Jeff Rowland Criterion vs Soulution 720


Hi!
Somebody has experience of comparing of these two preamps? Now I have JR Criterion. Whether it makes sense to me to change it for Solution? Will it give something in respect of sound improving. The power amplifier - Jeff Rowland 302, loudspeakers - Magico Q3.
Michael.
grayling

Showing 6 responses by guidocorona

Hi Michael, I am very familiar with Rowland Criterion, own a unit and love it... But I am not familiar with Solution 720. However, it strikes me that Criterion is based on current Rowland architecture, while the M302 tends to show that it is 3 generations old, and may constitute a performance bottleneck... Are you sure you want to replace Criterion instead of M302? I am concerned that even if the Solution 720 were a substantial improvement over Criterion, M302 would remain a limiting factor in your total system performance.

Regards, Guido
Hi Grayling, what is your budget for a replacement of the Rowland M302? Depending on your budget, I have a few ideas that are consistent with the power of M302 and with the kind of sound that I hope to get from an amplifier. Let me know!

Guido
Hi Grayling, Rowland has a new stereo flagship amp, called Model 825, which fits your $30K budget. M825 is a two chassis SS amp with a total weight of $160. This means that the power supply is in a separate chassis. Power is 400W into 8 Ohms and 750W into 4 Ohms. The power supply appears to be a massive 2400W creature fed by its own PFC rectifier. M825 is the stereo version of the M925 monoblocks (which I have on order). It is my understanding that M925 and M825 are the very pinnacle of Jeff Rowland's design. M825 will start delivering in a couple of weeks. These devices are 3 major engineering generations past M302, and all reports I have heard this far indicate that unlike the old M302, their sound is extremely emotionally involving... I can't wait to have my own M925 pair delivered!

Saluti, Guido
Arnie brings up a valid point, as he has direct experience with driving Magico speakers. Conversely, I base my own suggestion on personal 15 years of experience with various Rowland amps, including the M725, which has been favorably reviewed by Robert Harley on TAS driving Magico Q7.... But I have not tried M725 on any Magico speakers.

Furthermore, my suggestion of M825 is of necessity conjectural. While it would sound "reasonable" that M825 may outperform the M725 monos, the proof rests in a "pudding" that no one has "tasted" yet.

G.
Hi Melbguy, I can only make some conjectures, based on what I know about M925 and M825, which is not yet a great deal....

M825 outputs 440W instead of the 440W of the M925.... Furthermore, the external 2400W power supply of M825 serves two channels instead of one. I suspect that, as a consequence, M825 might deliver staging and images that are slightly smaller than M925, with perhaps some proportionally reduced authority.... However, the two devices are supposed to be otherwise internally quite similar except for the obvious differences caused by the stereo vs mono topologies... So I suspect that their sonic characteristics may be very close to each other.

As Corus supplies an output impedance of 60 Ohms, it will be compatible with either amps, and should not be a factor on the choice of speakers.

Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the Avalon Compass speaker... So it is difficult for me to make any meaningful guesses on a specific match of M825 to Compass.

Guido
Hi MelbGuy, when you get M825, please do share your experience with us... Be prepared for a long break in time... According to JRDG, M925 and M825 use very large input transformers, which may take a long time to achieve peak performance.

Guido