Rowland 625

I see Electrocompaniet is discussed. They are good amps, and very good value, especially here in Norway where I live. Just a short comment on Electrocompaniet vs Rowland: A Norwegian Hifi magazine called Fidelity, now has expanded to Scandinavia, tested the Rowland 301 monos some years ago and preferred them over Electrocompaniet Nemo monos.

Personally I think my 301s are more resolved than EC and expecially after I got Odin power cables on them they really shine (Odin was a HUGE upgrade!). Electrocompaniet is warmer, but less neutral, has slam, but still less authority, and also less microdetail. Electrocompaniet has great midrange though, but are not so extended and resolved in bottom and top frequencies.

Well... welll.

After 5 days my Electrocompaniet AW250R had a internal problem. As I don't want to fix it for my use, I'm going to sell the amplifier together with the 4.8 preamplifier.

So I'm going, slowly, to pay attention to the M625 as I have the Criterion.

But after I heard the sound of the GamuT and AW250R I'm afraid that JRDG hasn't the "feeling" and the "finesse" to make a "sweet for the ears" amplifier.

I mean something warm, because I find out that you can spent more hours listen to the music without become tired with a little bit warm sound.

Sorry my English, but I think the opposite word for warm in audio is Analitc. IMO the Model 312 has a analitc sound and a prefer a litle bit ( not too much ) warm sound. I don't want the M625 with a analitic sound.

Anyway, If anyone knows could tell me, please, the 625's Maximum Power Consumption at 4 ohms? Because I didn't find it in its specifications.

Isvaldo

Cappuccino, you post while I was writing my prior post.

When I choose to buy the AW250R was because I did a research in Internet. For what I find out, "the AW250R is more musical", the words people use to talk about this device, than the others EC models.

And it's true, because when I went to the EC dealer, I didn't like the AW180 and the AW400 as I have like the AW250R.

IMO the AW250 is more musical as they say in Google. Wonderfull device.

But the mine has broken after only 5 days.

About the Model 312, maybe the difference for the AW250R is because the Model 312 is Class D, and it's true when people say worse things about Class D amplifiers.

I hope the M625, a Class A or Class AB, I don't remember, has the "warm stuff I'm searching for a amplifier"

Isvaldo

The Jeff 625 stereo amp is one he'll of the best amp that Jeff ever produced. If it can get any better, it can only be their monoblock 925 released to the market here in Singapore soon. To start, with, it's a notch better than my Jeff 8ti. What goodness the 8ti can do, the 625 did it significantly better and did things that was unheard of on the 8ti. 3D soundstage, with vocals so liquid velvety and yet nor discolored warm character that u expect from tube. I m trying to say, the vocal is neutral. I find that most ss amps could give the muscle to power speakers, fastness and slam but not easeness of listening to vocals which tube amps do it better. The 625 has full control over the speaker squeezing out every bit of juice from my sonus faber amati homage anniversario. It sounded so musical playing from rock pieces like Bad Company and CCR with their electric guitars growling and the voices and the percussion all can be heard with high resolution. It's a quiet amp, THD of 0.005% at 1kHZ as compared to 0.1% over the 8ti. Perhaps that is why, the voices from the 8ti sounded a little warm and slow with slight hiss at the end of each vocal note especially on female voice. I believe the older design was meant to bridge the gap between ss and tube amp in its presentation. The 625 has the best of ss and tube amps. Simple as that. Marvelous for the fact that Jeff can reduce the size significantly from it's legendary class AB amps of the past like the model 7 and 8. The matching between the Jeff Critetion Preanp and the 625 is made un heaven. When switching to fulll battery mode (without charging from AC source), it improves subtileties which render music presentation from excellent to perfect. Playing music was never so lively in my listening room. Before I purchased the 625, I auditioned the newly release Goldmund Telos 250 and it sounded great with the Jeff Critetion. Very fast and excellent control over the speakers. High rise time and high slew rate?? I find that while the speed and control matches the Jeff or slightly better, the detail lnuances of a music passage especially the decay effect of piano notes or the strike of a drum lacks the 625. Jeff 625 is truly great. Bravo Mr Jeff.

Isvaldo, M625 yields 550W at 4 Ohms, 300W at 8 Ohms. Idle power consumption is 100W. Standby power consumption appears to be 1W.

G.