Jeff Rowland 501s and PC1s

all the system has somehow settled down in the last days ... maybe because the 501s, the Capri and the Puccini are only a couple of months old.

The PC1s make a big difference! ... a positive one ;-)
I had the visit of a friend (owning some Martin Logan) who told me he didn't believe in the positive effect of power transformers.

I just let him hear a few CDs and then I took the PC1s off ... he was quite amazed ! ... He finds the sound of my system very detailled and precise but also warm ... I think he is wright, now I have some tube-like warmth but with definition and precision. I really don't understand all the critics about Class D amplifier and especially about the 501s or the 201s. I think you have just to combine them properly ...

well I have now to travel to Asia, I will report more exactly when I am back.

best regards

PS when I am back the Puccini Clock should be here ...

Thank you for the update Clavil. Your findings on the refining effect of PC1s corroborate my original guess based on my own 501/312 comparisons. Will you be able to leave your equipment active and playing music from a tuner whilst you travel to Asia? You might find your system sounding even sweeter upon your return. Guido

Hi Guido, thanks for the advice ... I instructed my wife to do so ;-)

I found an interesting passage in an article from Jonathan Valin about the monos 201 ... here :

quote The 201 sounded quite lovely and lively in the midrange and bass on the constant stream of well-recorded staccatos and pizzicatos that makes up Schnittke’s post-Modernist prank. To my ear, however, there seemed to be something missing from its treble. You could hear the problem on the piano’s sforzandos and little noodling runs in the top octaves, where the 201 seemed to squeeze much of the brilliance out of the instrument’s treble register. The highest-pitched notes just didn’t sound as big spatially, as fully articulated harmonically, or as powerful dynamically as those of the piano’s other registers, as if the Steinway had turned into a child’s piano in the top octaves. Ditto for Kremer’s violin. With the 201, his occasional, eerie, veryhigh- pitched glissandos on an open E string simply evaporated into silence well before they would have (or did) with my reference Class AB amps, the ARC Reference 210 and MBL 9008. The 201 didn’t just roll or soften the treble (as Rowlands often do by design); it cut it off, and with that, the articulation of very-low-level harmonics and dynamics and the full duration of high-pitched notes. ...

I have made a test on my system with the same piece played by Guidon Kremer and I didn't miss anything in the piano high octaves neither on the glissandos on the E string ... but I must confess it's not the same recording (Guidon Kremer has recorded it at least twice) .

It would be very interesting to compare his impressions with ours with the same recording ...

sorry the name of the piece:

Alfred Schnittke’s Quasi una sonata [EMI ASD 3870]
Guidon Kremer & Andrej Gavrilov

Clavil, the fragment you quote from Jonathan Valin's article contains a very good description of the foreshortening of treble low level information which was relatively common on the previous generation ICEpower amplifiers. Others, like Chris Martens, have described the same phenomenon as treble harmonics being disconnected from the fundamental. It is also true that in my experience, the 201 monos tend to sound a little short of 'lung capacity' on power hungry speakers such as -- for example's sake -- the Maggies 3.6. . . hence the feel of a toy piano. Having said that, Valin is comparing a $4K entry level monoblock amp with extremely high end devices costing several times as much. . . the performance delta is not completely surprising. I suspect that if he had the opportunity of applying a PC1 to the 201s, his findings may have been subtly different. . . but there was no PC1 available at the time the article was written. . . or even published.
It is my impression that the application of pre-PS power rectification of one form or an other for ICEpower amps may be a valid methodology to address the harmonic and low level information shortfall of early such devices. Only future may tell. Guido