BEST PERFORMING AUDIO INTEGRATED AMP EVER MADE ? JEFF ROWLAND DAEMON
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- Опубліковано 1 кві 2023
- #audiophile #audio #best
Well here's the highest performance you can get for the money in my opinion.
A real "true" high end rig in a single box...
$50K is the price of admission.
I have ten pieces available for the Tribe at a Tribe only opportunity..
Please contact me for more details.
I've had Jeff Rowland Capri since 2007, it's a fantastic, reliable little pre amp which has the warm tonality of tubes with the muscle of solid sate and it's never been down. Rock solid
Great piece !
And THERE IT IS!
P e r f o r m a n c e.
Ergonomics.
L o n g e v i t y.
Aesthetics.
JRDG just rocks!
Build quality is off the charts. Jeff Rowland is a maniac.
Thanks Mikey, can't wait to order mine.
Super Cool 😎 thx for sharing 👍
Thanks for watching!
That is some special kind of beautiful
Heavy Doo Tay....
that is freaking beautiful!
Right ?
had a Model 5 great amp. hung out with Jeff at his factory in Colorado Springs. nice guy. his designs are works of art. the Wilsons would sing with this
True... yes, Jeff is a great guy
Looks amazing!!
It is!
amazing looking BEAST
$$$ !!
Truly !
Fooking impressive
Good that it has balance control. So many of these high end amps don’t have that. But it would be good if it had some tone control.
45 years ... John Strohbeen, Ohm Acoustics
Dig the horizontal flywheel.
Us 70's hifi dudes, flywheel controls were like a drug,
... 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 feel.
As Stevemo says, knobfeel is a vital component.
I'm guessing it's those early experiences, powerfully imprinted experiences.
Nothing like operating a big receiver, up close, flywheel tuning, FM tuning meters ...
Tactile.
As to this Rowland integrated, damn, it looks like an absolute powerhouse. With PFC, and a SMPS, it'll pulse a mammoth amount of power.
Dang bro! Next time I'm in town, I'd love to hear that beastly amp!!!
Do it !
A beautiful beast!!!
Yes it is !
Hi Mike: I owe the Jeff Rowland 501 class D monos. I’m using Legacy Audio Focus SE speakers with them. Bought them since they came out, wouldn’t trade them for anything else out there. Love the way they look and sound. I’m in sonic nirvana every time I listen to my rig, best regards, Les.
Thanks Les, glad to hear !
That looks beast
What a beast!
oh how id love to have something like this im a newbie and have something i think sounds great but this is beautiful
The Continuum would be more than enough for me. However, thanks for showing us this beast.
The CODA?
@@YouSoundButtHurt Jeff Rowland makes two integrated amps. The lower line one is around $10 -11 thousand. The brand Coda looks interesting as well.
NOT CODA , he means the Rowland Continuum S2... it's perfect for most anyone and is $10K... 5K used !!!
@@OCDHIFiGuy My bad, both having the same name confused moi.
Damn this is sick!
I'd love to buy some of those prints!
Daemon was an option for me but I´m glad I did go with the spitl Capri/625S2 and the Playback Design 8 Dac/Transport combo
Wow!
Yes Steffen, you did better IMHO. Thanks for your business ;-)
@@OCDHIFiGuy THX for your great advice, couldn´t be more happy with my rig and I don´t mind the splitting even so they were more expensive alone and with all the cables even more expensive. XLR connect between Pre-/Poweramp, DAC to PreAmp, Powercables, all good stuff but sure a very nice price on top.
It was a lifetime purchase, so yeah, f it
Adding these components and cables piece by piece, I have to say, the biggest real noticeable improvement for sure was the DAC and the psaudio powerplant 20.
It is so hard to say what a pre-/amp, transport, cables, dac brings to the table and I didn´t switch back and forth.
Speakers psaudio Aspen FR30 came first (driven by homecinema rig Denon Amp and Rotel 1095 poweramp, Panasonic UHD 9004/Oppo SACD, Windows media pc)
Shortly after came the Rowland Caprio 2 SC and the 625 S2, that was an improvement, but I wouldn´t say by miles, but better.
