Jeff Rowland


Is there anyone that is familiar with Jeff Rowland amps that can tell me the difference between the 525 with a Capri 2 preamp compared to the Continuum S2 Integrated amp?
ricred1
Bombaywalla - Your post was factually correct, but I felt it could use some further clarification after you stated: "Ask Rowland if driving 1.5 Ohms in bridged mode will be an issue." I thought as Guido stated that this could be interpreted as if the speaker had a 1.5 Ohm nominal impedance instead of 3 Ohms. No offense was intended to you as your post was helpful and constructive.
I talked to Lucien(Jeff Rowland Group) today regarding bridging the 525 to drive Aerial 7ts. Per our conversation, he discussed the issue with Mr. Jeff Rowland and they agreed that bridged 525s would have no problem driving Aerial 7Ts. I asked him if it were him, what would he do? I was surprised that he answered my question! His answer, "if you're comparing one 525 to a Continuum S2, get the Continuum; however bridged 525s with a Capri S2 preamp will beat the Continuum S2 integrated amp.
Ricred1,
great! thanks for the update. looks like you are good to go w/ the M525. You now know that you won't have a melted output stage with the Aerial 7T's 1.5 ohms in bridged mode.

Still......I would give heed to Almarg's suggestion (which was also on my mind but Almarg beat me to it) of using 1 stereo M525 for each speaker in a vertical biamped format. The amp will not see 3 Ohms (because it will be running in plain old stereo mode) & you will have 1 dedicated amp for driving the bass for each channel.
Since you will have 2 M525s you can try the bridged mode & the vertical biamped mode. Yeah, you will need 4 interconnects pre-power & 4 speaker cables to try the vertical biamped mode.
Let us know how you fare. Thanks.
What is the MSRP of a Capri S2 and two 525 amplifiers compared to that of a Continuum S2?
+1 Bombaywalla (with a slight qualification as described below).

Richard, I see that you are using some rather expensive interconnects and speaker cables. In part for that reason I would reiterate my earlier comment to the effect that you wouldn't have to double up on interconnect cables to implement a vertical biamp configuration. You would just use a short XLR y-cable at the inputs of the amp, such as one of those I linked to earlier, in conjunction with the same interconnect you would use for bridged mode.

You may have seen people claim at times that use of y-cables or splitters in their system resulted in some amount of sonic degradation. My strong suspicion is that in most of those cases the reason for that was not the y-cables or splitters themselves, but rather the inability of the component supplying the signal to drive the two sets of load impedances that were involved, and in many cases two sets of cables as well, in an optimal manner. That won't be an issue in your situation.

For example, it is sometimes reported that poor results are obtained when a y-adapter or splitter is used to route the outputs of a preamp to both a power amp and a powered sub. In those situations it tends not to be realized that the capacitance of the cable to the sub, which is often substantial due to the length that may be involved, will affect the signals received by the main power amp just as if it were added to the capacitance of the cable to the main power amp. It also tends not to be realized that the line-level input impedance of many and probably most powered subs is quite low, which will also affect the signals seen by the main power amp, especially if the preamp's output impedance is high. Yet the y-adapter itself will often be blamed for the less than optimal results.

None of those kinds of effects will be applicable in your situation, given also that the RCA outputs of the Bricasti DAC, which I assume you are using to drive your subs, are driven by output stages that are fully independent of those driving the DAC's XLR outputs (that often not being the case with lesser designs).

Finally, the very low output impedance of the Bricasti DAC, the fact that its connections to the amps are balanced, and the relatively short lengths that are involved, all work in the direction of reducing sensitivity to interconnect cable effects and differences. Including the effects of balanced y-cables that may be in the path.

Regards,
-- Al