Jeff Rowland S2 Continuum in the house!

Thanks Bill. Very interesting. I was looking at the 625 today. The Rowland gear is gorgeous.


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I wish there was a published efficiency spec for the D3s. I know they required a lot of juice. My Pass Xs/XP30 was always 65-70+ on the pre. The Solution 530 was 75+.

What I would like to know is how is the overall tone, bass energy and bass texture/variance with the Rowland?
 
mdkim said:
I wish there was a published efficiency spec for the D3s. I know they required a lot of juice. My Pass Xs/XP30 was always 65-70+ on the pre. The Solution 530 was 75+.

What I would like to know is how is the overall tone, bass energy and bass texture/variance with the Rowland?
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I haven't had the opportunity to hear the D3s, but it sounds like Mike may be checking out the Rowland 625 with his D3s in due time...
 
audio.bill said:
I haven't had the opportunity to hear the D3s, but it sounds like Mike may be checking out the Rowland 625 with his D3s in due time...
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The new D3's are sounding wonderful. I'm delighted with them. None of the issues associated with gen 1. They are much more "a piece" then gen 1 D3. Now I have the speaker I was expecting when I made the big jump from the D1's.

As for amps? Who knows? I'm going to enjoy the Rowland and let it continue to break in. It sounds great and I'll give that little sucker a good workout for sure!
 
I don't find that the Roland S2 is lacking in power with the D3s. If you have to play the D3 extremely loud - yes it gives out. The D'Agostino monos have more juice. But - you can play the D3s loud enough that the Dag gives out too.

I really don't know if the Solution would fare any better than either the S2 or Dags. I have not tried them at home and I've never turned the D3s up near as loud at the dealer as I have at home.

Again it's very loud - >102db continuous.

The D3s can handle A LOT of power and are not efficient. But, truly guys, my Cary 211 w 70/110 watts does really good with 95+ db continuous.
 
Jock - I would be interested to know what your S2 volume reads at your normal to loud listening level. Depending on the recording, mine is 72-80. Maybe I'm just particular about that. I never like to see the volume that high. As you pointed out, 85.5 means zero gain from the preamp.

But then again, the SMPS should ensure (correct me if I'm wrong) that there is little to no compression at these higher volumes.
 
I'm in that same range.

Of course with the D'Agostino preamp we don't have any numbers for the volume, but we do know visually where the zero gain level is. And just eyeballing it, I'm within the same 85-90% of that level for normal listening. And that level is the same whether I'm using the Cary or the Dag monos.







Mike said:
Jock - I would be interested to know what your S2 volume reads at your normal to loud listening level. Depending on the recording, mine is 72-80. Maybe I'm just particular about that. I never like to see the volume that high. As you pointed out, 85.5 means zero gain from the preamp.

But then again, the SMPS should ensure (correct me if I'm wrong) that there is little to no compression at these higher volumes.
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Yes, that is at my listening position - 9-10' from speakers.

kiwi_1282001 said:
Thats interesting Jock. Perhaps your D3's are more broken in than Mikes and the initial stiffness of the drivers is the difference in your observations?

I really would have expected the S2 to have ample power to drive the D3's.

>102dB continuous is extremely loud. If that measured at your listening position the speakers are actually pushing out over 110dB.
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All, besides new D3s likely having stiff drivers hence being somewhat less than responsive, a CS2 with only sevral hours on it generates a fraction of its eventual authority . In the case of my M925 monos, authority developed over several hundred hours. G.
 
Yes Guido - I am seeing the same thing. It's really sounding wonderful. So clean.


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The S2 might be staying. It has such a good synergy with the D3's and Ansuz. It's been running 24/7 and now has close to 100 hours on it.


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Mike said:
The S2 might be staying. It has such a good synergy with the D3's and Ansuz. It's been running 24/7 and now has close to 100 hours on it.


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What !?!?!?!?!?!? Says the guy with Hegel in his avatar.

Can this be true. You're not the Mike I know. What happened?
 
joeinid said:
What !?!?!?!?!?!? Says the guy with Hegel in his avatar.

Can this be true. You're not the Mike I know. What happened?
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Maybe try both? I really like this little integrated. Its growing on me.
 
The S-2 is a killer.. You have to try the DAC and you have a amp which easily outperform most pre-power compos...
 
Raidho said:
The S-2 is a killer.. You have to try the DAC and you have a amp which easily outperform most pre-power compos...
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Lars - you have surfaced! :) The demo unit has the phonostage in it. I use a Lumin streamer, so I would never use the DAC. But you are correct, it is the favorite amp in my house for the D3's.

Lars - what's your thoughts on Hegel with Raidho? On paper it looks like it would be quite good.
 
Personally I like the Hegel products alot... They make honest products .. Next month Michael will show our D-1 and X-1 together with Hegel at the Newport Show... So we are very excited to see how that works out.., In the past we have tryed the Hegel H 300 which sounded great on our speakers
 
I'm trying an S2 at the moment! Using it with my Moon MiND 180 streaming transport and Raidho C-1.1. I'm comparing it against my Devialet 170 (now Devialet 200 with the latest update). The drawbacks with my tests are that I don't have any speaker cables with spades and could only borrow some Transparent Musicwave cables. I also have a homemade power cable using Van Damme 2.5mm - better cable to arrive within the next few days hopefully. Digital cable is Transparent Reference XL S/PDIF. System is on an Entreq Tellus, and I also have balanced power supplies.
I don't know how much running this S2 has had but it's unlikely to be 1000 hours.

First impressions. Smoother than the Devialet, darker fuller bass. Resolution is a bit poorer. It's not as dynamic as the Devialet either. It is generally very good though and quite close. I'm not really sure which I prefer. the S2 is more laid-back and easier to listen to for extended sessions. It's definitely a bit 'darker' than the Devialet in literal terms of frequency end and also metaphoric sonic character.

The disadvantage the S2 has is the Musicwave speaker cables and I suspect this may be what's mutiing the dynamics. Transparent make great cables but the few times I've heard their lesser speaker cables I haven't been too impressed, and this is a near-bottom of the range cable. To do this justice I need to get better cables I think!
 
Hi Rufus, Rowland has used Cardas Clear and Clear Beyond with fabulous results on its components, including Continuum S2.... That is what they used at RMAF 2013.

While I have not had Cardas and CS2 in my system, I have found all my Rowland components to yield consistent magnificent synergy with Nordost Valhalla 2, as well as with Shunyata wires.
 
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