corus vs coherence 2

Hi Syntax, Rowland seems to have passed through an inter-regnum at the end of the age of the single digit classics, when for a spell his soul seeking lead to some devices which fell just short of being emotional. Which amps and preamps did you experience as somewhat unemotional? G.

Let me throw another comment into this discussion since i have owned the Model-12 monoblocks. hey, remember the #10 and #12? doesn't come up much in discussions. after hearing Diane Krall through a #10 at the local dealer (whose main listening room is a marvel of great acoustics) i threw a large am't of money down on the 12's. they sounded absolutely great except they didn't like brown outs- which i have all the time. after going back to colorado twice Jeff assured me the ps's had been modified/replaced and would never give me any more problems.
by then i was kinda bummed out about the whole affair and got Levinson 33H amps which completely floored me- dynamics and musical and every nice adjective you can come up with. i still have the 12's as backup and can't decide whether to sell them or not. but they easily matched the Pass Aleph 1.2's (the biggest in that line) for smooth relaxed "tube sound without the tubes" presentation. without getting so hot.
but even if the 10 and 12 never got much attention. am i to understand that the newer products are going to make the 12's sound veiled or whatever...?
even with significant improvements i AM interested in the new pieces. BUT-
that day listening to Ms.Krall years ago was pretty amazing...thrilling. $14,400 for a pair of amps- WOW, i must have been pretty moved...

Hi Syntax, I fully understand your point as I myself have wrongly taken different for better and had to eat my words. Sometimes companies strive for improvement and mess up a good thing and that's the irony of this hobby.

French_Fries, it is my understanding that the group of products formed by M10, M12, M112, M302, and M301 up to serial 71, were all sweet sounding to the detriment of some emotionality at the micro and macro level.

the following generation of amps followed two diverging routes...

the higher end M312 stereo and later production M301 monos were much more emotional products than the previous 2 generations in the micro/macro domains, while the lower end products like M201 and M501 sounded somewhat matter-of-fact unless they were fed through the JRDG PC-1 rectifier. M301, M312, M201, and M501 are all withdrawn.

The current generation of amps is growing into a much broader family: M925, M825, M725, M625, M525, M125.

The early incarnation of the M625 stereo exhibited a denser harmonic content than M312 but in some cases sounded slightly less transparent. It is my understanding that the slight regression in transparency has been addressed by a minor internal change. The original M625 stereo in my system generated stage and images that were approximately 2/3 the size of M312... Driving the Vienna Muzik, it sometimes gave me impression of having to "work for living".... There was the slightest impression of the amp running out of steem on intense orchestral tutti.

M725 mono cleans up all the residual issues of M625... At least as transparent as M312, but with lots more harmonic content, equal or larger stage and images, authority galore, and oddly enough, greater control and musicality of the bass, in spite of it having lower damping factor than M312... Which points to the fact that published specs are not necessarily good predictors of product behavior. Oh yes, and apreciably better control of intermodulation in treble, which yields treble that is even sweeter than M312 without being dampened nor foreshortened. Bottomline: M725 replaced M312 as my reference because it is more resolving, more transparent, and more musical than M312.

M625 and M725 remain current products. The amp line is being augmented both upward and downward.... M925 monoblocks have been released in January and I have a pair on order. The M825 stereo will be released in April, together with a lower end M525 bridgeable amp, and an entry level M125 stereo. How will they sound? I do not know yet, and any conjectures on my part would be quite worthless.

Saluti, G.

GREAT DISCUSSION-THANKS GUIDO. look i come to praise Cesar, not to.. well, you know. but your information yields a lot of points which reinforce what i have experienced. JRDG welcomes you to participate in a grand experiment. Jeff is one of the best pair of ears you could want and he never tires of advancing the goal
of sweetness combined with an equal measure of transparency. the caveat is of course that without a large bank account one can only play this game once in a great while, if at all. I had wanted a Model 8, but ended up with a used Levinson 23.5 instead due to $$ of course. long time later i had a good time with a Krell FPB-300. only after hearing the Pass 1.2 Class-A amps did i decide after a few more years of getting the Rowland 12's. But the left channel power supply made a disturbing noise, and after sending it in for repairs, it came back with the same exact problem. Kicking myself for paying a big gob of money for them and getting a "gee, that's too bad" from the dealer, i was
not inclined to see where Rowland's experiments were going to go. as it turned out, not all that well for a good while. I have no doubt that the 725's for $30K are "probablu" nothing less than incredible, and not too much money considering what they can do (with all of the other necessary and expensive components included set up in an excellent listening environment).
but wait- if the 825 is even better, then what?
anyone still running a Levinson 33H amp can STILL lay claim to a very solid performer- TONS of clean power and build quiality and sound quality that kinda "smooshed" the Rowland 12's in a number of areas. Just no diamond-cut aluminum (this covered the entire amp btw). I long for and HOPE TO SEE
a product, no matter who makes it, that holds its own for at LEAST 5-7 years.
that will take a lot of research, and a lot of field testing. but i don't give a crap (pardon my french) if it is a black square box with a button on the front and an LED to tell you it's on. hide it behind your speakers if you want to, but make it sound like the angels have descended and are singing a happy tune. and keep the prices down. i wonder if Hegel from Norway is as good as some claim (a good example)?