Jeff Rowland Capri preamp

i had the pleasure of borrowing a Capri pre-amp for about two months now with the contention of probably buying it.
Like most posters rowland is smooth and tube like--yup, thats the sound. No grain.

the build quality is like a tank. the remote control is great.

Soundwise, i couldnt complain. Its tubelike though its still not tubes. Its on the warm side of things similar to tubes.

I love its gain since it has 100 steps.

Matching with power amps is no problem. I'm currently auditioning it with the Jeff Rowland Model 102 power amp.

Just a tip for the Rowland 201,501, and probably the 102's. Make sure to put about 400hrs on them before you become critical and don't turn them off at the back. They really open up starting at the 400hr mark and get better all the way to the 800hr mark.

Hi Nolitan - What is the list price of the Capri? Thanks

$2950 I believe

Here's what Rowland says about balance:

The balance control function operates in .5 dB increments with a maximum available differential between left and right of 6 dB. This is achieved by pushing either left or right balance buttons on the remote. With every push you get a .5 dB increase in that respective channel, for a net differential incremental increase of 1 dB between channels with every button push (because the opposite channel goes down .5dB also). The balance will max out at 6 dB differential between left and right. Balance is reset to center by powering down the Concerto or resetting the Concerto via holding down the mute button (for about 5 seconds) until the display turns off. There is no visual display confirmation of balance status.

Regarding the display, they say, "The display can be set to time out, but it is a factory or dealer only modification as it is a bit tricky to do this operation." However, they will walk you through it if you call them.