I was a Rowland dealer back in the day and have known Jeff for a very long time.
This is NOT usual with Jeff or his company. They are a great company and usually really into customer service. Not sure what is going on, but surely not typical... |
Hi Saygrr, I tried to send you a PM, but I was not able to do so. Please send me a PM with some contact info for your friend... I will then get in touch with the factory.
Guido |
I would call a Rowland dealer and see if they would be willing to help you get in touch with them. |
I contacted Rowland through their web portal and am also waiting for a reply. However, it does state clearly that they will take up to five(5) business days to get back to you. I am now at my fourth business day...so we shall see. |
Hi Jeff, as promised, I have spoken with Brandon Kelley at the Rowland Factory. Brandon will be calling either Marc or you. |
Brandon contacted me today as well. Apparently, only Jeff himself is able to work on the older classic designs....I'm pretty impressed. I'm greatly looking forward to hearing from Jeff again. |
"Apparently, only Jeff himself is able to work on the older classic designs....I'm pretty impressed."
So when Jeff dies,so does any repair work on older designs? Not good business sense... |
Aolmrd1241...i guess it's going to be Jeff's apprentice, LOL.
However, let's get serious now, how many amps do you know of where the original designer is still willing to work on the piece after so many years?
I do think this says a lot about Jeff and it sits well with me as one of his customers. |
Daveyf,I do agree with you about Jeff. I just don't believe that Rowland should put all of their eggs into one basket. But that's just me... |
Particularly when "so many years" spells anything from 15 to 30 years *grins!*
G. |
That's a good point, Aolmrd241. Perhaps there's only one Jeff! |
Jeff Rowland is not quite 63 years old and has taken very good care of himself for all of the 35 years I've known him. Worries about his demise are premature at best. Nonetheless, knowing that, I called and had a catching up chat with Kelly Ballard, who has been his office manager for 25 years now.
All is well and she has heard nothing about anyone having service difficulties. She did allow that sometimes there is a piece that presents an unusual problem and needs to be set aside temporarily. That may have been the problem encountered by the OP.
Personally, I cannot recall ever being without some Jeff Rowland built equipment in my stable since 1978. The only equipment problem I can recall (that wasn't my doing) was the failure of the illuminated faceplate on my Consonance preamp. I had bought the unit used when it was 10 years old but Jeff replaced the faceplate and made the unit like new for no charge.
Jeff Rowland gets my vote as one of the most important manufacturers and designers in hi-end audio history. It is only because he did not kiss up to the audio press that you are not much more familiar with his work and his reputation. Check out resale on JRDG products for a rousing testimonial. |
"Check out resale on JRDG products for a rousing testimonial."
If you can find any being offered, that is... Rowland owners tend to hold on to their marvellous machines almost indefinitely, so the availability of used Rowland gear is sparse at best.
Guido |
"..Rowland owners tend to hold on to their marvellous machines almost indefinitely.." I only let go of them when I can replace with another :). Even went out on a limb with some of his class D amps and can only guess the previous owner never let them break in. They just get better and better. |
Guido tells it like it is. I have had my model 8 for over 18 years and I have no intention of replacing it anytime soon. Too great an amp, IMO.
BTW, I have been contacted by Brandon and he is VERY helpful indeed...great customer service. |
Hi Tmcclintock, which Rowland Class D amp are you running? GUido |
Hi Guido, I have the 201s with PC-1 power supply/conditioner and am biamping with those on my woofers and a Concentra II on the mids and tweeters. The 201s and PC-1 were a nice addition right off the bat, but truly have continued to improve over several months. Would love to try his newer class D topology as I've read it's better. - Terry |
Hi Terry, PC-1 + M201 must sound very sweet indeed.
The new rowland class D amps are quite awesome. Within the sane end of the product spectrum I have heard the Continuum S2 integrated... Fabulously refined to say the least. There is now also an M525 stereo bridgeable to mono operations which has integrated a PFC rectifier like PC-1 into it.
M525:
http://jeffrowlandgroup.com/kb/categories.php?categoryid=214
Continuum S2:
http://jeffrowlandgroup.com/kb/categories.php?categoryid=211
PM me if you like to chat offline. Saluti, Guido |
I always had 5 star service Jeff once gave my amp Rowland 8T upgrade at no charge because i had a leaky capacitor. |
OP-
Thank You! for sharing your story. It is important to post both positive & negative experiences when dealing w/ these retailers/manufacturers. Keep us posted as your situation resolves (good, bad, indifferent). |
A big thanks to Guidocorona for helping get in contact with JRDG. Thank you to all the posters for your input and support. A little background on what happened and the need to send it to JRDG. My friend is getting out of the hobby. Several pieces of gear sold. The model 5 we were not able to generate any interest by word of mouth so my friend took it to dealer who agreed to sell it on consignment. Over the past almost 30 years we had done some business with this dealer. Unfortunately my friend found out this dealer was going out of business. My friend went to get the amp back, dealer tells him it did not work when he brought it in and started to do some work on it. So no need to say any more. The news from JRDG it will cost more to fix it than the value of the amp. I bought this amp new, owned it for a few years before selling it to my friend. It was an outstanding amp and would have been a great amp for someone but now it won't be.
I hope this thread is not misunderstood. It is not to have any negative appearance towards JRDG at all. Just caught JRDG at a bad time with an old amp. I am and always will admire Jeff's products.
Thanks so much for the help and the posts. |
I also had very bad experiences with Rowland service. Never a reply no matter how often I wrote or called it was always interrupted. I gave up. |
I also had very bad experiences with Rowland service. Never a reply no matter how often I wrote or called it was always interrupted. I gave up. |
