Jeff Rowland Model 501 - Help ...


I have a good offer for a Jeff Rowland 501 mono's. Unfortunately I cannot hear them in my system prior to the transaction. My question to the owners of these babies: do they produce any kind of HF radiation (through ear or cables) which might disturb functioning my TV or FM Radio ?

Any experience would be much appretiated ...
dejanm

Showing 2 responses by kijanki

Dejanm

Any amplifier radiates - even linear one. The question is amount of it. I have Rowland 102 directly under TV and I don't see any evidence of it. I tried different analog (and digital) channels - some with very weak signal and I cannot see any difference between amp ON and OFF (unplugged).

Class D produces about 1% of the carrier noise on the speaker cable. This carrier is about 0.5MHz and the speaker cable is a very bad antenna to radiate is (way too short). At this frequency 1/4 wave antenna is about 500 feet. Once you get under 1/8 wave antenna becomes very ineffective. It is also matter of distance of course. Capacitive coupling might be another problem if you have poorly shielded (or not shielded) IC or antenna cable.

Jeff Rowland decided to put only balanced input on my 102 amp - very mature decision.

I mentioned that any amp radiates. Linear amp (any amp) takes its power from mains in very short current spikes of huge amplitude. These narrow spikes contain some amount of radio frequencies and can contaminate audio as well (that's why power cord shielding is so important).

If you cannot audition 501s try any other Icepower - they sound very similar. If I would buy class D again I would probably go either for the Rowland with power factor factor correction unit inside (like extra power supply) or second generation of Bel Canto Ref1000 (mk II) that has similar addition inside. If you need integrated - go for Continuum 500 that has great Capri preamp and Power Factor Correction unit built inside (great bargain). Power Factor correction unit alone (works with 102, 201, 501 etc) is $1500.
Dejanm - As far as I know tweeter has very high impedance at 0.5MHz therefore power delivered will be very low. In addition there should be no intermodulation products because membrane cannot move at these frequencies.