Manley Stingray Integrated amp.

I had the same experiance as Dave , I bought a Stingray to replace my Scott 222 based on reviews. I loved the Mapleshade Scott 222 but it was low powered and tended to run out of headroom with the speakers I was using at the time. That being said, that little amp was capable of some truly sublime listening experiances.

Once I removed the Scott and replaced it with the Stingray I was dismayed with the presentation , the bass was weak , I played several tracks that I knew should have more sonic impact but the amp omitted them.

But what was much worse was the way this amp narrowed the soundstage of my recordings.It was like I was getting about 70% of what was on the CD/record. The Stingray could see deeply into a very narrow portion of the music if that makes sense. It was like a beam of light that lit up a small portion of the night sky (good , but where was the rest of the sky!)

In the end I put it up on Audiogon and got my money back.

This was a disturbing learning experiance as I could only conclude that the "reviews" were worthless. I had verifiable sonic proof that a 40 year old amp with half the rated power of its competitor, blew away in no uncertain terms, a piece of equipment that was voted "Integrated Amp of the Year by Dick Olsher"!

Dominic

Pubul57,
Yes, the JR Capri is good, very clean and detail, but I thought I'd wanted a little warmer, more musical. Someone once said "once you go tubes, you'd never go back" .... got me thinking.
I feel good having good compliment from someone. So, would the Manyley Stingray have what it takes to "stand" next to the JR Capri in sound quality? Also considering the integrated tube amp Panthos Classic One.
* Why integrate tube amp? getting involve with tube sounds w/o burning my pocket.

What is the warranty provided?

They are unbelievably geeky looking. They have a high school AV Club down market aesthetics thing going. I know sound is 99 percent of the equation, but they've got to have a low WAF and even lower GFAF thing going.

Mst,
I can't pin point down who you were asking, me or the others? Jeff Rowland or Manley?

Do not underestimate what you have with your amp/preamp combo. The Pathos might be the better option of the two integrated amps you mentioned, but I don't think either will make you forget about the Rowland combo. Think VAC Avatar SE if your goal is replacement, or as Pubul57 mentioned, get a tube amp instead to try with the Capri. I used a Capri with VAC Auricle Musicblocs and the sound was very good (my VAC had balanced inputs, not all do). If you want to try a tubed preamp with the Rowland I might suggest the Atma-sphere MP-3, again to take advantage of the balanced connections.