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Rowland versus ARC

Anybody compare the products of these two company and have any opinions or favorites?

I realize one can be tubes and the other is solid state but I've heard Rowland has the warmth and musicality of tubes and the dynamic slam of SS.

What say you guys?

roxy1927
dev
832 posts
 

Two different animals and it's really going to come down to which actual pce you are making reference too, pairing up with - it's just not that simple but also personal preference.

I like tube pre's paired up with solid state amps, my preference being all tube if you have the right combo and speakers.

I have owned numerous Rowland - absolutely gorgeous pces, at the same time also owned numerous ARC absolutely stunning SQ wise.

Presently have a REF6 paired up with 75SE driving Avantgarde speakers, sounds marvelous.

 

tdimler
132 posts
 
One thing to keep in mind on the ARC pre-amps....if you are driving a subwoofer with your solid state pre, you're gonna be out of business with ARC.  They say the impedance of most subs is too low, and that trying to drive one alongside a stereo amp will be deleterious to sound quality. Sad situation as I would love to try an ARC pre with my Rowland 625 S2.
ricred1
1,976 posts
 
tdimler,
You make a good point about ARC preamps and their inability to drive a sub. Al(on Audiogon) told me that before and that’s why I ruled ARC preamps out...I have a JL Audio F112 sub.
gpgr4blu
1,077 posts
 
IMHO your speakers are fairly efficient and should respond well to a tube amp and preamp. I actually slightly preferred the ARC Ref 40 and Ref 150 over the ARC Ref 40 and D'agostino Momentum stereo amp after an in house weekend long test with Wilson Sashas. I was concerned about the loss of grip and slam with a tube amp, but the loss was so slight compared to the gains in the midrange and high end as well as the height, width and depth of the soundstage that I went all ARC. Of course, Rowland amps will be similar to D'agostino in liquidity and transparency with warmth--so you simply can't go wrong. 
serious7
9 posts
 
I sold my Melo's Ref. preamp and packed away my Monarchy DAC, so now I'm running the new ARC/DAC9 with the ARC6 into my old Krell KSA 150 amp which is wired to my Apogee Slant 8 electrostatic speakers. So I went from 4 Sovtec 6922 tubes to 10, 6h50 super tubes according to BAT. 
The new sound stage became much wider and deeper than the "above combo" that I had done away with. The only problem that I had, I noticed that I had lost some of the bottom end in my music. Since the woofers in my Apogee's are only 8ins. to remedy this problem, I threw in a 10" Velodyne subwoofer. I'm running XLR cables from the top to bottom in my system, so my XLR's cables running into my Krell from the ARC6, I pulled them out and they are now running into the subwoofer and now I'm running two new XLR cables out of the subwoofer back into my Krell. The verdict is in, this was a match made in heaven, everything blends in so perfectly, and I have no complaints. 
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