Rowland M925 - The amplifier saga continues

[AMP]

After making the decision to move from tubes to solid state I've been on a bit of a quest to find the right amplifier. The Levinson No 53 was excellent, but over time I found it to be a bit dry for my tastes. This was a very subtle effect, but ultimately I found myself listening less or editing my music choices based on what sounded good.

I looked into a number of options and almost pulled the trigger on a Boulder 2060 and 2010, but decided against that for reasons not at all related to their performance. They were outstanding.

Enter the Rowland 925... I've been waiting for this amplifier to be released for the past 2 years and it finally turned into a real product in January. After quite a bit of deliberation and the counsel of several people I finally made the call to order the amps along with a Corus preamp about three weeks ago.

I should see them tomorrow

 

[Elberoth]

Wow, congrats ! Pls let us know how does it compare to the Boulder combo.

 

[GuidoCorona]

Hi Andrew, let us know your initial just-out-of-the-box impressions, after you lugged the 320 Lbs of 4 M25 chassis to your listening room and turned them on... My own M925 is on order.

G.

 

[Steve Williams]

Guido or Andrew.

I've heard only great things about this amp. Any pictures

What is MSRP

 

[AMP]

Hi Andrew, let us know your initial just-out-of-the-box impressions, after you lugged the 320 Lbs of 4 M25 chassis to your listening room and turned them on... My own M925 is on order.

Hmmm... not looking forward to this part. My lower back has been bugging me for the past few days and I was having trouble moving the loaner that my dealer provided out of the room this morning. At only 65lbs it's a lightweight. My wife asked, "so how are you going to move the new ones into the room tomorrow?" I sense a bribe materializing tomorrow...

Guido or Andrew.

I've heard only great things about this amp. Any pictures

What is MSRP

There are a number of photos online, but most that I found were of the preliminary metalwork shown at the 2010 CES. There are a few photos circulating from the Osaka show (with pre-production amps) and I think that Rowland finally has some up on their website. From what I've been able to determine the prototype metalwork didn't have the heat sink fins on the power supply chassis, but the production version does. Here's a clip from the brochure.




MSRP is $58K

 

[Steve Williams]

Is it dual mono with dual owner supply like my amp.

 

[AMP]

Is it dual mono with dual owner supply like my amp.

Yes, the lower chassis is the power supply and the upper contains the amplifier circuity. Based on shipping weights the power supply weighs about 70lbs and the amplifier weighs about 90. Overall it's pretty compact chassis at about 16" cubed.

 

[GuidoCorona]

Hi Steve, there are two audio chassis (one per channel) and 2 PS chassis (one per channel). Guido

 

[Roysen]

MSRP is USD $58K for the pair?

 

[LL21]

Here's a clip from the brochure.

View attachment 8305

Magnificent. Enjoy!

 

[AMP]

MSRP is USD $58K for the pair?

Yep, although my dealer takes good care of me.

 

[AMP]

Oooh.... They're Here!!

Still need to get them home, unloaded, and setup so I doubt I'll actually get to listen to them until late in the evening.

Based on serial numbers this is the tenth pair produced and I'm fairly certain the first pair delivered in the US.

-----------------

For a little bit of background and to attempt to answer the question of why I chose these amps. I've been a big fan of the Rowland products since the late '90s and over the years have owned quite a few of his products. The list is long and includes Synergy I/II/IIi, Coherence II, Cadence, M112, M12, M9T and M301. In addition I've had long term loans of the M9Ti, M501, Concerto, M8Ti/HC. I've always appreciated the sonics, build quality, and cosmetics of the products.

In 2008 I was looking for a new preamp as the Coherence II that I had at the time was lacking a key feature needed in my setup. Jeff had announced the Criterion, but it wasn't a reality yet. I was also a bit bored with the M12s that I was using at the time (I had two pair running in a parallel high current application) and wanted for something with better resolution and dynamics. I evaluated a number of options at the time and eventually went with the VTL TL-7.5 preamp and MB-450 amps. These brought a huge improvement to my system and I enjoyed every minute with them over the course of the following 4.5 years.

After deciding to move away from tube amplification I moved to the Levinson 53s and and began the search for a solid state preamp. I was fortunate to be able to evaluate the Boulder 2010 (simply astounding) and along with it came a Boulder 2060 (just for fun). The 2060 showed me that the 53s were sucking a bit of life out of the music and were just a tad bit sterile. I fully intended to purchase a 2060 and 2010. As mentioned above, that didn't come to fruition.

