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New Rowland Criterion 2-chassis battery pre

Jeff Rowland Design has just created a page for its upcoming statement-level, twin chassis, battery powered full function preamplifier. Detail is still scant, but a little bit of info is already available, in addition to front and rear view pics. Here’s the page:
http://jeffrowland.com/Criterion.htm
And here’s the front view:
http://jeffrowland.com/Criterion-front.htm
And here’s the rear view:
http://jeffrowland.com/Criterion-back.htm

You will find a few specs already on the site. JRDG should be publishing more info in the next few weeks. I will post here as I receive it. in addition to the published specs that you can read on the page above, here are a very few additional tidbits that I have learned this far:

. Uses Burr Brown TI OPA1632 high speed fully differentially balanced modules.
. Includes phono stage.
. Uses standard NiMH D-cell batteries available in most electronics stores, loaded in 2 rear-inserted tubes of power supply chassis.
. Capable of AC/DC operation . . . will recharge batteries on independent circuit during AC operation.
. Full remote control
. Target price $18K (not sure yet)
. Availability: probably early Fall 2008.
. Will be featured at RMAF in Soundings Hifi suite Marriott 503 or 505 from Oct 10th to 12th in Denver.

And sorry folks, I have not heard this device yet. Nor I have any good third party reports on its sound. Any speculations on Sonics from my part would be just. . . pure speculations. I’ll keep everyone posted as I learn more.

Guido
guidocorona
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
It's really too early to evaluate, other than to say it's very promising.

Dave
clio09
2,978 posts
 
I was unimpressed with the 2 JRDG rooms (Soundings, Jeff was not there). This coming from the owner of a Capri which is a preamp I like a lot.

Of course IMO there were a lot of duds this year at RMAF. However, the minority of rooms that did shine (ironically 3 of them using Atma-sphere equipment) more than made up for it.
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
Ah Clio09, I see you have the Audiokenesis speakers. I thought that Duke had one of the best sounding rooms at the show. Not only that, Duke is a great gentleman here on A'gon and in person.

I DO think that Atmas colored his system every so slightly. Duke volunteered that he thought that the 60s would have been a better match than the 30s that he was using. Still, it was a very musical system, in my top three of the show, bar none.

BTW, here's my personal top three:
Soundings (Vienna Acoustic/Rowland)
Genesis Speakers
Audiokenesis

I wasn't able to visit every room, so there very well could have been other rooms in this league.

Dave
kawika
56 posts
 
Well.....Did you ever get back for a good listen to the Rowland Criterion? I have one on order and am very interested in anyone's thoughts who have heard it personaly. I don't care to have anyone guess on its sound...I know what his previous pre amps sound like. No need to go there. Just the facts please. Thanks, David.
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
Kawika, all I can say at this point is that it sounded very quiet and musical in the 312/Dei Musik system. At one point there were about 8 people in the room and Rod switched from the Marantz SA7 to the Playback Designs everyone immediately recognized the improvement in transparency, sound stage and impact. There were a couple "wows" in the room.

When the firmware is finished and the Criterion is operating on battery power, I'll go to Soundings and compare it to the Capri in a more meaningful way. Unfortunately that may be about the time that you take delivery. I think we're talking about a few weeks. The programmer needs Jeff to get back from Asia and push him to finish.

Dave
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