Jeff Rowland preamps

Hi Dtanclim, I am among those who are very fond of the little Capri pre. You may have read elsewhere that in fact I have replaced the ARC Ref 3 in my system with the Capri. I do not have direct experience with the Synergy series devices, but have only the words of the designer--Jef Rowland--according to whom the Capri is his best sounding pre to date, barring Criterion. According to him, the key to Capri is the TI Burr Brown OPA1632 differentially balanced opamp, which has extremely high linearity, bandwidth, and low distortion. He designed Capri around this device, managing to achieve an extremely short signal path, which is also key to low distortion and purity of sound. According to JRDG, Capri is more extended, open and linear than any of his previous preamplifiers, without sacrificing any musicality. I admit that its amazing musicality is one of the reasons I prefer Capri over Ref 3. It is also worth pointing out though, that Capri does not attempt to emulate any stereotypical tube-like euphony. Feel free to msg/email me if you want to know more. Guido

Hi Egay, the only recommendations I have about Capri is to:

1. use it in balanced mode if at all possible.
2. Allow a full break in of about 500 hours of actual music playing before critical listening.
3. Leave it always turn on unless you have stormy weather.
4. Turn down the volume knob to 0 if you need to do a 'reset' with the rightmost button. . . or you may hear a pop through the speakers.

Dtanclim, it is indeed remarkable and perhaps partially serendipitous how the little Capri came apparently to exceed all previous JRDG designs. . . it was one of those cases where the designer had a huntch "on spec". . . perusing a TI Burr Brown data book actually, where Jeff Rowland came across the extremely interesting specification of the OPA1632 module. . . and thought it would constitute the core of a nice little pre with very minimal signal paths. . . and it obviously did. In the mid 1990s, when Rowland designed the then state of the art Synergy, he designed it around the componentry available at that time. . . a decade has passed, and at least in some areas of technology, evolution is still meaningful.

Guido

Aptquark, unfortunately I have no direct comparative experience of Concerto pre vs Capri. . . so I decided to ask Rod Tomson of Soundings Hifi in Denver, who has had a lot of experience with both. He suggested that from the point of view of extension, linearity, imaging and staging, the two are very similar. The difference seems to be that the Capri yields a more stable behavior under dynamic stress. . . e.g. greater stability / less distortion during high dynamic orchestral passages, and more convincing harmonic exposure after transients. . . e.g. greater harmonic content in decaying piano notes. Guido

Thank you Cyrus, isn't the little darling wonderful? The more I use the Capri the more I love it. Of course Capri is very sensitive to power cords. . . I have preferred the Shunyata Anaconda Helix Alpha this far, compared to PAD Anniversary and Cardas Golden Ref-- because of harmonic integrity an overall linearity. . . but I will be trying a few more PCS in the not very distant future.
Of course, Capri won't be ideal for everyone. . . it's not for those who seek the classic midrange 'glow' of tubes, nor for those who are questing for the ultimate ironfisted energy of some SS. Yet to me, it makes Music the way I like it. G.

Audiofil, I understand your pain. You are correct in that lack of visual feedback on left/right balance on Capri may be somewhat annoying for some. The limitations are as I explained elsewhere, historical. while the signal-sensitive circuits of the Capri are state of the art, for cost control reasons, The Capri's control circuits are exploiting legacy designs/hardware components used by JRDG since the early '90s, including the seven-segment numeric display. Future designs are likely to include a more sophisticated display and firmware capabilities. Currently, the only thing one can do on Capri is to turn the volume down to 0, select an unused input, then press the pause button for 5 seconds to reset the firmware.

From a purely personal point of view, most amusingly, anything that JRDG does with more elaborate visual I/Os in the future. . . will not yield any better usability for me. G.

The lack of polarity switch on the remote has also a historical origin. The remote was designed in the late 80s or early 90s. While the Capri has what some of us find to be one of the best sonic/musical attributes in the domain, it is worth point out that it was designed and it is priced as an entry level device. . . the signal path is state of the art, the mechanical package is outstanding, but some of the I/O flexibility and control function are limited, created with available legacy parts, or otherwise cost engineered to meet a price point. G.