Jeff Rowland Pre-Amps: The Corus & The Capri

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.

Yes, it's a difficult decision. I would guess that you are more attached to Pass amp than to Capri preamp. In any case, whatever you do will be an upgrade. Unless your speakers really need more current and power, I would probably get Rowland preamp now and later think about upgrading the rest of the electronics. After all, preamp is at the center of the system.

IMHO, the difference between the XA60.5 to the XA100.5 in terms of wattage/headroom is not worth the change. If you went to perhaps the XA160.5, there would be definite benefits.

Personally, I like the match between a Rowland preamp (Capri) and Pass Lab/Threshold amps (X5, Aleph 2, SA/6e).