Improving the stereo sound performance of an AV system

Having been disappointed by the stereo performance of his AV receiver, a customer of ours recently requested a single-brand system (for the electronics, at least) that offered streaming as a primary source, but would also allow connection of a turntable at a later date plus a couple of AV sources.  The customer thought reverting to a two-channel system was his only option to get his enjoyment of music back, and he was willing to accept losing the surround sound feature if he had to, but only if the replacement system combined the refinement that was missing from the AV receiver with clarity and punch, plus had sufficient firepower when in movie mode.

Our minds gravitated towards Plinius electronics – specifically the Tiki network audio player, Kaitaki pre-amplifier and P10 Power amplifier.  Our reasoning here was due to the Kaitaki sporting both a phono stage and a Home Theater Bypass mode, whereby the amplifier is effectively running as a stereo power amplifier with signals coming through this input bypassing the volume control. Connection is made via the front left and right pre-amp outputs of the AV receiver to the HTB input, leaving the receiver to handle the centre and surround channels, multi-channel decoding and video switching. Channel levels and any room correction features are then performed via the AV component’s auto or manual set-up processes, to ensure volume levels across all channels are correctly balanced. Additionally, the P10 is something of a power house, so it seemed ideal.

Past experience has taught us that the New Zealand based brand has worked very well with Spendor loudspeakers amongst others, so in came the floor-standing D7.2.

Once connected with The Chord Company’s Signature series interconnects and speaker cables – and nicely warmed up – we decided to run an extended listening session prior to the customers’ visit, as we wanted to ensure it was sounding well and to also take the opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with how Plinius and Spendor work together, given the recent updates to the ever popular D7 loudspeakers.

In the event, we were treated to some very pleasing sounds playing files both from our own music libraries and from Tidal & Qobuz. We began with Bob Marley’s Is there love, where vocals were crystal clear and a joyously lazy bass line drove the music along. We followed this with You never give me your money from the Beatles’ Abbey Road album.  Here we heard beautifully-layered vocals, and lovely fuzzed guitar, while Sun King treated us to a strong bass line and rich textures.

The system also clearly revealed the superiority of high resolution files, one example being Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto (24 bit/96kHz Flac) with Sebastian Bohren/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RCA Red Seal). The violin’s string tone and expressiveness in this piece was to die for, and the sense of real acoustic space was obvious, with the orchestra beautifully layered out behind the D7.2 loudspeakers.

Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No 8 in D Minor (Bryden Thomas/London Symphony Orchestra) sounded excellent also, but being a standard 16 bit 44.1kHz file did not have quite the open and realistic spaciousness of the Britten recording.

Finally, playing the Mozart Flute Concerto in G K313 (Scottish Chamber Orchestra) the system reproduced the flute with such assured fluidity and clarity it was a pleasure to listen to. Furthermore, the strings sounded sweet and clear, while the acoustics of the recording venue were portrayed clearly and realistically.

To summarise the performance, regardless of musical genre our customer and ourselves were very impressed by what we heard here. Furthermore, the AV system will almost certainly improve as a result of the upgrades in amplification and loudspeakers on the front channels, but a home trial to confirm suitability with the current AV receiver and room are to follow.