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No-one talks about Rowlands anymore

It's Pass all over the place. Is Rowland going down big time or terribly and expensively up?
inna
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
And from what I understand, Pascal get them form  China, and mod them, and then Rowland buy them.
http://imgp1.en.makepolo.net/o/956/645/3ec6c7e3908d642a79ee2cf1608c5072.jpg
And when they were advertised on Alibaba, these modules sold for $100 each for lots of 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZCxCg-QWDQ

Cheers George
jimmy3993
141 posts
 
This thread made me chuckle.
ive had guido’s old 7m’s for how long? Like 8yrs now I think.
they still do great work for me. Maybe those 535s that no one talked about will finally replace them. Then again, I might just run the, till they die.
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 

Hello Jimmy, those M7 golden beauties might outlast  usthe both of ... Not bad at all for amps that were manufactured somewhere in the late 1980s.... by a company that "no one talks about any more". The only issue they ever had during the wonderful long years that they were in my possession since 1997 until you picked them up well over 10 years later were some output transistors that required a touch of resoldering... The 5-minutes Fix was applied by a good friend of mine at my place, under phone guidance by Jeff Rowland himself.


Now about the Rowland M535 bridgeable.... I have a pair in my system right now breaking in... Preparing a writeup for Audiogon.... These critters are magical... They remind me so much of my M925 monos... May be some 80% of the M925's authority, with a transparency and resulution that is utterly enchanting, particularly when one considers that a bridged pair lists a smidjin below $12K. I'll test M535 in stereo mode once I have completed evaluation in bridged mode.


Saluti, G.

   

dballard601's avatar
dballard601
4 posts
 
I know this is an older thread, but reading some of the submissions has stuck in my craw. I have one of the original 301's and I love its sound quality.  The soundstage is huge and mates well with the Revel Salon2's.  The sound is definitely more euphonic/liquid than analytic. There is no reason at this level of implementation to badmouth Class D, for one it is very ecological and efficient and Jeff has done a great job with the execution of this design.  One caveat that deserves mention I have had to include a transformer in the line source to knock down the NZ 240 V to mate with this 230 V design.  This has resulted in an audible reduction in the noise floor.  I have owned JRDG amps since the mid 80's starting with the Model 7 and 9T and while I use Meridian Reference gear for the front end, I find the combination harmonically rich and musically involving.  Are their better amps out there in 2020?  Absolutely, but are they more musically satisfying?  The answer would be based on a subjective assessment.   
tdimler
132 posts
 
dballard601  Agree with you....no doubt one of the dumbest thread topics of all time!  
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