Any experience with ARC pre with Plinius?
 

I have a chance to get Plinius SA-103. I recently got ARC REF5 SE. Anyone heard or used this combination? Any thoughts or experience? Thanks.

I have used the Ref5SE with the SA-Reference.

I think it is a good combination but you might want to check your speakers' sensitivity and the output levels of your source as well.

I found the XDS1 output to be really high and in conjunction with my 90dB sensitivity speakers, I could not turn up the volume dial past 25 or it would get very loud. It was much better with my Phono amp.

I had a Plinius SA-103 for a short time; good sounding amp. It does however run extremely hot, even at idle.

Ivan, does it run hot even in class A/B mode?

I'd be curious to hear more experiences with this combo as well...

It ran way to hot for me in any mode.

I've been running a similar combo for some time now (SA-102 and a ARC LS-27), match made in heaven IMO !

while I have the '102' I've spent time with a buddy's '103' and when biased to A/B it runs cool as a cucumber.

Maybe the one I got had issues. :scratch2:

keep in mind Ivan if yours was biased into Class A at 'idle' is when it is 'hot' for running a load actually dissipates heat.

Doubt it. Mine is always hot in Class A even with no load.

The one I had was too hot to touch under load or not.

I just got to home audition SA103. Paired with ARC ref5, the mids and highs are sublime. Incredibly detailed and sweet at the same time. The bass, however, is not so controlled. But I am used to Krell bass:D

In A/B mode, it runs very cool even after couple hours. It feels cooler than MC601's at similar load. BUT, hit that A button, you can fry an egg on it. It gets extremely hot, even after 5 minutes.

Well, back to more listening:music:

How would you compare the sound between A and A/B modes?

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Ivan, are you sure you're not talking about the SB-301?

I have a SA-103 in my system and doesn't get hot at all in A/B mode. Tiny review is forthcoming. :)

Yes... I had the SB-301 and wound up returning it.

Plinius SA250 with ARC LS27.
Former Plinius M16 sounded harder and ARC LS27 loosened it all up a bit and got it smother.

In my experience, Plinius power amp and ARC Pre amp is a good combination.

Strange my SB300 runs cool enough to touch after 6 hours of continued play.

I haven't written a review yet as my reference source has been in the shop. However a micro review can be seen in my signature. :D

I'm using ARC Ref. Anniversary with 2 Plinius SA Ref. Monoblock and my friend is using ARC Ref.5SE with SA-103. We are very very happy with the combination.

I am considering to get a SB-301 but the heat issue maybe a deal-breaker. Do all the A/B Plinius sets have similar heat levels?

I'm not exactly sure about what you mean, but SA-250 runs not so hot with class B but very hot with A. (Egg boiling temperature)

the SB-301 does not get 'hot'.....warm at times but not hot. It shares the same circuit topology as the '102' albeit bigger transformer along with more output devices.