New Rowland Criterion 2-chassis battery pre

Here is one more tidbit, extracted directly from the specs published this far. . . the output impedance of Criterion is 60Ohms for both balanced and SE operations. This may imply that the device will be fully compatible with almost any amp you connect downstream, including tube amps with low input impedance.

LaPierre, I deem myself a social misfit when it comes to audio. I cheerfully object to the sound of most electronics for variety of reasons. . . tubed, SS, and switching alike. And when I conversely like a device or a product line, I do so independently from underlying technology.

As you may have read elsewhere, I am very partial to the current JRDG Capri, which in so many ways -- after a very long and patient 800 hrs of breakin -- has taken what I dearly love in my Ref 3 in authority, lenearity, extension, detail, and harmonic texture, and pushed it a notch forward. What the Capri however does not do is to add an upper-bass-2-lower-treble euphonic glow to the whole. . . and for that I am grateful. If anyone is looking for this additive euphonic warm glow, characteristic of some tube designs, he may be disappointed by the pristine musical rendering of the Capri.

Knowing Jeff Rowland's mind set just a little bit, I can only venture to guess that the Criterion may very well push further in this direction of graceful sonic sculpting, and remain congruent with my own experience of live unamplified music. True or not? Difficult to say until I listen to it. . . but now I realize I am doing exactly what I promised not to do: speculating.

Please note that I use the term 'congruent' very deliberately, rather than 'faithful reproduction' or other facile platitude.

G.

i love jeff rowland's products starting from way back. my 1st "real" preamp was a consonance with phono built in. the phono stage was, for an extra $300, dead silent with MC. i "complained" to the dealer that it should not have sounded nearly so good for the money. and this was "old technology".
so this new preamp really gets my juices flowing. unfortunately, i had to go and read the excessive self-congradulatory description. "it's SO good that..." if the SYNERGY preamp had a battery option (which has never been reviewed so i wonder what THAT might have sounded like), then NOW, i frankly don't know how much more "whipped cream" you can fit on the pie-plate. i do like the easy availability of the nicads though, instead of the hard-to-get batteries he used to use. BUT i am really glad for the heads-up on this beautiful component.

The comparison that will matter is how it stacks up to the Coherence-II.

-Ed

Exactly Ed. The Coherence and Capri are Jeff's reference, which are high standards indeed. Talking to him, there's no way this will be a step backward, although I find it hard to imagine how he'll surpass the Capri.

Ed, have you compared the Capri and the Coherence-II?? I be really interested to hear about that.

Lapierre, please don't confuse JRDG's implementation of ICEPower with B&O's. The B&O base unit is just that, a starting point. Jeff improves on that in almost every way imagineable. It is indeed the foundation of his amplifier designs.

Also remember, the Criterion and the Capri are pre-amps, so there's no ICEPower unit in either.

Dave

Absolutely. I was referring to the ICEPower Power Amp technology but did need specify the pre-amps Criterion and Capri.

This is fascinating stuff to me...and I don't own JRDG components.