New Rowland Criterion 2-chassis battery pre

Guido, From your posts I know that you hold much of your impressions and judgement until a component is thoroughly broken in, but can't you send us some intial impression tidbits?

Hope your Criterion came today and you are enjoying it! Congrats!

Phil

Thank you Phil and all. It looks like. . . The Criterion has landed!

UPS delivered it over the noon hour and I hawled the 54Lbs box 17 steps upstairs to my listening loft. I am delighted to report that I did not drop it. The unit was delivered complete of remote control transmitter and remote control receiver station. The latter connects to the Criterion's control chassis via a custom 2m wire. The control chassis sits on top of the audio chassis and locks into place with 4 Delrin ball bearings that fit into dimples milled into the bottom of the control chassis and into the top of the audio chassis.
I was kindly assisted by Babybear during the setup.

Criterion has been playing for approximately 3 hours now on a tuner and my X-01 player. I have been playing mostly from a piano CD with M. Uchida performing the Mozart 'Twinkle' variations.

So far so good. I was expecting Criterion to sound totally hideaous right out of the box, but it did not.

Being the unit so new it is very difficult to report on its sound. . . just 20 more minutes of playing time can yield perceivable changes. Nevertheless, I have the very preliminary impression that the harmonic exposure in the treble may have already exceeded the Capri, which is no harmonic slouch to start with. This of course does not mean a great deal yet, as for the 1st few hundred hours the device is likely to expose and reabsorbe a number of prowess and anomalies alike.

I have tried both the AC power supply and the battery power supply. On battery operation, the difference seems subtle. . . but Criterion seems to increase further harmonic content, sound even more open, and perhaps extract even a little more ambient cues. Expectedly, if the recording contains low level tape hiss, like the Mozart/Uchida analog remaster I am playing right now, the background tape hiss is slightly magnified by Criterion on bbattery operation.

Interestingly, when I bring a new component into the listening room I can take its sound only minutes at a time for the 1st couple of weeks. Conversely, I had to take a very deliberate decision to come down from the listening room and write this post.

G.

Guido,

I don't expect you to remember me but we talk on the phone
about a year ago . Our discussion was about Rowland equipment and where I live in Oregon. I have been following this thread from day one and that new preamp must be something else. Guido you are a fine person and some of your replies show your great sense of humor. I look forward to hearing more about the Rowland when it is finally broken in. Now back to my humble CJ preamp.

Bob

Hi Bob, great hearing from you. . . of course I do remember you!

I just popped down from the loft loft after listening to a couple of selections from my test CD. If Criterion is supposed to be doing strange things before it gets even better, it has not done it yet. Rather, it has just given me a perspective on how undisciplined live concert audiences can be. I knew there were a few thumps, kicks, coughs, and bow drops in Dvorak's 9th Symphony conducted by Bernstein with the Israel Philharmonic. . . but what I started to hear today is closer to unionized ribaldry. Funny thing is that I never knew that the major uhr-thump, probably caused by Bernstein losing his balance whilst cavorting on the podium as his usual self, is actually a profound semi-pitch boom. . . I am pretty sure not seeing it in the score, last time I examined it (grins!)

Funny thing is that I do not recall hearing the 2nd movement sounding so musical before. I recall mentioning other times the gradual cuivre in the brass fanfares of this piece. . . the difference is that today I heard the individual instruments of the brass section quite timprally distinct, attacking at different times, and breaking into cuivre at staggared times.

There is right now a narrow and fairly shallow peak in the mid low bass that appears in some string bass passages, but otherwise the growling pitch of the double basses is quite exciting.

I fully expect the sound to have closed in by tomorrow. . . we'll see.

Guido

Guidocorona,
I'm happy that you have received your Criterion. And as I don't speak English well I'm not shure if I understood right yours posts.
Let's see.
I think that at first you was expecting much more from the Criterion. Anyway, after some time you start to listen something that you never listening before. It's great, pal, because Capri, your prior device, is a very fine preamp.

Because of the Criterion, yesterday I went to MBL's dealer home. I'd want to listen to some MBL speaker, just because my B&W 802D is not at the Criterion level. I like the MBL 111 F Hybrid speakers. I bought in this visit the Cary 306 Pro, as he is also the Cary dealer.
All this because of the Criterion.

But I known what happened to you.

Before I left the dealer's home he put a disc in his phono device. I never had listen to a modern phono before.
It was wonderfull, it was amazing and etc. It looks like I was listening to a live concert just there, in front of me.

IMO you, BECAUSE OF YOUR PASSION for JRDG DEVICES, YOUR MIND was expecting a sound like a listen yesterday with this phono device. But it's impossible, man, because you NEVER, NEVER with a CD or HDCD or SACD will get some kind of perfection that you can get with a phono.

Enjoy.