After that came the MPD-8, that was a big noticeable difference. Connecting Panasonic via Coax sounded great but my Media PC over USB connected to the DAC was even better.
Before the MPT-8 came the DAC was burned-in with 500hrs and that was an improvement in clarity, I would say even a bigger improvement as integrating the Transport into the chain, play via Windows with JRiver with PlaybackDesigns driver/settings or Transport didn´t make a big difference to me. But I still love the combo because of handling and how they look next to each other. This combo simply works, and we all no that will not be the same with windows. But still, with JRiver I can also watch my concerts over my NAS and I absolutely love that. Switching into Kodi and so the Homecinema Denon AMP you can clearly hear a difference against Jriver and MPD-8. When Denon is working all sound is coming from the speakers, the stage is simply almost gone, in the first seconds it sounds more impressive over Denon but this is a false reaction, after short listening clearly the Playback Designs outshines the Denon.
So Transport didn´t make that big of a difference to me but I would always buy it again because of handling, remote is great, the App is great, perfect combo to the DAC.
As mentioned, a very big difference came with the latest adding, the psaudio Powerplant 20. Holy cow when my dealer and now friend put that thing up we before listened to my rig for 2hrs and I thought why even test that powerplant thing? no chance you can improve what we just heard. Adding this monster immediatly made a difference to my surprise, with the first song you could hear more clarity, same as when the DAC was finally broken-in, everything was more "clear" like a thin curtain was removed, and soundstage, specially the singer simply is standing 3x the size in front of you. Listening with that Powerplant for another 3 hrs and I knew, I wouldn´t want to miss what this box is bringing to the table, I had to buy that too.
So I can honestly say there is not one piece in the rig that I would want to change, I love the digital source done by Playback Designs, the Vinyls over my Clearaudio turntable, concerts over JRiver, movies with Kodi or Panasonic with Denon handling processing and adding rear speakers, all going into a manuell switch and then into the Capri bypass, because of the 2 digital sources I had to implement that passive switch because Capri only has 1 bypass.
Turntable also into Capri because I added the hd-phono card, so the only manuel step for me is the passive switch between homecinema or Playback Designs, I can live with that. Capri then bypass or phone via remote.
I totally love that rig and listen to it every day for many hours
My friend just bought a pair of model 9 he’s in love
Driving wilson maxx2 preamp is pass lab x0
There it is !
very nice. that centrepiece fidget spinner is cool. nice interactive physical interaction. inter-physical flux-reactor. but silliness aside, this is sexy asf
Stunning piece of gear indeed... $50 K is a bit too rich for me though as... It is the same cost as a decent Ford / GM / Honda / Toyota ! I would venture to guess that a more engineering effort goes into an automobile !
This is for people that drive Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and Ferarri. Clearly it's not for people on a budget...
If the guy with the big arms also indorses this ,...I`m in!
I know, Mikey. That's my dream integrated! Guess I'll just have to settle for my beloved and truly outstanding Hegel H590 integrated.
Love you Ken, but I'm a Hegel Hater....
@@OCDHIFiGuy No sweat, Mikey. I'm a ribbon speaker hater. Different strokes!!!
@@howardskeivys4184 I drive my reference-for-life Revel Salon 2 speakers with a Hegel H590 and I'm all done for the foreseeable and distant future. Thank goodness!!!
@@OCDHIFiGuy I would have been offended but I heard the Margules tube amp on my speakers and it blows away my h390.
Would be fun to have a shoot out between this, A $146,000 Vitus Audio MP-I20 integrated, A $46,000 Vitus Audio SIA-030, A $58,000 Audionet Humboldt and a $40,000 Pillum Leonidas integrated amplifier.
You want to watch the Americans dominate yet AGAIN ??? LOL
Audionet will win 🥇
Quicksilver Audio, Mike Sanders, 45 yrs! Still at it making some of the best and highly regarded tube gear in the industry. Still answers his own phone!
