Levinson 383 or Rowland Continuum 500

Hi Jprice, I have about 150 hours (low volumes) on my C500 and although I feel it is already an across-the-board step up from my former integrated amp (Plinius 9200), the bass of the C500 doesn't seem to be as textured and nuanced as the Plinius. In your recollection did the bass of the C500 improved considerably at the 200 to 300 hour mark? Speakers are Dynaudio C1.

fwiw - the several times I heard the 383 it was grainy and two dimensional

good luck

Noelpastor,

I found the bass response from the Continuum to be well balanced with good resolution. On the Eggleston Andra IIs I had to concentrate a great deal on speaker placement and room treatment to keep the bass under control - it became overpowering when the speakers were too close together or too near the front wall. When I got the speakers properly aligned, the bass seemed to be well in keeping with the frequency response of the rest of the speaker.

The Mementos don't have much bass response below about 35- 40hz, but the Continuum did a very good job of delivering and controlling what bass response was available.

As to whether the bass response improved during the break-in period, It did improve, but not so much as the other characteristics of the amp - transparency, refinement, resolution, soundstaging etc. When I first started using the Continuum, I was still messing around with Eggleston speaker placement and, as stated earlier, the bass response was too full and I had to tone it down through speaker positioning and the use of tube traps.

I do think that breaking the amp in at low volume will take a great deal longer than doing so at normal listening levels (or higher). I would suggest that you turn the thing up a bit and enjoy. . . . .

Thanks Jprice, I wish I could turn up the volume a bit more during break-in, but I can't given apartment neighbors. My bass issue could actually be speaker-placement related among other things.

I have heard that the break-in time for Continuum 500 is somewhat shorter than on most other class D amplifiers, possibly because of its slightly higher operating temperature. Never the less, I suggest to be generous with break-in time allocation, and to continue the process for perhaps 300 hours. . . and then determine if there are any further changes up to 500 hours. DCSTEP reports that this break-in extension may not be necessary. BTW, one of the nice things about JRDG gear is a very long 5 years warranty on new units. G.