I'll call Jeff next week and will find out what the situation may be. Guido |
During yesterday's session Criterion was on batteries, but was not unplugged from AC. I have not yet run Criterion unplugged from AC. G. |
If I recall correctly, FM Acoustics was showcasings its big monoblock amps costing $128,000. Guido |
Looks like I already goofed and posted incorrect URLS for the images. . . so here they are again:
Front view:
http://jeffrowland.com/Criterion-front.htm
Rear view:
http://jeffrowland.com/Criterion-back.htm |
Here is one more tidbit, extracted directly from the specs published this far. . . the output impedance of Criterion is 60Ohms for both balanced and SE operations. This may imply that the device will be fully compatible with almost any amp you connect downstream, including tube amps with low input impedance.
LaPierre, I deem myself a social misfit when it comes to audio. I cheerfully object to the sound of most electronics for variety of reasons. . . tubed, SS, and switching alike. And when I conversely like a device or a product line, I do so independently from underlying technology.
As you may have read elsewhere, I am very partial to the current JRDG Capri, which in so many ways -- after a very long and patient 800 hrs of breakin -- has taken what I dearly love in my Ref 3 in authority, lenearity, extension, detail, and harmonic texture, and pushed it a notch forward. What the Capri however does not do is to add an upper-bass-2-lower-treble euphonic glow to the whole. . . and for that I am grateful. If anyone is looking for this additive euphonic warm glow, characteristic of some tube designs, he may be disappointed by the pristine musical rendering of the Capri.
Knowing Jeff Rowland's mind set just a little bit, I can only venture to guess that the Criterion may very well push further in this direction of graceful sonic sculpting, and remain congruent with my own experience of live unamplified music. True or not? Difficult to say until I listen to it. . . but now I realize I am doing exactly what I promised not to do: speculating.
Please note that I use the term 'congruent' very deliberately, rather than 'faithful reproduction' or other facile platitude.
G. |
Hi Keith, you are right, specs tell very little. As soon as I have some better info I will post it, as I already said above. Reason I created this thread is that as I am extremely fond of the extant little Capri pre, I can't wait to listen to a much more ambitious device that harnesses the same ideas in an all out assault. Yet, it looks like I may still have to be a little patient. G. |
Hi French_fries, I agree with you. . . direct comparisons of older Concerto, Synergy and Coherence pres with current Capri are missing. If anyone in the greater Austin area has any of these legacy devices on hand, I'd love to get together and do some a/b listening. I have heard the Concerto pre once and loved it, but have not had the opportunity of doing a direct comparison with current production Capri nor with my ARC Ref 3. And if anyone else has the opportunity of making such direct comparison with units having at least 800 hours of recent play on them, please post your findings. |
Hi Pinkus, I am also among those who would like to see reviews of some of the current crop of JRDG gear appearing in North America print/online publications. Guido |
SAG, there is probably some amount of positive correlation between advertising presence and review coverage in most magazines. . . after all. . . somewhat got to pay the bills, and even unbiased reviewers and editors need to eat at least once per day. . . . or so their doctors tend to tell them. so, in the end, manufacturers that do not advertise, may end up being reviewed a little bit less than some other ones that do. 'Tis Life! G. |
It's a chicken and egg situation involving both manufacturers and magazines. . . difficult to say where it starts. . . but end result is that there are little reviews and little advertising. . . and everyone loses, manufacturers, magazines, and consumers. . . . until things change. G. |
Switching amplification is a relatively new technology as applied to the high end. . . as it gains more ground on the North American marketplace, it is inevitable that it will also garner more coverage by online and print publications. . . . and what's in the past will eventually become material for erudite historical marketing analysis. G. |
Yes Psag, absolutely. . . products must justify themselves on sound first and foremost. . . I am incredibly curious about its musical performance. G. |
Dgarretson, I will ask JRDG about the relative high impedance issue with NiMH that you report. As for SLAs. . . I was burnt once -- and not metaphorically speaking as there were fine flames involved.
Marius, I am looking forward to listening to the Dod and RWA Isabella, although I am more and more leaning toward SS devices for reason of upkeep and sonic preference.
Chris, fab attempt at raising one more hornets nest!
