Difference between JRDG Synergy II and Synergy IIi

The difference between the Synergy 11 and 11i is an amplification board that according to Jeff Rowland lowers noise and distortion . One of the ways you can tell if you have the 11i is the display is green. I have only heard the battery pack on the previous top of the line Coherence preamp. It seem to lower the noisefloor but to my ears it wasn't a significant improvement for the cost. My Rowland dealer told me that if you live in an area with exceptional dirty power that the battery pack was the way to go or otherwise the 11i would perform at the same level. Also, I'm not sure the battery pack is still in production.The Synergy 11i is an excellent ss design . I had both the Synergy 11i and the Cadance phono in my system and while I thought the 11i was excellent I was more impressed with the Cadance phono.

I have a Synergy IIi mated to a Model 10 amp. It doesn't seem to have any sonic signature of its own in my system. I can go directly from my DAC to the amp and it sounds the same as DAC to pre-amp to amp. At the dealer where I bought it, I could tell the difference between it and a Chord pre-amp, though. The Chord was kind of sterile while the Synergy IIi sounded natural. It is a very nice pre-amp. My only gripe is it doesn't have any single-ended inputs which forces you to use RCA to XLR adapters or get custom cables made. The build quality is phenominal, like all Rowland gear. The display and the discrete LEDs are available in blue as well as green. The blue display is the same one that is used on the Concentra II. I bought the blue version and like it a lot.

I don't think the battery supply is available anymore since the power supply unit also houses the volume display and the IR receiver for the remote control (both quite necessary). The power supply unit has an extra power output connector that is intended to power a Cadence phono pre-amp.

Nighthawk,

can i ask which Chord preamp you tried ?

Cheers

It was the Chord CPA 2200.