Now back on the hunt I looked to Rowland again as the M925 had just been released and the 625 / 725 were both very well regarded. Unfortunately, I couldn't arrange an in-home evaluation of these products. Knowing that Guido was a fellow Rowland nut I made contact with him and discussed at length his experiences with the current product line. From there I made contact with Jeff himself and had a very long conversation about the 925s.

For those of you who have spoken with Jeff you'll likely agree that he's typically very... well... stoic in conversation. He's always happy to chat, but maintains a very even keel. Not this time. He was truly excited about the 925s in such a way that I've never experienced. Imagine discovering the next best thing in audio / music and calling your best audio buddy to say, "you have to get over here and hear this." That's how Jeff was in our conversation. I was so taken aback by this that I figured he must have come up with something truly special so I ordered them.

I've never heard them before (although an offer was extended for me to audition them in JRDG's listening room) and in fact, haven't heard any of the current product.... so this is going to be a very interesting and very expensive surprise

 

[GuidoCorona]

Hey Andrew, how is it going? Have M925 chassis herniated some lower back disks ? *grins!* Saluti, G.

 

[AMP]

Wow

 

[Jazzhead]

Wow

Congratulations . Would be very interested in you thoughts on how they stack up , against the Boulder .

 

[LL21]

Oooh.... They're Here!!

Still need to get them home, unloaded, and setup so I doubt I'll actually get to listen to them until late in the evening.

Based on serial numbers this is the tenth pair produced and I'm fairly certain the first pair delivered in the US.

Big congrats! Huge news! Look forward to your impressions! Enjoy!

 

[GuidoCorona]

Cmon Andrew, do not leave us in suspense... Please do elaborate on your outwardly primeval "Wow!" G.

 

[DaveyF]

Guido, Andrew is probably too stunned to comment more. That's not too surprising considering these amps are the heir to the great model 9's. I wouldn't be at all surprised if these are the best ss amps available today. I would love to hear them myself.

 

[GuidoCorona]

Hmmm, I am suspecting that much DaveyF.... To paraphrase that classic Glossettes TV commercial, airing in Canada during the 70s and 80s, where the grumpy old Latin teacher catches young Gates noisily munching ever larger mouthfuls of chocolate-covered raisins with an expression of blissful Nirvanah on his face.... "So good you're speachless, eh... Andrew?!"

Guido

 

[AMP]

Cmon Andrew, do not leave us in suspense... Please do elaborate on your outwardly primeval "Wow!" G.

Sorry, I was originally going to go with a more expressive expletive, but since this is a family forum....


I spent the better part of the day yesterday listening to the system and having a blast doing it. I was also trying very hard not to blow off other responsibilities so no time to post.


For reference, here's the system as it stands now:

Rockport Aquila speakers
Rowland 925 amps
Rowland Corus preamp
Wadia 931/922 dac
Wadia 571 transport
Transparent Reference XL interconnects and speaker cables (all re-calibrated for the Rowland gear)
Transparent power conditioning and cables

My analog side is down pending a new preamp, but come Tuesday I'll be running:

Basis 2800 vacuum / Vector 4 / Air Tight PC-1 Supreme
Boulder 1008 phono stage

In addition to all of this Rowland was kind enough to send me an Aeris DAC for evaluation.

Unpacking was uneventful and fortunately, everything was easily managed without any injuries. The power supplies need to have their feet (3 composite resin balls) installed before installation. On top of the power supplies there are four divots machined into the top plate into which you place 4 composite resin balls (about the size of a marble). The amplifier chassis has similar divots in it bottom plate in order to lock it into place.

The power supply has a 20A IEC input and two connections for umbilicals to the amp chassis. All other connections and controls are on the amplifier chassis. Setup was easy.

Out of the box everything was typically flat sounding. I played a couple of tracks off of a very familiar CD and found the audioband from the midbass up to be present, but really dull and lifeless. The bass was being phoned in at best. I did notice things on this recording that I've never heard before (or never heard clearly). This is proving to be a common theme.

As I knew that listening in the first few hours would be frustrating I got everything setup, kicked on a Pandora station to stream through the sonos, and let them play while my wife and I went out to dinner.

Later in the evening things had opened up considerably, but I continued to fight the urge to do any listening until the next day. That Pandora station sounded really, really good...

When I finally got to do some listening yesterday everything had been playing constantly for about 14 hours and a considerable sonic change had already taken place.

I've got to go, but will have more later in the day.