Roland Updating Service Question

I owned Model 6's and I am not aware of any updates available for the amps, but perhaps there are? Rowland for a time offered, for the Models 8 and 9, conversion of the battery power supplies into switching power supplies. In addition, base Models 8 and 9 could be upgraded to "ti" status. However, I am not aware of any such upgrades for the Model 6's. To what do you refer?

Given the high build quality of the Model 6/2 amps and fact that most were manufactured only ten years ago or so, it is quite unlikely that the caps on your amps need replacing - depending upon how many hours an amp has seen, caps can easily last 15 to 20 years, and often much longer.

Take the top off of your amps (after disconnecting the power cords and the battery power supplies, if you have batteries) and look at the caps - if any of them seem to be misshapen or look like they are leaking, then replace them. This can be done by any experienced tech and should not cost more than $500, and probably much less - unless there is something unusual about their design that I'm not aware of, there should be no need to ship them off to Rowland for something as simple as replacing caps.

Given the build quality of that vintage of Rowland gear, I would not be in a hurry to replace the resistors. As for the transistors, the close pair matching Rowland achieves is one of the reasons they sound so good and I would be extremely reluctant to fool with them. You would also be throwing away thousands of hours of break-in - one of the reasons DIY'ers try hard to find vintage tube amps is because of all of the hours on the transformers. The Model 6's cost $11.6k in mid-90's dollars ($16,800 with the batteries) in part because of the quality of their internal components - I'm not saying that they cannot be hotrodded with more exotic caps and resistors, but they don't need such work to be done anytime in the near future.

I drove Revel Salons, Dynaudio 3.3's and Vienna Acoustic Mahlers with my Model 6's.

I suggest that you ignore the advice in the manual about putting the amps in standby - while it is true that the input circuitry remains powered up in standby, the amps take hours to reach peak performance after being taken out of standby. My DartZeel is likewise said to sound just as good when powered up from standby, but neither it nor the Model 6's do - there is no substitute for 24/7 operation with solid-state gear in a high-rez system. In short, leave them powered up.

Last, the amps sound best when run from the batteries and in fully balanced configuration. Enjoy.

Audio Valve - he makes very good stuff. You'll enjoy the Rowland amps after running the Challengers - Model 6's layer space like a good tube amp. On chamber music, I really had a hard time distinguishing the Model 6's from my VAC Renaissance amps, which is remarkable when you think about it.

You'll have a chance to buy the BPS's - Model 6's with batteries come up for sale on Audiogon from time to time, and some owners will be willing to sell the batteries separately. If you pick up a pair, send them to Rowland for new batteries. It's only a few hundred bucks and then you're good to go for years of listening.