Hi Mitch2, currently I am running Aeris directly into the Rowland M925 monoblocks. In olden days, I ran the Rowland Criterion linestage between DAC and amps.
Which arrangement is "better"? The answer is... It depends... Immediately followed by... I might be persuaded to change my mind, because things are achangin'....
First of all, what I observed in the past....
* Aeris by itself yielded a subtle amount of greater resolution compared to having Criterion in the chain.
* With Aeris only, there seems to be deep silence from the speakers when music is not playing, vs a very low level of hash when Criterion was in the chain... To perceive the actual noise caused by Criterion, you had to place your ear 6 inches or less from a tweater.
* However, with Criterion in the chain, you would experience a subtly warmer presentation that admittedly is quite intoxicating.
Having gone back and forth for several months with the two configurations, I felt I prefered the presentation without Criterion.
Having said the above, Rowland has now started to ship the ultra-capacitor based Power Storage Unit (PSU)... Essentially this is an additional full chassis component that can be applied to replace both the external power supply of the Corus linestage (audio circuit identical to the now withdrawn Criterion) as well as the power supply of Aeris... Meaning that a single PSU can power Corus and Aeris simultaneously. Essentially PSU serves pure clean DC 24/7 for compatible line components and takes them completely off the AC grid. There are two banks of ultra-caps inside PSU... While one charges up from the AC line, the other one is offline from the grid, and serves DC to the devices downstream. When the bank of ultra-caps serving devices becomes depleted, the role is switched seamlessly, and the process is repeated... The answer is no, the flipping event is not audibly perceivable.
I have not heard PSU yet, but according to all reports I have heard this far the result of PSU on Corus and Aeris might be quite impressive in terms of subtlety, quiet delivery, image and stage, and resolution... I guess the main benefit is being completely off-grid, while not having the problem of reduced dynamic agility caused by the slower transient handling of batteries.
So, now I am thinking that a combination of Aeris + Corus + PSU might outperform Aeris alone... Probably even quieter than Aeris, and perhaps with the added grace of having Corus in the audio path.
Saluti, Guido