Rowland Concerto integrated vs Rowland Capri & 102

Did you by chance listen to just the Capri? Wondering what the sonic benefits of this mysterious new product might be.

Guido,

can you please report on how the PC1 changes your system. I have a Capri, but decided not to get a PC1, simply because I was not sure of value proposition. How does the Capri + PC1 compare to Ref 3 ?

Thanks

03-26-08: Guidocorona said:
"...
By the way, I spoke to JRDG today. . . they confirm that the Continuum 250 and 500 have just started to ship..."

and I thought my wallet was going to have a rest. :-)

Hopefully I'll have a stout 1st quarter bonus...more POWER...

I need to wangle a factory tour out of this. After all, they're only about 40-miles away.

Dave

RKny and Pinkus, I will leave the PC1 on the Capri at least until the end of next week. Then I will take it out and will repeat listening of some key tracks. For the time being my observations are still tentative and, and need to be validated with more rigor, because they also involved an amp change, and the tracks I played were not the same.

On configuration A, consisting of X-01 Limited, Rowland 312, Mahler v1.5 I listened for a fiew hours ARC Ref 3 and pure Capri. Capri appeared to yield a somewhat more defined harmonic content, extension and overall authority than Ref 3, at the cost of perhaps an almost umperceptible excess of energy in the mid lower bass (plucked double bass).

On configuration B, consisting of X-01 Limited, Nuforce Ref 9 V2, Mahler v1.5, I used a CD of Monteverdi madrigals with 2 female mezzo sopranos, countertenor and positif organ to listen to Ref 3 and Capri+PC1. Findings are similar to configuration A, except that I would replace the term 'somewhat' with 'unmistakable'.

Or in other words, I perceived a greater delta in favor of Capri when PC1 was included.
Please note that my observation are purely relative at this point, I am not at all implying that I preferred the sound of configuration B over configuration A; only that -- according to my initial very unscientific observations -- Capri+PC1 may be affecting my own system positively to a greater extent than Capri by itself.

Good stuff Guido. Ultimately you'll need to explore the Continuum vs. the 312/Capri setup. Hopefully I'll be able to do that for myself very soon.

I've now heard the Capri driving Mahlers through a 312 and the DALI Helicon 400.Mk2 through the 501s. It's a stunningly open, transparent and smooth preamp in those applications. In neither case did we have a PC1 in the loop. Still, it's wonderful to hear your comparison to a reference like the Ref 3.

The DALI in particular could be hard on a preamp, given its very extended top end. You really hear the fingers on strings and breath-taking of singers and any edge on a voice or instrument with the DALIs. (The tweeter module has both a ribbon and dome drivers). Never was I uncomfortable with any material, even played at pretty high levels. With the Capri I heard these high extensions as delicacy, not hardness.

Dave