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Jeff Rowland Preamps

In the 90's I owned the Consummate Preamp, I sold it and I missed the later Designs. A few times I listened to Synergy Preamp at Demos but at that time there were so many different Rowland amps launched it was hard to say what was really going on. From my memory I think, in the 90's the Rowland sound was unique compared to others, what is going on today? Question to - current or former - Owners, what's your opinion about the Preamp models you use?
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jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
IMHO, Jeff Rowland hit the sweet spot between musicality and transparency in the mid to late 90's with the Model 2/6/8/9 amplifiers. Earlier designs tended to be warmer, while later designs tended to be more transparent. The best JRDG preamp I've ever heard was a Coherence II, which I think also went back to the late 90's. As for preamps, well, though Jeff's designs are good for solid state, I don't know that I can listen to a solid state preamp anymore, I gotta have tubes in my preamp.
That's just my $0.02.
mark_nz
48 posts
 
Previously used the Synergy IIi, and now the Corus. I like both preamplifiers a lot - both musical, low noise and fairly neutral. The Corus was a surprisingly step-up in detail, frequency extension and bass articulation.
okonrad
25 posts
 
Had the Synergy IIi for years and now the Criterion. Huge jump up in all the good stuff
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