Eminent Technology, Bruce Thigpen, 41 yrs! Handmade push pull planar hybrid loudspeaker 25 Hz-50 kHz ±4 dB. plus his Patent pending TRW-17 Thigpen rotary woofer. Frequency response 1Hz - 30Hz +/- 4dB. (If you heard it you’d never forget it). Still answers his own phone.
Cool !!
Have you tried just using the preamp section and plugging in the 625 S2's? That comparison would be interesting.
FM ACOUSTICS is one of the few companies that is in business for more than forty years and designed by Manuel Huber. My point is there are still companies like that. The only downside is maybe the class D and the price tag. I’m into integrated amplifiers. And this one ☝️ is very interesting.
Great example but I don't like those amps... also they are totally overpriced for what you get.
It looks like a very nice box, 50 thousand ,ouch ! Does it get beer out of the frig bring it to you? Maybe it rolls ? Guess I’ll have to get something cheaper. Diminishing Returns ? With the wide selection of Amps ect today, you would think it very hard in this economy for high end pieces. Is it a one off? Where is the fifty thousand ? I saw a Boulder Amp that did a lot of the same things . Kids ! Fifty thousand, clearly you don’t have children ! I would think you know hundreds of amps that will Rock ! Thank you, I had no idea that anything like that was around. Especially that kind of money.
Lol. Yes my friend, there are $250K amps that are only for the power part. .meaning you need to add 3 more pieces for your $250K amp to power the speakers you already bought.
I serve some people with $500K to $1.5M stereo systems... remember... these are people that fly in Jets they own.
@@OCDHIFiGuy my uncle ! He has a theater !in his house. You’re right they live completely different from the rest of us. Private planes, maids, private schools for my cousins, homes all over the World ect ! Until you have spent alittle time around people like that you could never understand how people could spend that kind of money. Everything is relevant to your income. Me it’s 80’s Klipsch K-Horns, and Belle’s. My receiver is A 75 Marantz 2325, it’s old but it sounds very good. Probably could be recapped, I do take my air compressor and blow it out every few years. One light burned out last year. It still looks new, yes I have the walnut cover. Just old like me but still rocking. Truth is Ivehad so long , it has became my friend ! Hahahahahaha ! The price to get anything new that is nice would cost thousands ! I’ve kept my speakers updated. It always surprises me, the better the sources sound very good. Plus I do turn it up and rock , my home is in 15 acres, plus my listening room is 28x24’ , double insulated all around and ceiling. I run a M&K powered sub 2x12” everything is walnut and it reminds you off very nice furniture. I think to up grade it would be very expensive. I’d love a new Michi, Luxman, Macintosh, anything that was built tuff because the Marantz is a Tank ! The Truth is would it really sound that much better? Plus even if I wanted to listen and actually look at one I’d have to go to Nashville or Knoxville. I live in a very small redneck town in Middle Tennessee ! We don’t have any WOKE people screaming here. Beautiful place to live but if you want something nice get ready to travel. I can turn it up as loud as I can stand any time 24x7 ! No Police because nobody can hear it most of the the time. Truth is my neighbors don’t care . It’s a different place to live . People go to church and believe in G D here. Most are very respectful. You guys have some of the nicest equipment I have ever seen. Keep it coming, I really enjoy you guys. I can hear the differences between the speakers ect. My system is good enough to hear sometimes big differences ! Thanks
WOW
Even if I was a multimillionaire, which is 5 years away, I couldn't justify wasting 50K on an amp.
I'm starting with a Outlaw RR 2160 mkii and may go up to Cambridge Audio separates, unless something new can knock it out of place.
Nice to see these ultimate pieces though.
You can do a lot better than Cambridge. Don't forget, you can't take the money with you so live a little.
Lol. How about a $300K amp and preamp with a $160K DAC ? It would take me 5 minutes speaking with you to find your "wasting" of money in my eyes... Patek Phillippe perhaps ?
Mike - In your opinion, how would a new Accuphase E-5000 (rated at 240 WPC, 8 Ohms) connected to a pair of Klipsch LaScala AL5's (105 dB. Sensitivity), hold its own against the Daemon, connected to any speaker you desire - in terms of sound quality, build quality or any other measurement criteria?
