Should i go Boulder 1060 or Jeff Rowland 625

+1 Vote for Rowland 625. Both do a great job, but to me 625 was a warmer, more holographic sound which I prefer. Boulder does feel the wider soundstage but touch less detail, felt a little thinner.

Tested both on Avalon, Wilson, MBL.

per my memory (was few months ago), boulder gear generally does not truly strut its stuff until the 20xx line, which was threw a phenomenal soundstage/imaging and detail with sashas. but i think theres a significant price gap.

Insomniac, I agree with your observation that the JRDG is warmer, but i'm suspicious about your pre-amp choice with the Boulder, and warm up time. Firstly, the Boulder requires 24hrs warm up (and to be left on 24/7) to sound it's best. 2hrs warm up is not enough, and time and again has resulted in average reviews of the 1060. The Boulder is also twice the price of the JRDG in Australia.No, money doesn't always buy a better amp, but no one would argue with Boulder's engineering. Also, the Boulder is dead neutral. Imho, it needs a reference tube preamp which is a good impedance match to bring out it's potential; the 1060 is *very* revealing of upstream gear, for better or worse. Check out the above link to the Vac review if you get a chance.

melbguy, think you may be correct.

Heard them with the their respective preamps (JRDG criterion and Boulder '1010' I believe it was?)

and 'neutral' is the adjective I was grasping for but failed to bring to the keyboard. The boulder was definitely more neutral.

on another note, Boulder's gear is built like a tank. Everything about their gear shouts flagship engineering. or battleship, even. JRDG's got the pretty boy 'Macbook-esque' eye candy thing going with a shiny one piece machined aluminum chassis. aesthetics should take back seat to sound of course, but you may have a domestic CFO who takes such things into consideration

Insomniac, yes the preamp you would have heard would have been the 1010. That's a good pre, however I (personally) feel the way to get the best sound out of the 1060 is matching it with a tube pre that is very quiet, sweet and warm & has balls. Then you're in for sonic bliss.

The tank analogy isn't wrong; it takes about that long for that thing to fully warm up, but when it does, it's worth it.

I have to admit, i'm more interested in ultimate sound than the clothes an amp is wearing. Having said that, the Boulder is quite smart looking, and one brute beast! I could have bought an M625, and very nearly did, but went with the Boulder. Time will tell if I made the right move?

I'd be scared to hook up a Boulder to the already somewhat "hot" 802D. I auditioned the 802D several times for hours and deemed it a speaker that begged for slightly warmer, but detailed, electronics.

I'd use those 802Ds with the 625 and the Corus and have no doubt they'd perform great together. I've heard the Vienna Acoustics Klimt the Music with Jeff's 625 and Criterion upstairs at his location and that combination sounded superb.