Guido |
"but don't be surprised to find out in 2011 that the jaw-dropping sound that you opted for now sounds "veiled""
Absolutely French_Fries! happened to me on a regular basis since 1967, when Dad 'upgraded' our home system for the 1st time since 1953. . . can't see why the 'veiling' of the past should stop any time soon, JRDG or not. . . . only my wife claims my stereo is good enough right now and for good! G. |
Hi French_Fries, my immediate goal is to be able to listen to a Criterion live. . . and to compare it with the Capri, and hopefully with a Ref 3. Perhaps at RMAF I'll be able to do some a/b listening with Criterion and Capri. . . . should be fun! G. |
Dave, we will hopefully have an opportunity of putting a Criterion and a Capri side by side in October during RMAF in Denver, and we'll find out what the real story is. G. |
Huh? I thought you had 2 arms. . . you'd look so dapper carrying one component under each [snickers!] |
Hi French_Fries. Point well taken. If I ever have the fortune of evaluating the Criterion in my own system, it may be fed by TEAC X-01 Limited; it may be feeding Rowland 312, Rowland 7M monos, NuForce 9; speakers will be Vienna Mahlers; It may be A/Bd to Capri, ARC Ref 3; ICS are AudioQuest Sky XLR; current speaker wires are Cardas Golden Refs. Hopefully system will be resolving enough. Of course, I have no idea if the eval will ever happen. G. |
I have just heard that JRDG has started shipping the Criterion. First production units are being used to fulfill an apparently considerable order backlog. If anyone has had the opportunity of listening to Criterion already, please post here. |
Yes, Rod Toms confirmed that he will receive a Criterion and will be able to break it in by the time RMAF starts. It will be on a system together with JRDG 312, Vienna Die Muzick, and. . . your very own PD MPS-5 I believe. G. |
Dave, if you fear you may develop a new case of 'insurmountable need', we should consider an in depth counselling session in front of a bottle of Barolo next month. G |
Hi Kawika, as far as I know all the hardware is ready and there are a few dozen Criterions almost ready to be shipped. . . control firmware is expected to be completed by year end. . . but, have you ever dealt with software developers? There is always one more module to complete, one more bug to remove, one more test configuration to run. I'll keep you posted. G. |
Hi Dgarretson, Criterion can operate both on DC and AC. I'll audition the device several times between Oct 9th and 12th. I will also bring along several of my PCs just in case. I will compare very carefully AC and DC ops and post here my totally unscientific opinions. G. |
Looks like Soundings will receive a Criterion demo unit on Thursday, just in time for RMAF's opening. Hopefully the device will already be broken in. . . I'll keep you posted. To me the question is still. . . will its music performance exceed significantly that of the Capri? Guido |
Capuccino, by coincidence the Marriott has assigned me a room just a few doors down from suite 505, where the Criterion is being set up this afternoon by Soundings Hifi. I'll post again as soon as I manage to give an initial listen to the creature. Guido |
Dave and I Heard Criterion yesterday for the first time at RMAF in Marriott suite 505 while the Soundings crew was setting up. Device had been used for 2 weeks by the software developer who is designing the control microcode. I estimate it may have been played for max 50 hours prior to yesterday. Device started cold and during the day played for 6 hrs continuously. Only the AC power supply was used as the firmware to control the battery DC PS is being tested. Rest of system consisted of JRDG 312 amp and the New Vienna Acoustic Die Muzick speakers which were being set up using the Masters process by Sumiko and Rod of Soundings. Source were a Marantz SA7-S1 and the PD MPS-5.
With the premise that in the little standard size hotel suite it is not possible to achieve optimal staging, and that Criterion is neither broken in nor it is using the battery power supply, results were extremely encouraging. We managed to conduct a very quick comparison with an equally new Capri. Using a Diana Krall cut, Dvorak's string sextet, 2nd movement from the New World Symphony, and 1st mov from Sibelius violin Concerto with Ann Sophie Mutter at the fiddle, my Initial impression is that Criterion seems to be yielding a much denser'', larger instrument image with a proportionally larger and more defined stage with finer and more textured overall detail. Before the show is over the Criterion will have racked up at least an additional 72 hrs of plahying time. . . I hope to be able to compare it with a fully broken in Capri. . . I'll post here my observations. Guido |
Thank you Clio, please keep us posted. Do you know if the Criterion was running on battery power or AC? If it is, see tomorrow if you can switch it back and forth and report on any perceivable difference. Guido |
Here are some more post RMAF notes. . .
Soundings suite top flight system consisted of Vienna Muzick, JRDG 312, JRDG Criterion running on AC (that probably just reached 100 hrs mark by end of show(, brand
spanking new Marantz SA7S1 player with 50 hrs break in by end of show alternated with Dave's well broken in Playback Designs MPS-5.
We tested initially the Marantz SA7S1 in the Soundings store before taking it to the RMAF suite using a well broken in Capri linestage: it was remarkable being still fresh out of the box with
some initial raggedness and congestion that already seemed to abate significantly by end of show on Sunday afternoon. Yet, even on Sunday afternoon I easily preferred MPS-5
for ease, extension, staging, imaging, harmonic content. The entire system in suite 505 on Sat and Sun was simply remarkable when using MPS5.
