Jeff Rowland Pre-Amps: The Corus & The Capri

Hifimaniac,

Thanks for your responses concerning the possible move from the Capri to the Corus. I wanted to throw out my thought process and ask for your thoughts on it. One way to go would be to go from the Capri to Corus as we discussed. Another would be to upgrade my monoblock amps from the Pass XA60.5 to the Pass XA100.5 which would give me more headroom and control of the loudspeakers. These speakers have all SEAS drivers and that includes 2 ten inch woofers, 2 seven inch miss and the tweeter. I really like the Pass XA line and that is another choice. A third approach would be to think about something like the Rowland 625 instead of my Pass mono blocks. That would seem more of a risk . I love the Rowland sound from the Capri but I am not sure I want to give up the Pass sound on the Amp Side. Do you have any thoughts on this. One person said to me that if I upgrade the pre amp, I will effect the transparency and the smoothness of the sound and the lack of background noise. The amp move would effect the headroom and all the tis associated with a power increase. The Pass XA line is outstanding to my ears. I appreciate any thoughts

And the fouth approach would be to get Rowland Corus and 625, and get rid of what you have now beginning with those Cardas cables. I would first try Purist Audio, Gabriel Gold, Jorma and Stealth cables. In any case, I would probably play with cables and power cords to begin with before making big moves.

Inna,

In my room, with my system, I really like the Cardas cables and can't see changing them. I have tried many other cables and always come back to Cardas.

Well, never mind then. But if you change your equipment the situation might be different and without trying other brands you wouldn't know. You don't build your system around cables.
Tell us what you decide to do.

I keep coming back to whether I would effect more of an upgrade by upgrading from the Rowland Capri Pre-Amp to the Rowland Corus pre-amp or by going from the Pass XA60.5 Monoblock amps to the Pass XA100.5 Monoblocks. Its so difficult because I don't have the opportunity to try both in my room and actually hear the changes from both moves. That is the down side of not having the products local to try each change which is really what I would want to do.