Rowlands

They seem like a very low keyed business . None of the dealers in my area have ever sold there gear and reviews are few and far between . The word around our audio club is that they sound excellent in some systems and poor in others .

rowland equipment has a refinement in its build quality and its sound that is, at least to me, somewhat "european" in effect. you look at the beautiful internal layout of the new 625 amplifier on the web site, and then you go hear it on a really top-notch pair of speakers, and what you may find is a very relaxed quality but with emphasis on very subtle details.
And every time i went to the dealer to hear an amp or a preamp i was
probably more frustrated than coming away from other stores; there was little leeway on the price and at the same time a tremendous motivation on my part in trying to figure out where the heck i was going to find the money. a good example of this is when the model 8 stereo amp came out at over $12k when other top brands were going for $7k-$9k. and then the rowland 9 monoblocks were as massive as they were completely insanely priced at the time they were made available. i never got to even hear them as a result (a shame). as such many of us will never experience that level of performance, and then time moved on and JRDG had to, instead of building on that theme, turn elsewhere and see if they could get the job done without the elegance and expense of those huge gleaming boxes.
so as they have struggled with trying to make the very best components possible, so have the rest of us struggled with trying to keep up with the price structures that rowland gear demands. i would love a criterion preamp but i had to settle for something else in the meanwhile costing far less, but that still has excellent sound.
maybe someday...

I heard than Coherence II and 9T monoblocks was the best Rowland pair ever. And that many prefer older Rowlands anyway.

oh, i forgot to mention... i had at one time a Rowland Consonance preamp with Phono (a demo piece) that was a pleasure to own, especially when JRDG issued a new line stage module (just plug it in, no tools or solder necessary) that improved the sound another 25% (for a mere $450). i later upgraded to the Consummate Preamp that i was also extremely happy with. i had wanted as i mentioned before an amplifier but as the Model-1 had only 60 watts and the Model-8 was completely out of reach i had to look elsewhere. anyone out there with a M8-TIHC might weigh in here why anyone would, even now, need another amplifier. on the other hand Jeff's obsession with battery power (if you wanted this option it would cost even more) unfortunately
robbed the 8 and 9 of some dynamic capability, not to mention having to get new batteries every so often from the company (rather than from multiple sources).
but then again I never got to hear what Jeff felt was the very best sound he could squeeze from these designs. and all but the wealthiest patrons of this hobby were left to wonder what his concept of state-of-the-art could do for their favorite music.
i guess if you had THAT much money you were probably into hand-built tube equipment and turntables with impossibly-exotic cartridges.
but THEN you had to limit your musical choices to string quartets played on wussy speakers built to make the most of five watts... (just kidding).....
To conclude, if you have ANY Rowland gear IMHO you're in VERY good shape and getting to hear your music as well as anyone might want.

Could not have said it better myself French_Fries (grins!) .... By the way, have you ever considered Corus instead of Criterion? Corus pre should sound very close to Criterion, unless you happen to receive very dirty AC in your home, and it is quite a bit less expensive than Criterion. And do not exclude the little Capri pre .... According to Rowland, Capri sounds better than any of the pres he has designed before, and I have much preferred it over my own ARC Ref 3 for most parameters.