Rowland "house sound"?

Can anyone tell me which Jeff Rowland model is the warmest and sweetest sounding of his line up. Many have said the model 10 fits the sound I am looking for but I would like to get more opinions on this.

When I mean warm and sweet sounding I mean comparitively to other SS amps and not tube amps. Thanks.

Fishwater - I am not sure if a digital amp is your route if you are looking for lush midrange reproduction. I would try a pure class_A ora a tube amp first.

Mike - Rowland 6 looks to me like the warmest on the Rowland line, I have had the 5, 1, 2, 8 and 9, as I said, I am not familiar with the new line 5XX, 3XX, 2XX but some reading says that they are a bit cold or analytic in comparison with the previous models.

My favourite?, The 8.

Hope this helps

Fernando

Thanks fernando for your reply. I think the 9 is out of my price range.

I will check out the 8 prices.

If anyone can comment on the 10's that would be great as well.

I am a bit hesitant when it comes to declaring that anything has a particular sound because so much depends on system interaction. So, this is a very general statement of what I have heard. To me, Rowlands are smooth, pleasant sounding amps that don't quite deliver enough toe-tapping excitement, i.e., they are slightly lifeless sounding. I've heard them in several systems, most recently, driving Sonus Faber Anniversarios.

But, they are not offensive, and I bet they would work well with speakers that are a bit edgy and forward sounding.

The Rowland Model 10s were absolutely the BEST sound I heard listening to Aerial Acoustic Model 10Ts about 7 or 8 years ago.

Long breakin time, but afterwards they were stunning in their realism straight up & down the scale.

My favorite on those speakers... not sure how they performed on anything else (except for some Audio Artistry Vivaldi's maybe Dvorak's??? where they also acquited themselves well).

They didn't seem to do anything wrong on either system (except for price - heh!).

Good luck in your search!