I expected that initially the JRDG Criterion in 505 would
impart a cold/ragged/congested signature as it was so new and running on AC. . . it definitely did not do that. . . overall there was magnificent extension,
headroom, musicality and clarity which kept increasing throughout the show, particularly when we used my AudioQuest Sky XLR IC between MPS-5 and Criterion.
Spoke to the developer of Criterion control software. . . battery PS control modules should be operational by year end.
Apparently JRDG will not rely on consumer grade NiMH, but may equip Criterion with industrial grade NiMH D cells--probably Saft, which have much greater reliability and durability. He said that he has not yet heard Criterion on batteries but his experience is that electronics on
DC batteries always sounds significantly better than on AC, no matter what line conditioning is being employed on AC.
We did briefly replace Criterion with a brand new Capri out of the box and fresh from the factory. Predictably Criterion was significantly more fleshed out, bolder, grander. . . the comparison however does not mean much as Criterion had perhaps 60 hours on it and Capri had 0 (zero). A meaningful comparison will eventually need to be made with 2 fully broken in units, and with Criterion running on batteries.
Overall, it is difficult to determine where the excellent sound in suite 505 was coming from: Vienna Acoustics Die Muzick, JRDG 312, Criterion, MPS-5, Marantz SA7S1, or the 8 hours that Soundings and Sumiko spent setting up the speakers in the room. . . likely it was a combination of all of them. In the end, while there were several rooms that I found quite enjoyable, Soundings suite 505 was one of my very few most favorite places, together with the Bel Canto / TAD suite in 585, the Synergistic Research in Longs Peak, and to an extent the TEAC Esoteric Room in 445. |
Just learned a couple more bits of info about the Criterion at RMAF. . . the device was an engineering model whose internals are still a little away from final production. For one thing it does not have final ceramic multi-layered boards, but it uses downlevel engineering development boards; According to Jeff Rowland, even under AC, the final production version should sound even better than what we heard in Denver.
The display is a prototype as well. . . final production will look somewhat different, should be brighter and should have crisper color. G. |
Kawika, I do not recall anyone by the name of Chicke at JRDG. the nice lady who usually answers the phone at JRDG is Kelly, who is an excellent business manager, while Jeff drives engineering and strategy. G. |
Another way to answer, is that the OPA1632 is just a component. . . the sound of a pre depends on much more than the chips used in it.. . . or in other words. . . "it's all in the handle". G. |
Hi Audiofil, I do appreciate your quandry. . . as I am totally blind I can't see even the large display of the Capri. The Criterion display is a pixel map display and the firmware can be updated via a USB port. I will ask JRDG if large characters can be generated. . . or if the firmware can be modified in the future to do that. . . But I have gotten used operating equipment without looking at the display, and it has been only a minor inconvenience this far. Guido |
Thank you Audiofil, except for the relative insensitivity to eye-candy, blindness is hardly a disability for an audiophile. . . more of a persistent annoyance, which can be circumvented to a reasonable extent by bits of added shrinkwrap on positive wire leads (thank you Cardas!) and a few written notes about remote control and component layouts.
I agree completely about the rigidity of display ergonomics and related input/output labelling. If I recall correctly -- and I may be wrong -- Criterion lets you assign meaningful text label on the display to connected devices. As for display color, the Criterion at RMAF had only an engineering level display with a temporary color. Criterion uses a series of filter jells to tune display color. Therefore it may be possible -- at least in principle -- to ask Jeff Rowland to install color filter tuned to the requirements of a particular user as a special order.
In some bright and wonderful future, I would like to see all system components able to communicate with and being remotely controlled by an external Mac/Linux/Windows computer via a platform independent web or Web 2.0 interface. . . at which point current international standards can be applied for developing highly usable/accessible control environments compatible with all audiophiles, including those of us with certain sensorial/motor/cognitive inconveniences/disabilities. See the World Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative technical guidelines at:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/guid-tech.html |
Kawika, my answer is "Yes; no; and definitely. . . may be!" A classic "non answer". . . the operative word is "can" as you say in your own question. The Burr Brown OPA1632 is apparently an extremely low noise, low distortion, and very high bandwidth differentially balanced op amp from TI Burr Brown. JRDG used it for the 1st time in the minimalistic Capri pre, which I do prefer over my own ARC Ref 3. . . as you can read in several threads where I wax poetic about Capri. I hope that eventually I will have the opportunity of comparing a fully broken in production level Criterion with the Capri and with ref 3. . . and derive some personal opinions. What I heard from Criterion was very promising. . . but it had engineering level boards and was running on AC. |
Audiofil, you have a point about buttons on JRDG. . . they are a little to small for me as well. . . in particular, the on/standby power switch on the 312 amp is a tiny round thing. . . flush with the front plate. . . I always hunt around with my fingers before finding it. On the other hand, I thought buttons and volume knobs on Capri and Criterion to be no problem at all. G. |
Just spoke to JRDG. Criterion is a linestage. a Phono section will be introduced next year in a separate chassis.
