Just came into a Concerto (and a pair of 201s) myself. The build quality is inspiring, carved as they are out of solid, billet aluminum. As has been said before, executed to "NASA-grade tolerances." Heirloom-grade, indeed -- makes most of my other gear, past and present, look and feel like cheap toys. Oh, and they sound pretty swell, too. Prehaps not the last word in fidelity (what is?), but a significant improvement over the prior Plinius / Bryston combo I was using. The combo is at times surprisingly more resolving, while at the same time being absolutely dead silent (totally inert both physically and noise-floor-wise).
I wouldn't necessarily call it a tube-like sound, though, having come from two different tubed pre-amps previously. I would, by perhaps uneducated comparison, say that they present a remarkeably neutral and uncolored presentation. Previously, I had gravitated to generally warmer-voiced stuff, which tended to put a varnish of warmth and forgiveness on everything, making poorer recording more user-friendly and the remarkeable stuff, well, less remarkeable. With the Rowland(s), there's comparatively no varnish -- and the unvarnished truth sometimes aint pretty. (That said, also put all new, balanced, silver wires in with the new gear -- approaching a sufficiently large number of hours in, but I sill expect I haven't hit a final sound). I find myself re-listening to most everything and discovering layers of sound, micro-dynamics and soundstaging info I never suspected were there. And that's pretty cool. So far, really love the stuff. Objectively (ie, opinions other than my own), I've read a quasi-consensus that the Concerto is really special and the 201's are perhaps less so by comparison. Having done it all together, though, I really couldn't say.
That said, Drubin, you up for sharing how to re-center the balance on the thing? Gotta admit, not immediately apparent, not by a long shot. Also, for turning off the display, is the answer that you have to uncork the thing and reset some switches in its guts (read someplace that's what was called for regarding the Concerto integrated)? Aside from these two nits -- which, I certainly agree, could have been better thought out, or at least documented -- I'm a big fan....
