I heard a pair of JRDG Model 10 about two years ago. If my memory serves me right; its sound was very transparent, lean and clean.... the analogy I had was liken to that of purified distill water. I found the 'emotional content' was a bit lacking.
Recently in the same system I heard the latest Model 302; these are very simliar to the Model 10's sound but much faster in transient and have this sensation that both ends of the frequency spectrum have been extend further than the older model. Tonally it is a little bit light yet powerful.... quite a contradiction but its performance is far more engaging than teh Model 10.
Finally a pair of Model 301 was substituted in place of the Model 302. These I was told are transformer coupled. Its sonic performance builts on top of the Model 301 by having a MUCH more robust sound right from the start. The speakers used with all the aforementioned models was a pair of Wilson W3P2. Although I cannot verified what the HK Chinese Review (can be found in the JRDG website) claiming that these monoblocks have the best bass response of all amplifiers. But it does go VERY deep and VERY fast if the source material allows.
Tonally the Model 301is warmer in sound than the other previous models. There is something quite magical about its sound.... at the moment I can only pin it down on that magnificant mid-range. Its neither solid state nor tube like in the best sense of the word (world?).
One final word, although these might not be high on the agenda of many audiphiles' buying criteria. But the aesthetics of these new Model 300s is simply superb. Its overall foot-print is smaller than the previous Model 8 and 9. And thank god for that! Now theseModel 300s can even reside in my humble hi-fi rig without much problem. According to the bumf, these are designed specifically to fit into a lot of AV systems' cabinets. I even showed a friend of mine who is writing abook on metal objects and he's going to feature them in his forthcoming book after seeing them in the flesh!
Now if only Mr. Rowland and team can come up with an equally superior sounding preamplifier that shares the same width of these Model 300s soon......
Recently in the same system I heard the latest Model 302; these are very simliar to the Model 10's sound but much faster in transient and have this sensation that both ends of the frequency spectrum have been extend further than the older model. Tonally it is a little bit light yet powerful.... quite a contradiction but its performance is far more engaging than teh Model 10.
Finally a pair of Model 301 was substituted in place of the Model 302. These I was told are transformer coupled. Its sonic performance builts on top of the Model 301 by having a MUCH more robust sound right from the start. The speakers used with all the aforementioned models was a pair of Wilson W3P2. Although I cannot verified what the HK Chinese Review (can be found in the JRDG website) claiming that these monoblocks have the best bass response of all amplifiers. But it does go VERY deep and VERY fast if the source material allows.
Tonally the Model 301is warmer in sound than the other previous models. There is something quite magical about its sound.... at the moment I can only pin it down on that magnificant mid-range. Its neither solid state nor tube like in the best sense of the word (world?).
One final word, although these might not be high on the agenda of many audiphiles' buying criteria. But the aesthetics of these new Model 300s is simply superb. Its overall foot-print is smaller than the previous Model 8 and 9. And thank god for that! Now theseModel 300s can even reside in my humble hi-fi rig without much problem. According to the bumf, these are designed specifically to fit into a lot of AV systems' cabinets. I even showed a friend of mine who is writing abook on metal objects and he's going to feature them in his forthcoming book after seeing them in the flesh!
Now if only Mr. Rowland and team can come up with an equally superior sounding preamplifier that shares the same width of these Model 300s soon......