Jeff Rowland's Continumm

Some of us like vanilla and some of us like chocolate.

This is the most thoughtful observation rendered here. We all want to believe that our preferences have relevance. They do, too. But not to everyone. Only to us.

I see people in here promising to furnish us with their "findings", as if scientific studies were being conducted and measurements reported. In fact, what we are hearing is one persons opinion experienced in his room in his mood in his system with whatever weighted selection he prefers as his evaluation music. There are no facts to be given in these kind of circumstances. Findings, I grant you, sounds heavier and more authoritative than opinion or impression, but that, in fact, is all that is being offered....one guy's one view. And isn't it interesting how we are always knocked out by unprecedented levels of (fill in the blank - clarity, nuance, gestalt, palpability, etc.)when we plug in the item that just emptied our wallet and within a month or a year, it has become our weak link.

There are no absolutes to be had and nobody is right or wrong in their personal preferences. Failure to honor that axiom is where we go wrong.

Well Macrojack, the specs of the Continuum are very good, but I suspect that many others amps have comparable raw specs.

I think many of us DO indeed try to state our preferences in our reviews. All the JRDG stuff that I've heard lean toward open, transparent, dynamic and very close to colorless. Lots of people will not like that, prefering perhaps something more forward or with softer highs. I prefer open, detailed highs, but sweet and not etched. One hard sounding IC will make the Continuum sound hard, so your associated equipment needs to be chosen accordingly.

Anyway, I think these A'gon reviews are useful. Just like reading Stereophile or TAS, you need to take things with a grain of salt and look at the reviewer's systems and preferences in order to get some idea if your tastes might line up. That's easy to do here, since most reviewers do post their systems and it's easy to see what they've said about other components. So, reviews here are useful, if used with appropriate caution.

Dave

Thanks for your kindness Dave.

Ayre and JRDG both I believe, are respectable hifi makers and it seems pointless discounting one for another.

One thing I can be sure of is, that I love JRDG sound.

Pinkus - The Ayre integrated "smacked" two JRDG preamps? I don't get it. When you used each of the preamps, what amps were you using?

"clarity, nuance, gestalt, palpability, etc"

I agree with you Macrojack, I wouldn't know how to palpate a nuanced gestalt if one sat in my lap. And yes, 'findings' sounds so much 'more better'n' personal opinion. I also agree that using colorful terminology freely imported from the competitive team sports arena may at times be slightly less than helpful. That is why I much prefer to offer my listening experience in terms of equipment context, musical context, and finally as much as possible concrete description of my observations. . . and in the end, just in case, I call everything 'preliminary' no matter what.

Pinkus, I am very much looking forward to giving one more round of hard listening to AYRE at the next RMAF in the Fall. Unfortunately last year's AYRE suite was -- to my great surprise -- slightly disappointing for its etched sound. . . . but so were most other suites. Guido