Rowland Synergy IIi, Cadence and BPS-1

I have a synergy , cadence and bps. There is apparently more than one version of the bps. There is a one chassis unit or a two chassis unit. I have a two chassis unit which consist of a charger block and a battery unit. The connection of the synery pre amp remains the same. The bps connects to the top unit of the synergy where you would normally plug in the cadence. I was told to disconnect the power cord to the synergy. There is a outlet on the bps where you would plug in the cadence. The cable appears to be the same as the one that connects the two units of the synergy (does the bps not come with the proper cables?) You could e mail rowlands and they will confirm it with you.

Thanks for the reply. I am considering purchasing a BPS-1 and will talk with the seller tomorrow. I think the one I am purchasing is a one chassis unit. I was just trying to make sure I didn't need to purchase any new umbilical cables or power cables. Your set up makes sense to me, ie. plug the cadence into the back of the BPS and plug the BPS into the slot where the cadence went on the Synergy IIi power supply. Then plug the BPS into the wall and disconnect the Synergy IIi power supply from the wall AC.

DId the BPS make a big difference in sound quality compared to without it? Did it make improvements in your vinyl set up with the Cadence?

There are three ways you can operate the bps. There is a power button on the battery unit. You can run the synergy with the power cord on the bps, with the power button off, with the power button on and with the power button on and the power cord pulled off the wall outlet. It sounds alot better with the power cord pulled off. It sound cleaner, more natural, with more detail and greater dynamics. I noticed this with both vinyl and digital. If you are going to listen to your system seriously, this is the only way to go. As a side note, I had to send the charger unit back to Rowlands for repair. It kept on overheating and shutting down. Also, you should check if the battery needs to be changed or not.

Thanks for the further info. I'm excited to try it out. Another quick question - when you were going on exclusive battery power with the unit unplugged from AC, how many hours did it stay adequately charged for listening? When it was plugged in but you were using battery power, did the batteries stay charged while listening, or did the listening sessions surpass its charge (even though plugged in)?

My listening sessions usually last for about a maximum of 3.5 hrs.This is both with the power plug and unplugged. I think Rowland said if you run the bps totally off the battery (ie unpluged), you should be at least be able to play it for 2 hrs or it is time to change the battery. I recently had a technician change all the batteries in my unit and it cost me about $260. My unit had 4 batteries. The single chassis may have different type or number of batteries.

Thanks again for all the info. The BPS-1 should arrive today. I'll charge it today and try to set it up tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

Well the unit arrived. I have the unit hooked up to AC power and have it correctly hooked up to the Synergy IIi and the Cadence phone pre. Both are powered up and running with AC.

With the BPS-1 getting AC power, both the 'full' green light is on and the blue 'AC' light is on. It says in the manual, that when the green light is on it
means that the batteries are at least 50% charged. After about two hours of
charging I pushed the mode button to the battery selection and the unit quickly powered off. I followed the manual instructions and pushed the mode button down for five seconds to reset the supply and power handling, and the unit powered back up on AC. Again after a couple of hours I tried to switch to battery mode and the unit immediately powered off and then went back to AC.

I'm guessed the batteries were fully discharged and needed more time to charge up, but with the green light saying 'full', the manual states that the
batteries are at least 50% charged. Il let it set overnight and charge, but
the same thing will happened again this morning and the battery
mode won't function.

The seller said the unit had new batteries. I'm confused even older batteries won't even hold a few minutes of charge after an all night charge-a-thon.

Thanks in advance for any info or ideas out there....

Sorry to hear about your problems. I bought my bps used and never received a manual with it. With my unit only the green light is on. The batteries in my unit were almost dead when i bought it. It would play for 1/2 hr before 1 would lose a channel. There are 4 batteries in my bps with 2 batteries powering each channel. The technician who changed my batteries said that 2 of them where in really bad shape and the other 2 were ok. Thus it seems strange that your unit won't even switch to the battery mode. Did the seller change the batteries himself? If so, did he do it properly? Your best bet is to contact Rowlands directly.

I have a Synergy IIi hooked up to 2 70 amp-hour UPS batteries that I purchased for $60. The preamp can run for days without requiring a battery charge. The sonic improvement is substantial.

What BPS is for the Cadence? BPS-1? Can someone post a Picture of it, I never saw one. I heard also, there is a BPS for Cadence which looks like the BPS-2 but has different Batteries and different Charge Control?
Someone out there who has seen one of these?

Syntax, email me at [email protected] and I can send you some pics.