Any Jeff Rowland owners?

I love the design of the new gear. Haven't had the chance to hear it though. You live in a beautiful town. I've been to L.J. many times. Wonderful place...
 
I run the Rowland 625 power amp (latest version) which sounds superb in combination with the Audia Flight Line and Phono preamps driving Piega C10 Ltd. speakers. The 625 uses a class A/B output stage with a power factor corrected switched mode power supply. :D
22.jpg
 
My Concentra 2 is now in a friends system, along with my Rega P9. I still get to hear them. What a great integrated! The internal phono board is excellent, too.
 
Thanks for starting this thread, Davey!

Long time owner of a Model 8TiHC amp. Superb sounding even after so many years, and responds beautifully to Shunyata Anaconda PC.

Davey, curious what the top plate and choke mods are?

Rick, Bill, great picks on JRDG gear! :cool:
 
Hi Davey, what an excellent idea you had to start this watering hole for Rowland owners on Audioshark!

I am proud owner of a pair of M925 monoblocks, a Criterion linestage, and -- as of two weeks ago -- of an Aeris DAC.

In the past I had M725 monos, M625 stereo (original version), M312 stereo, Model 7 monos, and Capri (original version) preamplifier.

I have started a thread here on Audioshark where I have logged my break-in experience with M925:

http://audioshark.org/amplifiers-8/experiencing-rowland-m925-monoblocks-2360.html

Saluti, Guido
 
At Raidho we have often used electronics from Jeff.. We have on Shows used most if his electronics with great success.. We got the " best sound on the Show " this year both at the CES on the Munich Show.. Do we love his electronics... Absolutely yes.. :)
Lars
Raidho
 
Hi Lars, in fact at RMAF 2014 Rowland featured the new Continuum S2 integrated driving a pair of Raidho D1s using Cardas Clear Beyond speaker wires... I visited the suite several times... The music was magic.

Saluti, Guido
 
The Raidho/Rowland combo at RMAF was outstanding. One of the best sounding rooms.
 
I am looking forward to hearing the 625 and 925. I like Rowland amps and am happy they are making amps without the ICE power supply.
 
Hi Bruce, the only current Rowland amp that still uses ICEpower power conversion technoloogy is the new entry level M125 bridgeable amp, which is based on an enhanced 125ASX2 module.

The M625 midrange stereo amp is based on a class A/B circuit... The top end M825 and M925 amps have Ncore technology in the output stages, while the Continuum S2 integrated uses a Pascal module.

Interestingly, the Continuum S2 that Mike and I heard at RMAF, had less than one week of music on it, and yet it sounded great already.

Guido
 
GuidoCorona said:
Hi Davey, what an excellent idea you had to start this watering hole for Rowland owners on Audioshark!

I am proud owner of a pair of M925 monoblocks, a Criterion linestage, and -- as of two weeks ago -- of an Aeris DAC.

In the past I had M725 monos, M625 stereo (original version), M312 stereo, Model 7 monos, and Capri (original version) preamplifier.

I have started a thread here on Audioshark where I have logged my break-in experience with M925:

http://audioshark.org/amplifiers-8/experiencing-rowland-m925-monoblocks-2360.html

Saluti, Guido
Click to expand...
Guido,

I am so jealous of your Criterion pre. I would love a battery powered JR preamp...
 
Hi Allen, do you live in an area with particularly dirty AC? If you do, a Corus linestage with the upcoming Rowland PSU supply will give you at least the same isolation from AC grundge as batteries, but with probably better macro/microndynamics. PSU should be released soon... It is based on ultracapacitors and will deliver continuous DC to Corus and/or Aeris without requiring a recharge.

But if your power were relatively reasonable, like in Austin where I live, the SMPS in Corus or Criterion performs identically to the bateery supply... And in fact makes these devices largely invariant to upmarket power cords.

Saluti, Guido
 
What I really love about the new Rowland electronics is, that they all have a much more black background to the music.. much more black than most of the High-end electronics we have been using together with our speakers.. We are happy that you found the Rowland and our D-1 sounding outstanding at the RMAF Show.
Greetings from Hanoi.. Vietnam..
 
GuidoCorona said:
Hi Bruce, the only current Rowland amp that still uses ICEpower power conversion technoloogy is the new entry level M125 bridgeable amp, which is based on an enhanced 125ASX2 module.

The M625 midrange stereo amp is based on a class A/B circuit... The top end M825 and M925 amps have Ncore technology in the output stages, while the Continuum S2 integrated uses a Pascal module.

Interestingly, the Continuum S2 that Mike and I heard at RMAF, had less than one week of music on it, and yet it sounded great already.

Guido
Click to expand...


Greetings Guido,

Would you happen to know what the key differences are between the Continuum S2 Integrated and the earlier Continuum C-500? Cosmetically at least the product looks similar. How is the S2 an advance over the C-500?

I raise the question because several years back I auditioned (twice) and reviewed (twice) a C-500. While I admired its high fidelity abilities I felt it struggled to get music out - leaving me emotionally detached and unsatisfied. I wrote at that time that the C-500 demonstrated an almost complete absence of soul incision and/or emotional nuance in the music. Further, I also felt that the Jeff Rowland amplifier whilst delivering amazing vocal articulation did not capture the 'body' of the vocal. There was if you like a fantastic high resolution outline to vocals but no real ‘density’ to them. Density in this instance should not be confused with soundstage depth. Whilst the Jeff Rowland exhibited brilliant depth abilities, density referred to here revolves around the ‘body’ most notably of the vocal image itself.



Thanks!
 
Hi Kiwi, did you review C500 or C250? The C250 lacked a PFC unit which helps to protect the ICEpower module from residual grundge and ripple... Hence C250 would sound a little sterile, somewhat like the M201 mono amplifier.

C500 did have a PFC unit, which was however different from the one found in the M312 stereo amp.... For some reason, the 312 sounded always amazingly musical, with instrumental and vocal images fully alive and fleshed out with harmonics and microdynamics (at least compared to its contemporaries), while C501 did not seem to reach the same degree of refinement, and could not yield the same emotional involvement to me... Yes, I heard them at length in the same system during the same session.... Rest of system was a Boulder CDp, Capri (original) on M312, and Vienna Die Muzik speakers. It is possible in theory that C500 may be handicapped in some way by the bank of output capacitors post power conversion module... They were designed to enhance authority and macrodynamics, but they might have been slightly detrmintal to subtlety.

Furthermore, C500 required a complete break-in of about 600 hours, before which it would sound sterile and hard.

You are correct also that the casework of Continuum S2 is based on the original C500. Internally things are entirely replaced/redesigned.... Different PFC unit, ICEpower is gone in favor of Pascal technology, different transformer coupling, and the preamplifier circuitry is that of the new Capri S2, which is very different from the original Capri.

There is a CS2 section on the Rowland Knowledge base where you will find 20 short articles with some more information:

Continuum S2 Integrated

Bottomline is that I had some reservations about the performance of the original C500, while what I heard at RMAF 2014 from Continuum S2 and the Raidho D1s -- particularly on the third day (Sunday) -- was magical.

Guido
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top