Stardate: 45233.1. Location: somewhere in the 4th quadrant (a popular sector). In response to Captain Picard's orders, Mr. Data brushes a few fingers…
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Stardate: 3087.6. Location: somewhere in the 4th quadrant. In response to Captain Kirk's orders, Mr. Sulu throws a few well-chosen levers and sliders—not much different in design and function from those used by Flash Gordon and Captain Video—to redirect the Good Ship Enterprise where no man has boldly gone before. New adventures begin immediately after the bridge crew pick themselves up off the deck and nonchalantly resume their stations.
Internal DIP switches provide for a wide range of adjustments. There are four different gain settings, three different input impedances, and two different output impedances. The gain-adjustment switches are located on the underside of the plug-in modules, and some care is required in making this change. If the modules are reseated incorrectly, as the manual points out, you could damage them.
Rowland recommends matching the output impedance of the Consummate with the input impedance of a matching Rowland amplifier, which provides for the proper input impedance (300 ohms unbalanced, 600…
I did encounter one problem early in the evaluation process. The Consummate's phono stage started making unpleasant crackles through the loudspeakers and causing a disturbing surge (pulsing the woofers of the loudspeakers) whenever switching into or out of phono. Rowland sent a new set of plug-in phono preamp modules and the problem has not recurred. One problem that I did not have with the Consummate that I did have in one sample of the Consonance was occasional odd glitches in the control functioning due to what appeared to be sensitivity to static electricity. It appears that this problem…
Through the line stages, with CD playback, the Consonance was clearly an excellent performer, but compared with the Consummate it slightly lacked in air, was a bit softer, and imaged somewhat broadly. On the CD version of Tuxedo Cowboy's musically moving and sonically stunning Woman of the Heart (AudioQuest AQ-CD1003), the Consummate had a sharply defined soundstage with precise localization. The Consonance was equally clean, but some of the sense of space was missing. The guitar sounded "bigger" and somehow heavier, the Consummate having a lighter, defter touch. Some might argue that the…
Here the Consummate more than met its match. The Vendetta edged it out with respect to clean detail and overall balance. And as if to rejuvenate an old truism—you don't always hear the flaws in otherwise first-rate components until you hear something better—the Consummate's high end had just a trace of grain compared with the pristine sound of the Vendetta. Complex percussion was easier to follow on the latter, and detail more gracefully rendered. All was not one-sided; the Consummate had more apparent depth and three-dimensionality than the Vendetta—a more direct "look" into the soundstage…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Line-level preamplifier and separate power supply. Frequency response: 0.05Hz-200kHz, -3dB. S/N ratio (A weighted, ref. 500mV): 88dB. Distortion (THD) ref. 2.5V RMS, less than 0.12%. Maximum output: 8V RMS. Input impedance: selectable, 300, 10k, or 100k ohms (unbalanced), 600, 20k, or 200k ohms (balanced). Output impedance: selectable, 150 ohms or 300 ohms (unbalanced), 300 or 600 ohms (balanced).
Dimensions: 13.75" W by 15" D by 2.65" H (power supply in separate chassis of same size). Weight: 28 lbs.
Price: $5950 (1992); no longer available (…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Associated equipment used with the Consummate for this review included, primarily, the Graham Model 1.5tonearm mounted on either the Oracle Delphi Mk.IV, SOTA Cosmos turntable with Dynavector XX-1L, or (briefly) Benz-Micro MC-3 cartridge; Krell KSA-250 power amplifier; and B&W Matrix 804 and Apogee Centaur Major loudspeakers. (The Oracle turntable was used with the B&Ws early in the review cycle, the SOTA Cosmos with the Apogees later).
Speaker cabling was Symo (Apogees) and AudioQuest Clear (B&Ws). Interconnects were Cardas Hexlink…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
With a variety of gains, input and output impedances, and either balanced or unbalanced inputs and outputs, some selectivity was needed to keep the measurements of the Consummate from getting out of hand. The line stage was measured at its highest available input impedance and lowest available output impedance, and at 18dB gain except where otherwise noted. Measurements were made both with balanced inputs and outputs and unbalanced inputs and outputs. The phono stage was measured with the standard 47k ohm input impedance (MM) and at 200 ohms input impedance (MC,…
Tom Norton compared the Consummate with the Krell KRC in January 1994 (Vol.17 No.1):
When I brought the Rowland Consummate back into the mix for a direct comparison with the Krell KRC, my initial impressions were confirmed. The Rowland sounded more soft and sweet. The KRC's viselike grip was replaced by a more relaxed, rounded presentation. It had its own charms, to be sure—sweet without ever being quite tubey, laid-back without sounding recessed. This seems to be typical of Rowland—it certainly was characteristic of their Model 1 amplifier which captivated me a few years back. But the…
In 1966, two avid audiophile/music lovers—a nuclear physicist named Arnold Nudell and an airline pilot named Cary Christie—labored over weekends and evenings for 18 months in Nudell's garage to put together the world's first hybrid electrostatic/dynamic loudspeaker system. It cost them $5000 for materials, launched a company (New Technology Enterprises), and helped contribute to the popular myth that all of the really important audiophile manufacturers got started in somebody's basement or garage (footnote 1). The system was marketed as the Servo-Statik I, for the princely sum of $1795. (At…