Jeff Rowland Capri preamp

Clio09, I am even more conservative than Dave about Capri's breakin. . . mine has continued to sweeten and open up for over 3 months. . . I estimate that breakin time may be as much as 800 hrs before Capri stabilizes. after 100 or 150 hrs Capri will be quite good, but will be far from being at its best. A critical comparison with your current pre would still be premature with 150 hrs on it. G.

Ultimately I would like to go to an all balanced set-up. I might be getting a set of VAC Musicblocs in the future with the balanced input upgrade to go with the Capri, but for now it will run unbalanced into the VAC Avatar SE. However, I may try the balanced outputs on my DAC into the balanced inputs on the Capri. I don't have balanced cables right now but I should be able to pick up some Mogami Neglex which would not be too expensive.

Guido, I had read about the break in on the Capri. I will run my break in disc on it a few times and alternately run a CD on 24/7 repeat for a week to get things started.

Dave, where do you get the inverse RIAA card? Also, how would you rate the phono section? I think the upgrade was only $750. I'm using the VAC Avatar SE phono now and have had a K&K Audio SE phono in the past. Any comparisons to these or other phono stages would be helpful.

Yes, use balanced wherever you can. VAC will be excellent, now and post upgrade, but try to hear all-Rowland with Power Factor Correction before you make a final decision on that amp upgrade. YMMV regarding balanced, as a lot depends on your RFI/EMI environment and how tightly packed your components are (particularly the digital stuff).

The inverse RIAA card kit is $29 from Hagerman

The Capri's phono card is excellent, in the very top echelon. In my case it blew away my Pro-ject SEII, but, more importantly, it replaced a Levinson and a Sutherland in other systems that I know of. I don't know of anyone that replaced a K&K and I've never heard the K&K. Everyone's reporting plenty of gain with a wide variety of pickups along with enough loading choices to work with most cartridges. (If you've got "special needs" for loading, then there could be an issue, but the Capri handles "standard" loads). Uncolored, transparent, sweet, open, large stable image are things that I've heard from the three or four reporters that I've heard from directly by phone or email. The phono presentation is very consistent with the line inputs.

Dave

Hi again Clio, interesting you use VAC: Capri has same output impedance of 40Ohms SE and 80Ohms balanced as VAC Ren II pre. I suspect impedance match will be quite good. What I am not sure is if VAC is differentially balanced or simply has XLR inputs. . . may make a difference on Capri performance. Guido

For the time being I'd like to keep tubes for my amp. So the VAC or Atma-sphere come to mind (my speakers were voiced with the latter, but the designer also feels the VAC amps work well, which they have so far with the Avatar SE).

I've seen the Hagerman card now that you mention it and will order one. Since I'm using a MM cartridge the load is not an issue. I'm more concerned with the quality of the phono stage. I suspect the Capri phono will be fine.

I've read where the Capri on its own is immune to voltage swings. If I recall it can operate optimally at as low as 85 or as high as 385v. I read how some people use the PFC and I get that it actually mimics batter power with the conversion to DC, but I think I might hold off on that for now.