Rowlands

If you ever meet Jeff Rowland you will find him to be very calm, low key, humble and approachable I don't get the feeling he cares to play the games with reviewers to get his stuff reviewed; it speaks for itself. Jeff has a huge following overseas too. I recently purchased a pair of his old Model 9tiHC monoblocks that are old by today's standard but have always been a favorite solid state of mine. I like the Pass, but in AZ it adds to my A/C expense in the summer; they are hot!

Zabiaud, I had the Model 6's on my MAXX 2's and they sounded good, but I felt the lowest octave of bass was missing. I use the Model 9 mono blocks now and the are perfect. The 6's, 8 and the 9's have been some of Jeff's most highly regarded amplifiers and if you can find an 8 I would go that route. The new 626 (I think) is excellent too; I heard it at a show and it sounded excellent.

I would imagine the Synergy pre amp would work well with the model 8, but others who are familiar with Jeff's pre amps after the Synergy II can chime in. I heard the Corus preamplifier with Jeff's new AB stereo amp at the CES show last January in two different rooms, one with Vienna Acoustics and the other with a $140k speaker I wasn't familiar with. Also his new DAC was in use. Jeff's rooms were the best all solid state rooms I heard, so check out the new stuff too if you have the budget. The D'Agostino Momentums were the best solid state amps I have ever heard. But for a complete system my vote goes to Rowland.