Jeff Rowland preamps

Hi Dtanclim, I am among those who are very fond of the little Capri pre. You may have read elsewhere that in fact I have replaced the ARC Ref 3 in my system with the Capri. I do not have direct experience with the Synergy series devices, but have only the words of the designer--Jef Rowland--according to whom the Capri is his best sounding pre to date, barring Criterion. According to him, the key to Capri is the TI Burr Brown OPA1632 differentially balanced opamp, which has extremely high linearity, bandwidth, and low distortion. He designed Capri around this device, managing to achieve an extremely short signal path, which is also key to low distortion and purity of sound. According to JRDG, Capri is more extended, open and linear than any of his previous preamplifiers, without sacrificing any musicality. I admit that its amazing musicality is one of the reasons I prefer Capri over Ref 3. It is also worth pointing out though, that Capri does not attempt to emulate any stereotypical tube-like euphony. Feel free to msg/email me if you want to know more. Guido

Hello guys!
I have a Krell FPB-200c amp being driven by a Sonic Frontiers SFL-2 pre. I'm scouting for a JRDG preamp now to pair with this because a Krell pre is extremely hard to come by here (i don't want overseas items unless i get them personally).

Replacing an ARC Ref3 with a Capri tells about this toy's capability ;-) so i will be scouting for that. Any other suggestions for my setup?

Best wishes guys!

from Manila,
egay
.e.

Hi Guido, I am surprised how Rowland have managed to improve on the Synergy when it is so well built, separate power supply chasis, fully balanced, flexible, etc. in comparison to the Capri which is comparatively more compact and less costly. My feeling when the Capri was introduced is that it is an entry level preamp introduced by Rowland for the 102 power amp. As it seems the 501's or 201's do not have a corresponding preamp.

It may be entry level when it comes to where it stands in the JRGD product hierarchy, but it is anything but entry level when it comes to sound. A very nice preamp and for the used prices they have been showing up for here a bargain.

Hi Egay, the only recommendations I have about Capri is to:

1. use it in balanced mode if at all possible.
2. Allow a full break in of about 500 hours of actual music playing before critical listening.
3. Leave it always turn on unless you have stormy weather.
4. Turn down the volume knob to 0 if you need to do a 'reset' with the rightmost button. . . or you may hear a pop through the speakers.

Dtanclim, it is indeed remarkable and perhaps partially serendipitous how the little Capri came apparently to exceed all previous JRDG designs. . . it was one of those cases where the designer had a huntch "on spec". . . perusing a TI Burr Brown data book actually, where Jeff Rowland came across the extremely interesting specification of the OPA1632 module. . . and thought it would constitute the core of a nice little pre with very minimal signal paths. . . and it obviously did. In the mid 1990s, when Rowland designed the then state of the art Synergy, he designed it around the componentry available at that time. . . a decade has passed, and at least in some areas of technology, evolution is still meaningful.

Guido