New Rowland Criterion 2-chassis battery pre

Claude, it's quite possible that the Esoteric sound may simply be not what you are after. DCS seems to me sweeter sounding than Esoteric. G.

Thanks, Clavil / Claude,
I already bought the Puccini & Clock.
Man, no words...No words do decribe. Uau!!
I don't need Scarlatti, Pagannini... or... anything else.

I'll run the test with Krell 222 next Friday.
Keep all post

All, time for some updated impressions.

I have now been running Criterion almost 24/7 since mid July. . . it has either being playing from CDs on XLR input 1, or from my old tuner from XLR input 2. During night time, I usually mistune between FM stations and feed Criterion a diet of pure unadulterated quasi-inter-station white noise hash. I estimate that Criterion must have by now passed 2,000 hours of activity on the combined inputs.

Today I loaded a very old CD. . . Jackie Dupre on the Dvorak Cello concerto with her husband Daniel Barenboim at the baton. I always considered this recording more documentary in nature than anything else. While the performance is truly remarkable, the recording is of dubious quality also for vintage standards, with somewhat hazy sound, flat staging and hashi fortissimos. It was always a bit difficult to enjoy this recording. . . Dupre tended to be buried in the lumpy background

I honestly did not know that this CD even knew
what 'soundstage' and 'imaging' even meant. . . my opinion was always that the recording engineer should have been taken to the Lublianka for interrogation as a possible anti-musical plant. . . .


Well. . . today my jaw dropped. . . the words mesmeric, awesome, eerie, and stunningly emotionally involving come to mind.

The soundstage was there. . . and what a stage. . . with Dupre at the front center, more or less lined up with the front of the speakers. The orchestra sorrounds her at a realistic distance, consistent with true placement of instruments in the orchestra. Dupree is passionate beyond belief. . . her Stradivari cello is passionate and rippling with harmonics. . . in double stops I can follow the interplay of the twin melodies with incredible ease. . . there are things that I hear that Dupre intended me to hear, like those amazing harmonics, riveting macro dynamics, microdynamics that have an incredible intimacy. . . there are things that perhaps she did not want me to hear. . . like the swish of her sleeves and the creeking of her stool. and an occasional intake of breath.

The Orchestra sounds majestic, intense, and passionate. . . the emotional rapport and kinship between Dupre and Barenboim is pretty evident in the incredible dynamic synergy between the cello and the orchestra. I was specifically looking for the virtual placement of the triangle. . . would it be highlighted towards the front, or would it have a realistic placement. . . when it arrived it was clear as a bell, but from a distance, from the right and towards the back of the hall, in the spot it would be in a live concert. . . who said that JRDG gear can't image worth a darn (grins!). The fff ends of movements 1 and 3 had a special surprise. . . not only I could hear the great hall through the decaying sound, but the shells of the kettle-drums and perhaps some unused large cymbals were clearly ringing from somewhere close to the triangle player.

It is interesting that with Criterion, 'silent background' does not mean lack of sound. . . Rather, it means complete abscence of that glare and random hash that hides the lowest level of information from recording venues that are by their nature always filled with those tiny mechanical vibrations, that let us perceive their palpable existance, size, and often shape with our eyes closed. Thus, somewhat paradoxically, I suggest that Criterion's profound 'black background' silence actually illuminates musical reality.

During fff/tutti, there is obviously a little distortion (the sound engineer should still be punished, or at least be imparted musical reeducation in a gulag for a duration commensurable with his grievous crime against the Muses), but distortion is much less than I was used to, and the stage never collapses under macro-dynamic stress, which is totally unexpected in this recording.

Bottom line, this creature is amazing. . . and if you think you already love criterion after you used it for a couple hundred hours. . . I can assure you that you have not heard anything yet. I have now reasons to believe that Criterion may continue to mature and blossom well beyond the 1,500 hours mark.

I usually try to be dispassionate about my sonic findings, but what I heard today simply took my breath away. I was supposed to work on some web content creation today instead of wasting time listening to Dupre. . . well I obviously couldn't. . . so I didn't. . . and no apologies either! . .

Saluti,

G.

During listening sessions, is the AC unplugged from the preamp?

During yesterday's session Criterion was on batteries, but was not unplugged from AC. I have not yet run Criterion unplugged from AC. G.