Welcome folks, as we look at this lovely Plinius M16 preamplifier I’ve just repaired.

Plinius may not be a brand everyone is familiar with, but I can assure readers that this small New Zealand-based company has always made superb hi-fi gear. Plinius is the ‘other’ Perreaux, both NZ manufacturers, and both have always adopted a quality-first approach that is so often lacking these days.

It’s fair to say that Plinius has carried that mantle further than Perreaux though, who started incredibly well with beasts like my reference PMF-5150B power amplifier, but dropped the ball in more recent years after the death of their creator. Plinius, has just kept making lovely hi-fi equipment and I’ve worked on and repaired many classic Plinius pieces over the years. This gorgeous Plinius M16 preamplifier is no exception.

The most interesting, perhaps, and just one of hundreds I need to make time to write up, is the refurbishment of two lovely Plinius Model 10 mono power amplifiers I completed for their lucky owner back in 2019:

These epic power amplifiers are a bit older than the Plinius M16 preamplifier we’re looking at today, which hails from around 2000, but you get the idea: Plinius has never really messed around with puny gear or lightweight plastic chassis. Bravo to them.

Plinius M16 Preamp Specifications

Courtesy of the legends at HiFi Engine

Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz

Total harmonic distortion: 0.05%

Input sensitivity: 0.5mV (MM), 145mV (line)

Signal to noise ratio: 70dB (MM), 80dB (line)

Output: 0.5V (Pre out)

Dimensions: 130 x 490 x 340mm

Weight: 9.5kg

Accessories: remote control

Year: 2000

Features

So what makes the Plinius M16 preamplifier special? Well, it’s a class A design as all good preamplifiers are. It boasts superb construction quality, including premium fibreglass boards, polypropylene coupling capacitors, rugged TO-220 output devices for low output impedance, FETs for high input impedance, multiple regulated power supplies, ALPS potentiometers, an integral MM phono preamp and balanced inputs and outputs via premium connectors.

Phew, and yes, this is not your typical overpriced new plastic junk. This is a full feature set you see only on new equipment north of $10 – 15K AUD, so picking something like this up for say 1/5 of that price represents excellent value. No, it doesn’t have the build quality or performance of something like an Accuphase C-280V or later, but then not much else does, and the Plinius is more affordable. It has less to go wrong than an Accuphase C-280V, though, so there’s that.

Problems

That said, things can and do go wrong with equipment like a Plinius M16. Apart from needing a full overhaul at this age, as all warm-running equipment that stays powered on, even in standby, does. ‘Full-fat’ standby is a bad idea and something I’ve criticised before, as it kills equipment, like this Krell KAV-280 preamplifier. The difference is that this Plinius M16 isn’t filled with surface mount capacitors, and it’s a nicer preamp.

Shipping and/or possibly careless packing and unpacking can also cause problems with any piece of gear. This is why full insurance against total loss IS A MUST. Importing something like this M16 from Sweden and having it shipped to Perth is a risk.

It’s not clear whether it was because of improper packing, poor handling or a combination of both, but despite everyone’s best intentions, this Plinius M16 was damaged at some point, leading to her owner contacting me, and what you see in this image:

Now, you might wonder if this can be repaired, and the answer is yes, it can. Because the switch internals are destroyed, and they operate a logic-based toggling switch system, the preamp wouldn’t function at all with these broken switches, so we need to install new ones as a first step. There is no way to know whether this will fix things or if there will be more to do, but either way, we need to install new switches, and that’s a fiddly job. Let’s do it.

Repair

As always, I’ll start with a quick guided tour of this lovely Plinius M16. Thank you to Johnny @ Plinius for his support in helping keep these lovely pieces of gear alive, and for the technical data for this model.

The rest of my work here involved checking, testing, verifying, giving the switches and controls some much-needed TLC, and just validating the results of the work to make sure nothing else was needed.

Results

I’m very pleased to say that, after repairing the switch assembly and installing two new switches, this Plinius M16 preamplifier is back to life and now operates normally, responding to all control and remote control inputs and commands and sounding lovely.

This is a good example of doing exactly what was needed and nothing that wasn’t, to bring a piece of equipment back to life, for a very appreciative customer. Regulars will know that this is how I do things, and why we don’t ‘recap’ everything for no reason!

This unit, like any piece of equipment 25 years old and running warm and essentially on all the time, needs a rebuild/overhaul. I’ve explained that to her owner and he will consider his options now, but at least he can now use this beautiful Plinius M16 preamplifier in his system and enjoy her.

As always, thank you for visiting, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look at the beautiful Plinius M16 preamplifier. If you would like me to look at your Plinius M16, or any other piece of Plinius gear, I’d be happy to; just get in touch via our contact page.

Please like, subscribe, share, and I look forward to seeing you all again soon 🙂