PreDAC for Rowland 201 monoblocks

Hi Ziffle, if you enjoy the Rowland sound like I do, you may want to consider looking at the new iteration of the Rowland Capri preamplifier. Rowland calls it the Capri S2 (for Series 2).... Cosmetics are similar to the old Capri, with a better display and a more flexible remote... But the innerds are redesigned in collaboration with Holm Acoustics of Denmark. With the DAC card option, it seems to be retailing for $4400... It was released at CES 2013.

I had the original Capri for 18 months and absolutely loved it... I largely preferred Capri over the ARC Ref 3 that it replaced.

My Capri was used to drive Rowland 7M monoblocks, as well as the Rowland M312 stereo that is still in my system.

Saluti, Guido

I have the Capri matched to a set of Rowland 501s. Trumps some of the older ARC equipment it replaced. Rowland equipment in general is fun to tweak, experimenting with cones, bases, dots and such. The performance potential of Rowland gear is somewhat amazing, and when everything comes together it can be a revelation. I believe, however, this is also true of many different components that underperform in home systems due to a lack of experimentation and patience.

Very true Brauser, and with Capri, one must allow at least 500 hours of break in time. Capri is also somewhat sensitive to power cords. I have not experimented with cones on Capri. In theory at least, the Rowland PC-1 rectifier based on active power correction (PFC) can be applied to Capri and Capri S2.... However, I found that PC-1 made my original capri slightly congested, while it does wonders for amps like M102, M125, M201, M501, and M525. G.