What cables for Rowland's Concerto

If it's like Rowland's other products Balanced will be best, I have found Cardas dark/closed in sounding, I have had excellent luck with Transparent with Rowland. I will be going balanced soon hopefully

I use Harmonix Golden Performance in balanced configuration with my Rowland gear. I tried several other cables and the Harmonix sounded best. I'm getting incredibly clear and rich sound; a very musical combination.

Excellent selection! As an owner of a Concentra II, bought used here on 'gon not long ago, I rush to welcome you to the JRDG fan club.

My experiences may not be useful, given the difference in the two designs and power supplies. However:

I've found the Concentra II to be so VERY solid/stable that it is decidedly more "indifferent" to cabling changes than other gear I use in other systems. In that respect, switching among cables with the Rowland has been a complete surprise, compared to the other amps and preamps I've used over the years. While you can probably "kill" the glory of the Rowland sound w/ an overly dark or dull cable match, you will probably have a far larger range of decent choices than with other amps/preamps.

The C II has worked very well with Shunyata Phoenix SC, paired with rca ICs. I tried the Phoenix first, and found no need to look on.

As to interconnects, Transparent ICs were just fine, but I moved on. The Ridge Street's Poiemas were better (in MY system), both rca b/c the cdp and tuner in the C II set-up are only single-ended. I've also happily plugged in Ridge St's MSE, rca, w/ the Concentra II.

Some systems won't mate well with silver wires, as you know. I suspect you'd want to tread cautiously, if you are still using the Piegas. I'm running Aerials in the system w/ the Concentra II.

PLEASE let us know how you like the Concerto integrated, and what wire you ultimately pick.

thanks guys. Yes, i have heard the piegas don't like silver wires and should have mentioned that. Thanks!

Hi Streetdaddy:

I have Rowland Model 6 amps, Rowland Coherence II preamp and Rowland Cadence phono.

I run Kimber Select all-silver 1030 interconnects and Kimber Select 3038 all-silver speaker cable with my Rowland equipment. Both Stereo Exchange in Manhattan and Advanced Audio in Cary, NC, use Kimber Select all-silver with Rowland as well. Really good silver, and it is safe to say that Kimber Select silver is "really good", does not, in my opinion, sound inherently bright or ring, etc. To the extent it sounds "off" in a system, it is because silver passes a lot more information from the midrange up than silver and will show grain and other garbage produced by mediocre source components. My Kimber sounds totally natural in my system and is not the least bit bright or colored.

Rowland evidently uses Cardas internal wiring and I also used Cardas Neutral Reference between my Coherence preamp and amps for several years. It sounded very good, but at least in my system, was not comparable to the Kimber Select silver (the latter is a real step up).

The only down-side to the Kimber Select is the high cost.

Good luck.

Hi, I currently uses the Synergy IIi + Model 12 with all AC cords of BMI-ORCA, all interconnect cables n speaker cables are PURIST-the Venustas [ they're very worthy ]. Honestly,sound's awesome.
* Try it at least at one step, u will get a wonderful result *
= YOT =

I've got the Concentra II and Rowland 201's (biamp setup)and use Cardas Golden Reference Interconnects (XLR) and speakers cables and I'm very satisfied, power cords are Shunyata Taipan's on the 201's and GR on the Concentra II.

Cytocycle, could you elaborate further what you meant by "closed in" and which Cardas cables you had used.