Rowland preamps??????


Anyone have a lot of experience w Rowland preamps?

I'm looking for a high quality fully balanced pre to run into my Vt-100mkII, and I need to stay well under $2500.00.

Rowland makes an awful lot of products w similar names...Continuum, Consonance, Concerto pre...and Concerto integrated. It's hard to keep them all straight. Poor marketing, if you ask me.

Anyway, it seems like the Concerto, Consonance, Capri and SynergyII are all in the $2000-$2500 price range. There's also a SynergyIIi, which sould be a little stretch for me, but it's a 230v unit.

Anyone familiar with these pres, at all. Thanks in advance.
trank
Thanks again, Guido. I appreciate your insight. And thanks for the heads-up on the Rowland ad. Maybe that guy will sell the Capri separately.
Fwiw-- I am the guy listing the LS-5 for nearly 2300 dollars. That's because about a year ago I paid about 2450.00 for it! That's what they go for-- or at least did. I figure 2250 then aint half bad as i have seen them for 2300 and 2400 in the past year or so (mine was 2600 but I bargained with the guy a bit).
Just for your comment though I will lower the price to say, 2195.00 and set a new precedent on audiogon. BTW-- it is a SUPER pre-- I preferred it by far to the LS-17 I owned which for me, was too clinical and sterile. It was essentially a 'pretty good' solid-state pre -- but it happens to have a tube or two in it.
There is NO TUBE in the sound. You might say 'good'- but I say-- then what the heck am I buying a tube pre for? Might as well buy a Bryston and be done with it. Measures perfectly dont ya know!
The LS-5 Mk. 3 adds a touch of tube warmth without sacrificing the detail - it doesnt get all old-school-conrad-johnson on ya. The Mk. 2 is a bit tubier (and maybe somewhat cheaper on audiogon used) but that might have been too much for me to deal with as I only like a touch of golden glow in my music- not a huge helping.

Between the Coherence One and later Coherence Two I do not have information on a head to head comparison. I can though totaly recommend the Coherence One. Find it and buy it, if I don't get to it first.