ARC Ref 3, Rowland Concerto, or Capri line stage?

Jfz,

that is my understanding also. You can buy an outboard unit, the PC1, that can add power factor correction to the Capri.

Yesterday I had Rod Thomson of Soundings Hifi (Denver, Co.) over at my place for a Master Set of my Vienna Mahler speakers, and he brought along a JRDG Capri for the ride. This was a unit without the external PC1 power factor Correction box. The rest of the system consisted of Esoteric X-01 Limited, JRDG 312 amp. We performed the initial two thirds of the setup using the Ref 3, then switched to the Capri. The line stages were powered by a Purist Anniversary PC. After work was complete we performed some further comparative listening of the two line stages. Here are my preliminary impressions of these two wonderful devices: The Ref 3 slightly outperformed the Capri in mid-bass linearity while the Capri appeared to generate a very slight 'bump' in some mid bass areas. The Ref 3 sounded perhaps slightly more 'neutral' than the Capri and got my nod in the area of airiness. However I experienced with the Capri a wider top to bottom frequency extension, a more revealing harmonic texturing, a unique propensity for unmasking the fallacy of the myth of 'black backround' by exposing some very low level decaying detail, a faster rendering of transients, and a remarkable musicality. I wish I also had a PC1 to play with: according to Jeff, several Capri users have experienced the application of the new PC1 device to the Capri to be quite synergistic.

Thanks for your fascinating comments. I hope you continue to let us know about your thoughts on the Capri vs. Ref 3. For my part, once I heard the Capri in my system, I sold off my more than 2 times expensive CJ Premier 17LS2. Now I have a Capri in my HT system, and am eagerly awaiting the Synergy 2i to replace the CJ. Most people will tell you that you cannot really compare a SS preamp with a top notch tube preamp, but the proof is in the pudding (oops...listening).

Hi Pinkus, I should add that the aforementioned pudding can be quite surprisingly delish! Will you A/B the Capri and the Synergy II? Will you add the PC1 to the Capri? Capri is based on chip technology originally created for fast video circuits, which did not exist at the time the Synergy was developed.

All, my latest extremely preliminary Capri vs Ref 3 observations are at:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1205635448&openmine&zzGuidocorona&4&5#Guidocorona
They are in my first post dated 03-28-2008. G.