Ive known about JRDG for a long time. All I remembered was he was such a nice, easy to talk to person, like a regular guy. One year, I think it was 2016 RMAF , The amp in our Vapor Audio/Lampizator room gave up the ghost, and somehow we got a 625 S2 to mate with the Vapor Audio Perfect Storms as a backup. Lets just say the result of adding that amp, made me file JR in the back of my head if I ever decided to go SS, as at the time I was a staunch tube guy. Fast forward a few years and I decide to make a move for accuracy over musicality. I call up Jeff to ask about a model 112 for sale and to ask about how that model stacked up to him vs any others from the era. Long story short, he offered me a pair of his personal Model 12’s not much more than the guy selling the stereo amp wanted. It took 5 minutes in my rig to completely understand why the company has been around as long as they have, and to gain huge respect for the man and the designs. The amps were clearly sorted and I dindt need to analyze the sonics whatsoever any more. These are bearers of truth, lets move on to the next part of the rig. A month later, IO called Jeff back to see if there were any more 12’s hanging around. This time they came out of the company museum. So I now own and use a quad monoblock setup of Rowland Model 12 They are stunning and I can say I am a Rowland devotee. Now I have an admitted disdain for Class D amps. A bias thats not founded. Some of the early ones sounded crappy and I did not even like the idea of Class D. I still have this. Too many :" me too" companies sprouting up with the same module in a different box.
Axpona this year, the Rowland/Joseph audio room was one of the top sounding rooms for me.Amazing. Furthermore it was the Damon and it was a Class D !! WTF ?? If anyone can make a killer Class D amp, I would trust Jeff more than most. SO I asked him why he chose it. He explained and it made sense to me. So as I speak Ive got a new 535 here to demo and compare against a set of Model 12’s ....as in A/B listening.. I will post a video on You Tube under OCD-HiFi Guy. Lets see what the deal is here..
Also, Jeff is a non imposing gentle man. He does not blabbermouth. So if you judge a company based on what the threads are "talking about" on Audiogon, you just may be disappointed, some of the most popular Audiophile items are held up by marketing.
Cheers !
Mike
