Rowen, an unusual audio company

**wisnon** · October 10, 2013, 12:11 PM

First off, it's Swiss.
2nd its the mid-high end market leader in Switzerland with a reported 25% market share
Finally, THEY ONLY SELL IN SWITZERLAND!

6moons industry features: HighEnd Suisse 2010

6moons industry features: HighEnd 2009 Zürich

Pity they sell only in Switzerland, though they will do individual export if you ask nicely!

They also have a fascinating new tweeter:
6moons industry features: Rowen's LMT

Rowen also mods amps, CD players and Dacs that they distribute:
DYNAVOX Guide 13

DYNAVOX Guide 13

I have the NADc375BEE ROWEN SWISS POWER and my dealer buddy told me that when it came out, they could not sell the upscale dual mono master's series M3 until that too was modded. It trounced the stock M3. The company owner Mr Aebischer told me that the mod (cost appox $600) makes the amp performing to the level of one costing 3 times more. Thus to his mind, the mod is a no-brainer financially speaking as its "only" 12% of the theoretical improvement. The essence of the mod is an improved preamp stage and negative output, explained below:
ROWEN - Negative output impedance

Other key philosophical positions he held was that bass reflex was a bad idea, nothing beats powered speakers, relays are SQ destroying in amps, and speakers should be designed according to dictates of house construction materials, ie dominant wood vs dominant concrete. For Mr. A, the real music is to be heard in inflection points when impedance dips to 1 ohm and less. That is when the amp must shine!

Very, very interesting company...I should make a blog of the stuff from memory, but it was over a year ago...

**joeinid** · October 10, 2013, 12:40 PM

Thank you Norman. Looks great. I'll check them out.

**wisnon** · October 11, 2013, 06:05 PM

Well I heard the LMT for the first time today in the Rowen room at the Son et sens Audio show in Montreux. Mmmmmhhh...yummy!
I had a good hour's listen to the A10 bi-active and the S10 passive. I prefer the S10 until they EQed the bi-actie and then it shaded the S10...the A10 has TWO LMT tweeters as its bipole and bigger woofers.

All that SQ and looks too from the S10.

The organiser promised to send me picture so I can do a mini-show coverage.