonga and Hiato have moved away to a very different cooler, harder sound which isnt for me. Robbie
I would suggest that the amp you have have may have an issue, the 9200 & H I have here are very similar with the H just a touch more refined and slam incisive BUT no way hard at all seriously none of the Plinius equipment is hard at all.
That did cross my mind Tony, it was brand new, sealed box, but maybe it needed more than the few weeks on and off I had. The signature was defo cooler though and a bit too heavy handed for my liking. Coincidently, and not that I accept, 150% what hif mags write, Whilst what hifi loved the 9200, they were not quite as impressed with the Hautonga, for the reasons I've more or less expressed, summarising that for that reason they liked it but didnt love it www.whathifi.com/plinius/hautonga/review#:~:text=There's%20no%20denying%20that%20the,a%20lighter%20touch%20when%20required. Either way, the 9200 just does it for me, a lovely amp which does music in my experience.
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Post by robbiegong on May 27, 2024 13:13:33 GMT
Sorry to hear that Robbie, I'm surprised in the same way as Macca. If the 9200 is performing how you want, well there's no need to change ( don't go and listen to Audionet amps ) Lets hope Spendor haven't done the same with their .2 upgrade. We've got a pair of Estelon's in our hallway, luckily it is fairly wide being a Victorian property. Can only whole heartedly agree Dave, and lesson learned, that you can get a bit greedy in this game, in my case, hoping/assuming that an updated, revised version of what you have and love, will be even better - clearly isnt always the case or a guarantee in this game, and if it aint broke.....
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Post by antonio on May 27, 2024 14:49:32 GMT
I honestly thought the Hautonga would give you more of what you liked, sorry it didn't work out. Mrs Robbiegong is of course now rubbing her hands with glee and getting the holiday mags out.
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Post by misterc on May 27, 2024 16:03:59 GMT
All I am going to say here is they genuinelly need around 250-300 hours of a decent volume level top come on song from new.
Here they isn't much between them other than more detail and depth plus a bit more slam, but otherwise they genuinely have that warmer full bodied sound here they do using everything the same.
I'm guessing that was either Audio Lounge or Criterian?
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Post by robbiegong on May 27, 2024 19:41:06 GMT
All I am going to say here is they genuinelly need around 250-300 hours of a decent volume level top come on song from new. Here they isn't much between them other than more detail and depth plus a bit more slam, but otherwise they genuinely have that warmer full bodied sound here they do using everything the same. I'm guessing that was either Audio Lounge or Criterian? The 9200 does depth, detail and slam but to my ears it does it musically and naturally, I found the Hautonga's presentation too forceful, masculine. The 9200 is powerful and has that lovely, rhythmic bass authority that underpins the music, cohesive but dynamic too, with a sense of musical rhythmic timing, with a natural rhythmic flow, musical as heck, never fatiguing, whereas with the Hautonga it was as if I was being hit on the head with the music. Whether that was down to a lack of hours or not, I'll never know, (It remained on for about 12 days and nights, but wasn't played for long hours at a time, a few hours, each day, when I could) but whilst I tend to go by my gut rather than magazine review, I couldn't help thinking to myself, that I felt exactly as What Hifi had expressed, that the sound is too muscular, lacking balance / lacking finesse, that way. Whether What Hifi needed more hours on the thing too, we'll never know, either way, one thing is for sure, I could hear it, Plinius changed the sound signature, to one with an obvious and different flavour to the 9200, yes, power, bass authority remains but it's definitely a different overall sound flavour / signature. Plinius actually made the 'sound' or flavour known in their reviews and advertising, stating Plinius 'Hautonga', a native New Zealand Maori language for the strong and clean southerly wind... Some may like this presentation but for me the 9200's natural, organic, analogue voicing was/is right on the money, and more music as I know it. *EDIT - Important to add, and in all fairness, that whilst I didn't prefer the different Hautonga sonic signature, I detected, over that of the 9200, I do not believe for a minute that I heard the brand new Hautonga at its best. As Tony has pointed out, my suspicion is that it needed many more hours of good and proper playing time to really come on song, I'm actually in no doubt about that.
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Post by bencat on May 28, 2024 10:11:48 GMT
Just a suggestion for the future when auditioning new equipment or even an item that has not been used for while . Down load the Free Tara Labs Nova burn in file . It is an mp3 so add it as a track on your streamer or burn it to flash drive and play it from there . In the case of an amp leave it on at low level when you are not playing music and it accelerated the burn in quite a bit two or three days will show if things are going to change .
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