Dang! I think I have to go change my shorts!!! :)
"Youca schmell it".. (Eddie Murphy)
Could you go into detail the sonic benefits of having an exquisitely built chassis made from a solid billet of aluminum? How much does that really contribute to the overall sound of a product?
I don't know how to quantify it for you. We all know vibration is bad for audio gear. Some companies choose to address this, and some choose not to. If I'm spending 50K, I want an exotic chassis, not sheet metal. I have seen plenty of Uber expensive gear without a chassis like this, so I feel Rowland gives one more for their money. The other advantage of this chassis is integral heatsink, so you don't just bolt on a cheap chunk of extruded aluminum the way most companies do. Not only are they a laceration hazard on amps this heavy, but there's no way to securely pick the amp up. So, to me, this is a thoughtful design that is not only gorgeous and like no other (exotic), but it's functional and very smart. Due to this chassis alone, if you are any adept judge of character, you can count on this designer (Jeff Rowland in this case) to have a high level of integrity and forethought in his design choices. You see when you get a huge corporate brand, no single designer brings the whole piece to creation.. so it's integrity is lost. Just like a bespoke musical instrument, you want ONE person bringing it through its manufacturing, front to back. This is how the most exquisite material creations come to be. So Jeff's high standard starts with the box the gear comes in.
bro, I have such tremendous respect for you for the way you handled this question, I would not have been quite as kind and generous, bravo my friend ! I just found your UA-cam channel today January 22, 2024. I am a maggie fan and would love to do business with you. Just like you said I’ve been at this since the early 70s and sick and tired of tweaking and just want to sit down and listen and not think about interconnects and all of the other crap that goes along with separates. Definitely serious about looking at one of these Jeff Rowland units. What a thing of beauty! let me check and see where you are located definitely want to hook up and do some business. I am an old maggie fan, Got rid of my Timpani 1-D’s many years ago and I want to get back into planers. Would like to get your opinion on the Diptych speakers. I’m sure I’m spelling that wrong but who cares lol. By the way I did pretty much the same thing that you did with the fuse and the little horseshoe connectors on my Maggie’s. You are brilliant bro
UNLESS! They HAVEN’T updated their website yet:
1500(8)
3000(4)
6000(2)
Even if he built
D a e m o n at half those numbers, I’m continuing, breaking my xss in MegaMillion$ because I want two of them!
D1 to drive a pair of Paradigm Persona 7f’s
&
D2 to drive a pair of Vandersteen Treo CT’s.
Awesome!
wow, I am truly speechless!
Quite a piece, right ?
@@OCDHIFiGuy absolute drool worthy 🙂
Beautiful piece! Cute interface. But with such an expensive piece, I rather go old school and go without the Lcd screen. Because should it go dead, it feels like you would be screwed! Just my two cents...
Well, if it were to go dead, JR would replace it !! ;-) I get your concern however, but JR is a VERY reliable brand as far as "going dead".. I still have not had one do that ....
Probably onlyluxman comes close; nontheless interesting...is the daemon 10x better than the luxman lx 380?
jay's Porta-Potty Lab uses Jeff Rowland amps as paper weights to hold down his stack of Boulder amp receipts.
Lol. Feeling creative today !! Kudos BH !!
Guess that would drive my Maggies, huh?
Without lifting a finger ;-)
Do you lose the Dac section by making this a power amp???
mmmm...everything resonating from the same chassis...mmmm...
Explain yourself oh Obi Wan..
@@OCDHIFiGuy More like Jar-Jar. “How wuude!”
