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New Rowland Criterion 2-chassis battery pre

Jeff Rowland Design has just created a page for its upcoming statement-level, twin chassis, battery powered full function preamplifier. Detail is still scant, but a little bit of info is already available, in addition to front and rear view pics. Here’s the page:
http://jeffrowland.com/Criterion.htm
And here’s the front view:
http://jeffrowland.com/Criterion-front.htm
And here’s the rear view:
http://jeffrowland.com/Criterion-back.htm

You will find a few specs already on the site. JRDG should be publishing more info in the next few weeks. I will post here as I receive it. in addition to the published specs that you can read on the page above, here are a very few additional tidbits that I have learned this far:

. Uses Burr Brown TI OPA1632 high speed fully differentially balanced modules.
. Includes phono stage.
. Uses standard NiMH D-cell batteries available in most electronics stores, loaded in 2 rear-inserted tubes of power supply chassis.
. Capable of AC/DC operation . . . will recharge batteries on independent circuit during AC operation.
. Full remote control
. Target price $18K (not sure yet)
. Availability: probably early Fall 2008.
. Will be featured at RMAF in Soundings Hifi suite Marriott 503 or 505 from Oct 10th to 12th in Denver.

And sorry folks, I have not heard this device yet. Nor I have any good third party reports on its sound. Any speculations on Sonics from my part would be just. . . pure speculations. I’ll keep everyone posted as I learn more.

Guido
guidocorona
french_fries
815 posts
 
i love jeff rowland's products starting from way back. my 1st "real" preamp was a consonance with phono built in. the phono stage was, for an extra $300, dead silent with MC. i "complained" to the dealer that it should not have sounded nearly so good for the money. and this was "old technology".
so this new preamp really gets my juices flowing. unfortunately, i had to go and read the excessive self-congradulatory description. "it's SO good that..." if the SYNERGY preamp had a battery option (which has never been reviewed so i wonder what THAT might have sounded like), then NOW, i frankly don't know how much more "whipped cream" you can fit on the pie-plate. i do like the easy availability of the nicads though, instead of the hard-to-get batteries he used to use. BUT i am really glad for the heads-up on this beautiful component.
ed_sawyer
588 posts
 
The comparison that will matter is how it stacks up to the Coherence-II.

-Ed
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
Exactly Ed. The Coherence and Capri are Jeff's reference, which are high standards indeed. Talking to him, there's no way this will be a step backward, although I find it hard to imagine how he'll surpass the Capri.

Ed, have you compared the Capri and the Coherence-II?? I be really interested to hear about that.

Lapierre, please don't confuse JRDG's implementation of ICEPower with B&O's. The B&O base unit is just that, a starting point. Jeff improves on that in almost every way imagineable. It is indeed the foundation of his amplifier designs.

Also remember, the Criterion and the Capri are pre-amps, so there's no ICEPower unit in either.

Dave
lapierre
547 posts
 
Absolutely. I was referring to the ICEPower Power Amp technology but did need specify the pre-amps Criterion and Capri.

This is fascinating stuff to me...and I don't own JRDG components.
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
Lapierre said:

"This is fascinating stuff to me...and I don't own JRDG components."

You probably will....
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