Thoughts on the Jeff Rowland Concerto integrated?


I am looking for any reviews that may be out there on the JRDG Concerto Integrated amplifier. I have done a search on Audiogon and a Google search and have come up with little in terms of actual review information. If you know of any such reviews, I'd appreciate it if you let me know where I can find them.

Have you had a chance to compare it with other integrated amps out there and how did it stack up? How about comparison with the better separates? It certainly appears to have ample power. How is it in terms of tonality, PRAT, imaging/soundstage? Finally, how good is the on-board phono stage?

I am looking at consolodating a couple of components (Lamm L1 line stage, Pass Labs Aleph 5 amp, highly upgraded EAR 834/S&B transformers) with a single unit. Would the Concerto (or any other integrated you can recommend) come close, or even better, improve on this? My speakers are Dunlavy Alethas, but will likely be downsized to a Merlin VSM/TSM or Kharma 3.1/3.2.

Many thanks in advance for reading this and for any information you can provide.

All the best,
Neville
njp

Showing 1 response by macrojack

Jeff tells me the Concerto integrated is identical to my 201 and Concerto Pre combo. I bought mine before the integrated was available but now I wish I had waited.

I also have the phono card which is the same as the one from the Concentra but it sounds much better in the new preamp. For reasons you'll need to learn from the factory, these cards are not completely interchangeable. It has something to do with a DAC option as I recall.

I'm very happy to read about people moving past the audiophile thing and just enjoying the music rather than listening beyond it to analyze micro differentials.

I believe the reason why you don't see more of Rowland in the audio press is because he got fed up with their petulant preening and the political manipulation of the reviewers and their puppetmasters.

Since no one else seems willing, I'll say it now. Jeff Rowland makes the hands down finest audio equipment available today. You can see that and that is why you are interested. Go ahead and buy it if you want to. You don't need Stereophile's permission.