On the subject of size and color of characters on the display. . . the display is a fluorescent panel with 32x320 pixels. All chars are generate via software. numerics will be larger than on Capri. As fluorescent display generates a relatively broad spectrum, JRDG has selected a set of filtering jells that tune the output to a broad-spectrum very-light-quasi-white-blue, which should be usable even with most color distrophies. Brightness will be adjustable; display can be set to turn itself off after 5 secs, or even stay off indefinitely.
G. |
Kawika, during todays' phone chat Jeff appeared to be confident that he will ship Criterion before year end. Guido |
Hi Clio, here are some possible answers:
The remote control circuit of Capri was designed in the early 90s and has been used on a variety of devices ever since, hence its limitations.
Yes, the Criterion display will show balance state.
The audiophile population is not getting any younger. . . and a number of audiophiles are affected by all too common macular degeneration, cataracts, and various age related moderate sight deteriorations. . . hence the growing need of larger fonts on component displays. I only wish that the info on displays were also exportable via USB for those of us for whom megafonts are not an option. . . but this functionality is not yet implemented in today's generation of devices. G. |
And of course. . . Criterion does show R/L balance info on the display. |
Just managed to obtain one small technical tidbit from Jeff Rowland. . . Criterion utilizes the same oversized input and output Lundahl transformer that JRDG already has used on the 312 stereo amp and the Continuum 500 integrated. In the meantime, Jeff is confident that he will start shipping Criterion before year end. An engineering level unit with AC operation only and engineering level circuit boards is making the rounds of several dealers in Japan. . . in spite of device not being final production version, according to JRDG, reports are that dealers/users much prefer its sound even over the Coherence flagship. G. |
Yup, little Capri is one amazing device, and still remains my reference linestage. I hope that some day I'll be fortunate enough to compare a Capri and a Criterion side by side in my system. |
Kawika, I am planning to buzz JRDG this week, and will ask an update on Criterion First Customer Ship (FCS) date. In the meantime, if you are interested, my capsule review of the JRDG 312 stereo amp has finally been published on issue 188 of the Absolute Sound. It's part of the Vienna Mahler Review article,which starts on page 76 or 78. G. |
According to Rod at Soundings in Denver, Kelly, JRDG's office manager, declared that Santa does exist! The factory has just had Criterion First Customer Ship (FSC) a few days ago. Looks like a few lucky audiophile in yet undisclosed locations may get a Criterion under the tree. If I learn more, I'll post here. |
For those lucky stiffs who are attending THE Show in Vegas from Jan 8th through 11th, Jeff Rowland is featuring the Criterion at the Venitian, 30th floor, room 231. All I know about the rest of the system is that it features the JRDG 312 amp and Thiel 3.7 speakers. I suspect that the front end may be the newest EMM single box player, and that wiring may be Nordost (perhaps Valhalla). Sadly, I am not attending, but if you are, please post here any further details and listening impression. Furthermore, if you spot any showblog reports that mention Criterion. . . pls post the URL here as well. G. |
Husk, Soundings HiFi is in Denver (Colorado). Best way to get in touch with them is by phone at 303-759-5505. The owner is my friend Rod Tomson. |
If Jeff were indeed using Nordost wiring, it may not be a marriage made in heaven in an already reverberant/bright environment. Guido |
Cappuccino, it is good to know that complete Valhallas are synergistic on a JRDG-based system. . . Jeff Rowland currently favors Nordost Valhallas. . . I believe he may have them on his entire reference system in Colorado Springs. I have no details on the CES setup as yet. |
Spoke to Jeff Rowland today, the Stereophile report of Criterion being on static display at CES '09 appears to be one of those urban legends with an unknown cause. . . Criterion was playing music throughout the show, including during the Stereophile visit. Apparently Criterion was frequently being switched between AC and battery operations. Some units have already been shipped in limited quantities in December and January. General availability will commence as soon as a few residual kinks are extirpated from the remote control microcode. |
Husk01, I have just called JRDG. The answer is yes, not only Criterion supports theater bypass, but the bypass functionality can be mapped by the user to any single ended or balanced input via the Criterion menuing system. G. |
Husk01, a limited number of units have been shipped, minus the remote control whose microprogramming is still being finalized. General availability of Criterion will start as soon as all kinks have been removed from the remote control firmware. Guido |
