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Thoughts on Burmester vs. Rowland

Hi all,
I've got a Burmester 956 and am thinking of moving to a Rowland 302. I have a pair of McIntosh XRT28s and am using an Exogal as the dac and pre. The Burmester sounds great but can get brittle and compressed on top when I really crank the volume. The XRTs are 4ohm nominal. I haven't heard any Rowland gear but it seems like the 302 gets away from the old syrup sound and is well regarded. I like dynamics and "boogie factor" (probably how I ended up with the Burmester!) I can't quite reach the 911 so I am examining other amps with more than 250w at 4 ohm. I've also considered Parasond JC1s, Sunfire Signature 600, Plinius, and even Ampzilla.
Thoughts?
128x128koslekt1
6 responses Add your response
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Rowland more musical great air and depth wonderful.
koslekt1's avatar
koslekt1 OP
78 posts
 
Thanks! The big room is a nice challenge to have - hence the bigger speakers :) Spectral is a solid idea, I'll have to check them out. I know they have some diehard fans.

ptss
1,964 posts
 
Magnificent and enviable room!. I think perhaps your Exogal is overloading the sensitivity of your amp as the Exogal appears capable of much higher output. Perhaps an amp "at least" twice as powerful would suffice.Perhaps Spectral.
gocubs999
156 posts
 
I have not tried the Burmester Amps; but, would like to at some point. I do have speakers that spec out very close to yours and now use the Rowland 312 with great results. Your speakers recommended power handling is 1200w Max I believe....so the power would be a good match it seems.
koslekt1's avatar
koslekt1 OP
78 posts
 

Thanks for the input.

The room is 30 x 18 with 15ft tall ceilings. I believe the sensitivity of the speakers is 88db, but I'm not 100% certain of that. The 956 is 240wats at 4ohm, not 500, so that is a sizeable difference. I've thought about adding a preamp in front but the Exogal folks have done their homework and adding one seems to add a layer, so I'm not super excited about that. I haven't ruled it out entirely, though!

ptss
1,964 posts
 
What is the sensitivity of your speakers?
How big is your room?
How loud are you playing?
Your amp has 500 WATTS at 4 ohms!
Why would you consider inferior products as replacement?
What do you have for A/C electrical isolation and power conditioning?
In my experience Burmester fed clean power should not get brittle and compressed. 
Summary: I think you're looking in the wrong area. 
I would look at the amp sensitivity and the Exogal output.
Hope this helps.


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