@@OCDHIFiGuy Hmm...I guess we go through phases of consciousness concerning, well, everything. My current "hi-fi" obsession is "what is the sonic difference between having separate boxes vs an integrated box?" WHILST I don't have means of exercising my thoughts with hi-fi per se, I do however feed my humble hifi with rips from an old library of CD's (mmm) in which the same theory applies, or can be observed. These CD's were made/moulded pretty much when the albums were released, so they have real integrity to them (there I go again). One ripping set up consists of LifePo300ah>supercap bank>Belleson regs>ATX>IDE drive etc - all sitting on as much thick acrylic as possible, as even with no speaker vibration turns out there's still vibrations which effects electronics hugely, this acrylic is all separate BTW. The other set up is a laptop with a USB CD ROM drive sitting on their own respective blocks. Well, though the ATX should offer a more relaxing sound than with the laptop set up it it fails in most other areas. From experimenting, the direct type sound that the laptop has is missing from the ATX. I feel this is for more reasons than the larger "separate" ATX version not having as much RF and EMI protection yet, or less cables, but rather the lack of integration Mikey. Please, i'm not talking about the lack of isolation cross talk smushy phantom stuff, im talking about a shared resonance and the effects it has on the presentation. This sonic aesthetic tends towards the closed in sound yes, but i'd take timing over sonic spread.
Maybe it's a room thing. Maybe im just talking shit. Maybe if I had 60,000 i'd just buy fucking separates. Anyway, have a good one!!
D.
OCD - jeff Rowland should make a dac preamp. Is there any in future?
Already available... contact me if interested.
Do Class D amps get hot? (sorry for asking, but i am not familiar with Class D amps, and based on the wattage and seeing the interior, i am assuming the amp is Class D because of the small relative size of the two mono amps and their power). Asking because if class D doesn't get hot, are the heat-sinks necessary? Definitely much more attractive than the Boulder integrated.
They don't get hot and heat sinks may not be necessary unless pushing heavy loads
Didn't see a phono input on the back of that unit, but wouldn't kick it out of the bed for that.
It's an option.
So it's only 1/2 the price of a new Ford F350. 🔈🔉🔊
Uhhhh. Yes? I'd rather have 2 of these than a cow hauler....
Lol triamp you flog
And much more reliable 😂
The Apex will eat this class D amp for breakfast 😋
Prove it.
I am just wondering, is Jeff retiring? The reason I ask is on the Jeff Rowland website, many of their product models have already stopped production. It was never the case a while back, by that I mean may be a year ago or so he was still selling all the models. I know Jeff is getting up in age, is he trying to sell? It is just very unusual so many of his products have already ceased production.
Pretty cool, but did you have a video of it actually being used? I guess copyright infringement.
Maybe.The new Bladelius Ask might be comparable.
But it's a integrated and at at total of over 10000$ included dac and streaming.
How does the Rowland amp compare to the Daniel Hertz Maria 800?
Ive gor no idea, Mark wants Maria used only with his stuff.... it's a closed circuit with his gear... it's far more powerful and the DAC is a larger circuit board on the Rowland. The chassis is completely different... this is about all I can tell...
@@OCDHIFiGuy Thanks
I helped promote some of your gear recently;
I told Jay's Audio, via a comment, that if he wants to get the maximum performance from his mega-rig he needs to upgrade to your hand-made speaker cables.
Haven't heard back from him.
Frank van Alstine
Yo mikey.
I heard a rumour from a decent source that jeff is no longer spilling money into class d anymore
It's a shame when he gets it right that he wants to walk away.
Apparently to do with sales and the stigma of class d in the audiophile community
Hope I am wrong
You are not and I'm a closer source to Jeff most likely
@@OCDHIFiGuy damn
Looks like all his gear will probably go up in value then.
Start collecting
I wonder how a Jeff Rowland compares to a Daniel Hertz amp. The two strike me as similar visually.
One is class AB one is Class D.. so they sound different ....
@@OCDHIFiGuy True. It probably wouldn’t make much sense comparing a $12K DH Maria to a $4k JR 125.
Did a non-native English speaker write the text of their website ? The page for the Daemon has multiple instances of bad grammar like "machine aluminum chassis" and "balance topology"; do they not understand the past participle ?
I notice the same with Chaina brand websites.
How the F would I know who edits thier copy ? Lol. It's a 40 year old American brand who is vehemently anti China...pay attention to what's important propeller head...
