Rowland Aeri DAC: other users out here?

musicargyle

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Hi. Are there any other Jeff Rowland Aeris DAC users out there? I traded my Berkeley Alpha 2 DAC 7 months ago on Jeff's CES show unit. It took several hundred hours to open up and perhaps will need 1000 hours to reach full red wine ripeness. Thus far it proves to be magically holographic, organic, musical, with impressive low frequency abilities. Depending on the source material, images float within a very wide, deep and vertically impressive sound field. Depth is excellent and there is no hint a digital grain, harshness or digital artifact.

Compared to the Alpha 2 DAC the Rowland is a richer, more full bodied, and more 3-D in its manner. The Alpha 2 was simply less musical and a less well-rounded player.

I wonder if other find the Aeris better fed directly to a power amp sans pre amp? I have used mine thus so and find it a flatter, harder sounding DAC by a good margin. I my case w/ the JRDG Chorus pre, Rowland 625 & Revel Salon 2 , the Aeris is a silky DAC w/ music lovers in mind.

Question: Footers for the DAC? I have it sitting on a 3" maple block resting on a vert stout built in book case (2"x 6" framing w/ plywood back and hard wood shelfs. Nordost Sort cones vs Sill Points or....


Thanks for your input.
 
Hi. Are there any other Jeff Rowland Aeris DAC users out there? I traded my Berkeley Alpha 2 DAC 7 months ago on Jeff's CES show unit. It took several hundred hours to open up and perhaps will need 1000 hours to reach full red wine ripeness. Thus far it proves to be magically holographic, organic, musical, with impressive low frequency abilities. Depending on the source material, images float within a very wide, deep and vertically impressive sound field. Depth is excellent and there is no hint a digital grain, harshness or digital artifact.

Compared to the Alpha 2 DAC the Rowland is a richer, more full bodied, and more 3-D in its manner. The Alpha 2 was simply less musical and a less well-rounded player.

I wonder if other find the Aeris better fed directly to a power amp sans pre amp? I have used mine thus so and find it a flatter, harder sounding DAC by a good margin. I my case w/ the JRDG Chorus pre, Rowland 625 & Revel Salon 2 , the Aeris is a silky DAC w/ music lovers in mind.

Question: Footers for the DAC? I have it sitting on a 3" maple block resting on a vert stout built in book case (2"x 6" framing w/ plywood back and hard wood shelfs. Nordost Sort cones vs Sill Points or....


Thanks for your input.
I have the Aeris hooked up to a 825 stereo amp. I have tried it thru an Audio Research Ref 5SE and find that it works best on its own straight to the amp.
Using JRDG electronics will enhance its inherent synergy and it sounds smooth, detailed and generally wonderful.
I am still experimenting with a variety of resonance tools. The Stillpoints ss seem good, as do the Synergistic Research MIG's. Currently I have it on three Symposium rollerballs. They are all close but the Stillpoints seem to have an edge on my system.
Using the spdif is my preferred choice, the usb is limited to 96/24.
 
Aeris DAC after 800+ hours of listening: It was Feb.of last year I traded by Berkeley Audio Alpha 2 DAC for the Rowland Aeris. FYI, System is all JRDG electronics, Esoteric P 05 trans, Revel Salon 2's, Cardas Clear shotgun speaker & Audience AU24 SE IC & Power cables (vey close to JR's own set up.)
1st impressions were frankly underwhelming: Very smooth DAC but somewhat flat sound stage, so-so LF detail & control and otherwise pleasant sounding. The Alpha 2 by contrast had spatial details & 3D tricks up in spades that were hard to give up. Everyone who knew the two DACs were betting it would take +++ hours to "open up". I have always wondered if some part of the "wait and it will break in" dialogue is a matter of one's brain learning to accept the change's a new component bring to the system and not entirely the electronics actually breaking in?
Well lately, after a very long 600+ hour period and now almost daily, the Aeris DAC seems to have shed it's various layers of protective outer shell to reveal and deeply musical, transparent, liquid, detailed, spatially unrestrained digital tool which appears have almost mystically powerful abilities to weave musical information into emotionally complex expressive language. The machine is simply stunning in it's ability to make organic musicality and link the parts of the system into a powerful synergistic whole. The whole in this case being greater than the sum of it's otherwise very good parts. The take away for me is that the waiting and deep patience may often be a very real and necessary part of discovering the depth of a given machines' capibilities. In the case of the JRDG Aeris DAC I was becoming acceptant of it's merely good sound and lost sight of a "potential for greatness" that had been articulated by others. The wait seemed eternal but unlike any single bit of audio engineering I have owned in four decades of my music passion, the Rowland Aeris DAC exemplifies an stunning little package of musical magic that has transformed my enjoyment of the listening experience.
I realize other things too aged & ripened along side the DAC (cables, amp, speakers etc.) but taking the DAC in & out of the system confirms by sense.) Kudo's Jeff R.
 
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