Whats the word on Jeff Rowland pre-amps?


I am interested purchasing JRDG 201 mono blocks. At the present time I have a Concentra-1 and want to move on to separates. At first I was just going to use the pre-amp section in the Concentra but don't know if I would get the full benefit of the 201s. I would like your opinions out there on the Synergy and new Concerto pre-amps since the dealer in town does not carry them. I know Rowland amps are great, but are his pre-amps at the same level? Anyone have any experience with the John Tucker Exemplar pre-amp? Any other suggestions for a pre-amp would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
dumboat
The Synergy IIi is a very fine preamp and would obviously work well with the Rowland amps.

I believe that most solid-state preamps don't sound stage as well and lack the musical timbre of tube preamps. The Synergy IIi is a rare exception. I own the Coherence II, which is the best preamp Rowland ever made, and it smokes the three tube preamps (CAT, Hovland and Jadis) I ran before it. The Synergy IIi is quite close to the Coherence II in performance.

I know nothing about the newer, cheaper Rowland preamps.

As for amps, you may want to consider some of the older Rowland amps on the used market (Model 6 monos or 8ti stereo). They are incredibly well built and I believe superior to the new budget / home theater-oriented amps (201, 501) that Rowland now sells.
Raquel, what is your opinion instead about the current JRDG top-of-the-line amps: 302 stereo and 301 monos?
I currently own a pair of Rowland 7M monos and thinking about upgrading. I did hear the 201 pair. They sounded graceful but lacked depth and ran out of steam driving Maggies 3.6 speakers.
I have not yet heard the 300 Series amps, but my guess is that they are supurb in the right systems. I am going to try to demo a 302 in my second system, which is currently amp-less (the last amps were Model 6's with batteries, which were incredible).
I currently have a Jeff Rowland Model 10 amplifier with a Conrad Johnson 16LS Series 11 preamp in my system. At one time I had a Synergy 11i with the Model 10. While I found the Synergy highly detailed it just never worked for me, it may be system dependent but I just found the sound to analytical for my taste. Maybe it was just too much of a good thing, a truly revealing amp with a highly detailed pre amp. I went back to a tube preamp and tried a few before ending up with the CJ. In my system it is the best of both worlds, an exceptional ss amplifier and an outstanding tube preamp.