Audiophilepure

If I were to read these impressions of the AVA M750 mono blocks before actually listening to them, I would be disinclined to review them. I’d also expect to not enjoy their presentation. They are not the presentation I usually seek out.  I would also say they’re slightly more intense sounding than the Pass amplifier. Intense sounds, as I use that term, are often coupled to a hot sounding component. These attributes would, I expect beforehand, to be three strikes in my world. Many of those attributes, perhaps all of them, disincline nuance and subtlety (versus a clear signature). This review helped underline to me that nuanced dynamics are far more important to me than a hammer hitting presentation.

I could see living easily and happily with these amplifiers, perhaps more happily than with my current reference amplifier. Sometimes excellent gear unsettles me, and the M750s certainly did, asking questions about my assumptions. Initially, I thought my review period would be on the shorter end of things, but I grew to appreciate and really enjoy what might be called an argument for a different presentation, one I’d previously disagreed with.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/plinius-reference-150-power-amplifier

The right button, labeled “Class A,” is for choosing between class-A and class-AB operation. In class-A, the LED lights. If I forgot to switch to class-AB after a listening session, the amp’s “Ecologic Control” reverted to class-AB a half-hour after I departed. The rear panel includes two pairs of speaker binding posts to facilitate biwiring (footnote 5), and one set each of RCA and XLR input jacks. Between them lies the previously discussed “amplifier configuration selector.” A power toggle switch, 15A IEC connector, remote trigger socket (for integration into a home theater/multimedia system; I didn’t use it), and a ground-lift toggle switch complete the back-panel layout.

The ground-lift toggle switch has two positions: ground lift and chassis ground. States the manual, “In some installations a hum loop may exist due to duplicate ground paths from different equipment. Use this switch to remove the connection from 0V to ground thus allowing some flexibility in your particular set-up, although when using Balanced XLR inputs, the ground lift switch should always be set to ‘chassis.'” Through experimentation, I learned that if you don’t switch to “chassis” when using XLR cables, hum is present at levels impossible to ignore.