Jeff Rowland to what?

Hello All, for me, after Rowland, there is… Rowland J

I was long hoping to evaluate the Rowland Daemon 1500W Superintegrated amp. Could a class D integrated fulfill my yearning for sonic nirvana, or would Daemon leave me pining for the wonderful music of my separates: Rowland Aeris DAC fed by the ultra-capacitor-based PSU external power supply, driving my beloved M925 monoblocks? Eventually, a Daemon review unit was delivered on February 28th. I Started break-in the following day, and have been scribbling my listening notes since… The writing project will continue for at least a few months, until the device has stabilized, and I have exercised several of its many input and output features. I have been waiting for a long time for this 99Lbs single box critter. It is Jeff Rowland’s integrated statement. The DAC + Preamp + 1500W/8 (2500W/4) dual-mono power amp in a single chassis measuring 17.5” x 15.25” x 9.5” is sounding amazing after just a little more than 300 hundred hours of break-in.

Discovering the phenomenal musical beauty that Daemon produces is being a fascinating experience… Already I am stunned by Daemon's power reserve and unreal tonal grace. Join me to chat about my adventure with this integrated flagship around its new Audiogon watering-hole:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/jeff-rowland-daemon-reviewing-the-jrdg-superintegrated-flagsh...

And, feel free to PM me with any questions about it.

Saluti, Guido

Hi Richard, as many already pointed out, exceeding the performance of the amp you have without "amping up" the investment very significantly might be a tall order. As you enjoy the sound of M625 S2 but you would like more power, I warmly recommend the Rowland M725 S2 class A/B monos or the Rowland M825 stereo, or the M925 monos. Outside the Rowland World, I might look at Solution amps.... Quite expensive, but yield a musicality that also meets my sound concept.

But there is something you can do to enhance the music of your system while keeping M625 S2, Corus, and the Aeris DAC.... Last week I have installed the recently released Rowland Power Storage Unit (PSU). As I mentioned via email, this is an external full chassis power supply based on ultra-capacitors. It is designed to feed simultaneously Aeris and Corus with pure DC, and takes them off the AC mains grid. I had heard glowing third party reports on it, but I was a little skeptical... While I have not had ultra-capacitors in my system, I understood the concept, and have had battery powered pre-amplifcation before.... And the performance difference between batteries and AC was very subtle.

But when I connected PSU into the Rowland Aeris DAC I realized that batteries supplies and PSU are totally different animals... The performance enhancement is simply staggering, even on my system which I already considered wonderful, where Aeris feeds directly a pair of Rowland M925 4-chassis monoblocks into Vienna Acoustics Die Muzik. The enhancement is apparent from first activation for all audible parameters I can think of, and is followed by a rapid evolution lasting perhaps 200 hours, which pushes performance even futher.

I will soon create a dedicated thread on PSU with a lot more detail.

Guido

Hello @gareneau, indeed PSU is quite transformational. I suspect that given the high caliber of Richard's electronics and speakers, a PSU would yield significantly more benefits than a power amp change. Fact is that Richard already has Aeris as well as Corus.... And one single PSU would enhance the performance of both of them... Even though I only have Aeris but not Corus, The enhancement that PSU made in my own system is far from being subtle, or even moderate.

G.

Hello Jimmy!

Your golden beauties are not Rowland Moons.... They are Rowland Model 7 monoblocks *Grins!*

A JRDG M625 S2 stereo like Richard's, or a pair of the brand new M535 bridged amps would be more than worthy successors to your classic Rowland monos.

Saluti, Guido

Hi Jimmy, M625 S2 might appear once a while on the pre-owned market…. But M535 is brand new, so it is unlikely to pop up used for quite a spell.

The good news is that M535 is reasonably priced at $5900 per chassis. Depending on your speakers, you can drive them with one single unit, and perhaps later add a second one for bridged operations if you want even more authority.

In stereo mode, M535 yields 250W into 8 Ohms, doubling to 500W into 4 Ohms.  In bridged mode, each unit outputs 900W.

G

Hello @ricr1,  looks like I missed your old post asking me a comparison of a bridged pair of Rowland M535 with the M625S2...

Unfortunately, as I have no experience with M625 S2, I cannot comment directly on differences in resolution, harmonic rendering, frequency excursion, and audible distortions.

On the other hand, looking at power specifications alone -- bridged M535 delivering about 900w per chassis with 30A peak current per chassis, compared to M625 S2 some 325W / channel, and remembering my original M625 first series, I suspect that M535 might yield a larger stage, images, and authority than M625S2.

It is however reasonable to suspect that M625 S2 would be superior to M535 in Some of the subtler attributes, such as low level resolution and micro dynamics.

Just to give you a totally subjective idea, my bridged pair of M535 delivers some 65% of the resolving power and sublety of my beloved ROwland M925 monos, and some 80% of stage size, at just under 20% of the cost of a pair of M925.... Prety darn good deal, IMO!

Saluti, Guido

 and       

Hello @Sacresta, I own and adore my Rowland Aeris DAC... But unlike friend Ricred1, I have enhanced its performance by feeding it through the Rowland external Power Storage Unit (PSU). This external ultra-capacitor-based full-chassis power supply has taken my DAC to amazing new heights... When powered by PSU, Aeris leaves the performance of Aeris with the original power supply simply in the dust.

MSG me if you want to know more.

Regards, Guido