Rowland 102 specs are at:
http://jeffrowland.com/M102.htm
The 102 has an input impedance of 40KOhms, this is high enough to make it compatible with most preamplifiers. . . what is the output impedance of your pre?
The damping factor of 102 appears to be 1000, which should enable it to drive speakers with fluctuating impedance curves without issues. On the other hand, I do not know what the power handling characteristics of your speakers may be. . . 102 can generate 11 Amps and 100W into 8Ohms and 200W into 4Ohms. Guido |
Robbie - I cannot comment on synergy with Sonic Frontiers but I have Rowland Model 102. At the time I bought it it was $1500 while Bel Canto S300 was $1600. Not only that Rowland has great reputation and is known for beautiful cases but also one review claims that S300 performance improved by adding anti-resonance footing. Rowland case is milled ou from solid piece of aluminum - no resonance likely. Model 102 has only XLR inputs (S300 has both) and speaker Cardas style clamp that does not accept bananas. |
Robbie, if you need to use RCA connections, the Rowland factory can supply XLR2RCA conversion adapters for the 102. However, 102 is likely to perform better in a balanced configuration using XLR interconnects, if your pre were also balanced. Guido |
Thanks for the responses.
Guidocorona
According to my manual the Output Impedance of my Sonic Frontiers Line One is, 300 ohms balanced output, 150 ohms single-ended (unbalanced)
Kijanki it seems on the used Market the Jeff Rowland Costs about $100 more than the S300 these days. I would prefer a the 102, but there is only one listed on Audiogon, and the ad terms are "USA Only" and I am in Canada.
Thanks
Robbie |
http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1243618290&/Llano-Design-A200- |
Robbie, 300Ohms into a 40KOhms load should be no problem at all. Shipping from US to Canada is as far as I know, completely seemless. Shipper will just need to remember to declare the unit as manyufactured in the USA (which is actually correct). . . to avoid spurious Customs duty. You should drop a line to the seller and ask if he would ship to Canada. . . worse case is that he will decline. Guido |
The damping factor of 102 appears to be 1000, which should enable it to drive speakers with fluctuating impedance curves without issues does it do 2 ohms? |
Coffeey, let me know which speakers you have in mind, and their impedance/power handling characteristics. I will try to find out if the 102 can handle them. G. |
Hi Robbie.
I have a concern that neither the Bel Canto nor the JR 102 has enough power to drive your speakers at their full potential.
The 802s are 8 ohm and have a sensitivity rating of only 85dB. The manufacturer recommended MINIMUM power rating is 100W w/ no upper limit on wattage. I think you might need at least 200 wpc into 8 ohms for your speakers.
My Dali Ikon 6 are rated at 150w max @ 8ohms with 90dB and I needed a 200wpc amp to get them moving. They could easily take 300wpc.
BTW, I used to own the SF Line 1 with the humongous SF 110w x 2 tube amp. You have a really fine preamp there.
Mike |
I sspect Mike is correct. With an 85dB efficiency, the speakers will require fairly heft amps with perhaps 35Amps or 40Amps of current. Within class D amps, you need to look at devices built around the ICEpower 1000ASP module, which typically yields 500W and 40A. Examples are Bel Canto Ref 1000 and JRDG 501 monos. I believe some Wired4Sound and Seymour amps also use the same module and may be more affordable. By comparison, I have tried Maggies 3.6 that have the same sensitivity as the B&W 802s with the JRDG 201 monos (250W) and the JRDG 501 monos. . . the 201 monos quickly ran out of steam, while the 501s handled the Maggies handsomely. The 102 stereo yields only 100W and 11Amps of current. . . it is unlikely that it will be sufficient for your speakers. |
Coffey - It doesn't do 2 ohms. Minimum is 3 ohms. |
Coffey, I have just received confirmation from JRDG that the 102 model is not meant for extreme loudspeaker designs that operate in the 2 Ohm impedance range. G. |
Thanks everyone for all the help, but in the end I did not buy a Class D Amp. After reading the Jeff Rowland only output 11 Amps Peak Current per side, I was a little worried it was not enough power for my B&W Matrix 802S3's
I ended up buying a "Musical fidelity A3CR" 12O watt per channel into 8ohms, 70 amps Peak Current. It was available locally for a decent price, so I jumped on it. I listened to it at low levels last night (Wife and Kiddies were sleeping)for a couple hours and so far I really like what I hear. If I feel I need more power I can always add a second one later because A3CR has outputs so it can be bi-amped.
Thanks again for all your help.
Robbie
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