Hi @paulburnett, several years ago, I had the original Rowland Capri in my system for about 15 months -- a truly excellent preamplifier, which was a significant upgrade from the ARC Ref3 that I used before. The original capri was audibly superior to Ref3 on most all parameters: staging and imaging, authority and macro/micro dynamics, resolution and extension, harmonic complexity, as well as sweetness and control of treble intermodulation. The only marginal flaw I could detect is a certain shyness of fundamental frequencies in the deep bass... Although Capri had tremendous authority, deep bass notes were a little shy of fundamental harmonics. But at less than 1/3 the list price of Ref3, I could not complain... By contrast, Ref3 bass sounded somewhat muddled.
The original Capri was indeed based on the OPA1632, and like all Rowland preamplifiers, runs balanced in class A, with transformer coupled inputs and outputs implemented with Lundahl transformers. I call Capri a preamplifier in stead of a pure linestage, because you can add to it a phono card.... and in more recent times a DAC card instead of the phono.
The newer Capri S2 is outwardly almost identical, except for a new display and remote control... However, the circuit has been redesigned, and the OPA1632 has been replaced. I have heard Capri S2 at length at RMAF, and it is sonically significantly enhanced over the original.... The first thing I noticed is that the deep bass shortcoming is totally gone.... Deep bass is, well... Deep, without ever becoming bloated.... And overall Capri S2 is even more musical than the original.
You will find more information on Capri S2 at:
http://jeffrowlandgroup.com/kb/categories.php?categoryid=210
You can download the manual from my Dropbox at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/89p3g48zgh6cava/JRDG%20CAPRI%20S2%20MANUAL%20REVA1.3.pdf?dl=0
Feel free to drop me a PM if you like any other info on Capri S2.
Regards, Guido
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