Lovely , but its still class D with class D sonics , if thats your thing ..!
Regards
Lol. You STILL think all class D is the same, huh ??
I guess it would need a 240 Volt feed ?
It's dual voltage. 120/240 auto sensing.
6k watts @ 2ohm?! I can finally power the Thiel CS5 😂
Lol, right ?
Thiel CS5 ... wicked load;
3ohms at 200hz, down to 2 ohms at 20hz, ... brutal.
Big Apogees were equally as tough.
(btw, Thiel's one piece cast mega baffles were made by Ken Fritz, of the finest room/system ever)
Looks like a silver fox, maybe that’s what it should be called?
Good idea !
I think Richard Vandersteen started in '77
There's another
I want a 2k one box solution
Sorry, I don't swim those murky waters... try Amazon...
Isn't this class D. I thought you were into hifi Mikey. Didn't know you'd shill Chinese e-waste to make a buck
Lol. Why don't you actually talk from knowledge rather than from your asshole ?
Nice. Seems a bit underpriced.
I actually think it's slightly overpriced...
but is it Class Demon ....666 watts per channel...I think I will PASS.....Nelson style
still in production?
Yes.... looking to buy ???
@@OCDHIFiGuy I wish man, that's a nice chunk of change. I'm going to my local dealer to hear these Jeff Rolands. Just JR in general, not sure if I ever heard those amps.
For 50k i would buy merill audio elements 118 which probably sounds better and you will save 10k
How about for $30K ?
@@OCDHIFiGuy for 30k its very good and worth the price
Boulder is jeff Rowlands father
Boulder is an example of all chassis, nothing revolutionary inside. Jeff can design circles around the overpriced Dinasour Turd called Boulder...
@OCDHIFiGuy well I've owned a lot of jeff rowland gear my last system was coherence with battery supply and model 6 monoblocks when I was setting up a room for Angie in Toronto I listened to the boulder 865 integrated the difference between boulder and Jeff rowland is rowland rolls off the highs its a collard sound compared to the boulder that is true to the sorce
Collards and bacon. Yum.
@@ghazarhotoyan1662 I always smile when I hear "true to the source".No one but the people that were at the recording know what the source truly sounded like.This is the subjective argument and always will be.
@spandel100 well I've been on stage since I was 12 years old playing and recording is studios all around north America and Europe so I think I might have some experience what true to the sorce sounds like 👍
looks like it is a digital amp. I don't see a big power transformer and filter caps.
PFC SMPS Class D
No, it's class D, which is totally different than a digital amp.
Random, what's a digital amp?
@@OCDHIFiGuy Class D and digital are not linear analog amps. The high end market has not embraced anything digital or class D, they want analog amps. Maybe some day class D and digital will be accepted. They sure have advantages.
Separates is still way to go , a one box unit is when you want to scale down , convenience vs performance ..!
Regards
Yes, it's relative, though. This integrated beats most seperates. However, Rowland separates may be better..
Nice but not $50,000 nice.
I suggest you don't buy it then. ;-)
@@OCDHIFiGuy Thank you Capt. Obvious.
❌✅ Wall socket ((Power👋🤨❓hmmm. I don’t get it.....
Not a problem
The circuit will supply plenty
@@FOH3663 explain 👋😎❌ as a typical outlet can only supply a little over 2,000 watts MAX ✅ So is this Amplifier Magical ❓❓ As I do build Home Amplifiers Myself I’m a bit skeptical 🧐 does it have a built in storage tank😝❓hmmm
No , the same quality amp for " pocket money " is Circlelabs A200.
I'm not a "pocket money" guy.... there's other channels for those brands. .
@@OCDHIFiGuy "pocket money" was a metaphor , it costs 8500 $ , sounds like 15000 $ amps .
Seriously, a lot of marketing bullshit. Show me the measurements 😂
Lol. ASR assgrabbers....
Totally unnecessary bling and power, but hey for people needing to spend money on a amp like this, knock yourself out
Not a fan of all-in-1 but damn that’s gorgeous.
Nice, right ?