Up to 37% in savings when you subscribe to hi-fi+
hifi-logo-footer

Begin typing your search above and press return to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Jeff Rowland Design Group Continuum S2 integrated amplifier

Jeff Rowland Design Group Continuum S2 integrated amplifier

Jeff Rowland is one of those brands that audio people like to show off to non-audio people. The company’s products go some way to quiet the “it cost HOW much?” cries from non-audiophiles, thanks to off-the-chart external design and build criteria. With its thick gloss black casework and contrasting scalloped so-shiny-it-might-be-lenticular front panels (all machined from top-grade 6061-T6 aluminium alloy), Jeff Rowland sets a build quality standard that is rarely matched, and never exceeded. It’s the Leica lens effect – spending that much money on metal and glass is an absurd idea right up until you handle one.

The Continuum S2 is Jeff Rowland’s 4th generation integrated model in a line of electronics that range in price from about a 3.0 to a 9.5 on the Richter scale; the more ‘reassuringly expensive’ mono power amplifiers in particular are extremely popular with the Masters of the Audiophile Universe. Alongside that sumptuous build, Jeff Rowland is perhaps best known for being one of the first high-end brands to embrace Class D operation. Jeff Rowland has not tied itself to one circuit design, however, and recent launches from the brand have used a range of 20th and 21st Century modes of operation. It’s a pragmatic approach that has paid off, even if there are those who swear blind that one amplifier design sounds better than another, the fact is Jeff Rowland amps have a signature sound, one that does not appear unduly altered by the internal architecture.

The Continuum S2 operates in Class D, which is how the company manages to deliver 400W into eight ohms from a relatively small 15.9kg chassis. The first indicator that Jeff Rowland does Class D right is that it doubles its power perfectly into four ohms; most Class D designs might have an impressive performance into an eight ohm load, but quickly fall apart when faced with any loudspeaker more challenging. The Continuum S2’s ability to face off low impedances shows just what the company’s learned with Class D over the years. Perhaps the secret is the Continuum S2 running surprisingly warm for a Class D design; not Class A warm, but way beyond the ‘is it on?’ feeling you get when handling most switching PWM amps.

 

In its standard guise, the Continuum S2 is a line-only design, with five inputs, or four if you switch in the home cinema by-pass. However, Input One can accommodate optional cards, which bring either a DAC or a phono stage to the mix. These cards can be fitted by a dealer, and that’s highly recommended. Technically, each card requires one pin block and affixing a single grub-screw to a stand-off, and these are conveniently located at either end of the rear panel PCB, so it’s no big deal. Except that the screened off power amplifier stage severely limits access (at least to those of us without long, thin fingers with magnets for fingernails). In the end, I undid both the bolts holding the top plate and the rear panel to gain access. But, taking the Continuum S2 apart does give you an appreciation of how that uncompromising build extends inside and out. In a world where a five year life-span is three years too many, Jeff Rowland is made to old-school standards. This is an amplifier for the long game, and it will still be making good sounds decades from now.

Personally, I’d go for the RIAA module, rather than the DAC boards. The latter may turn the amp into a ‘digital future’ device and it sounds excellent, but it lacks Ethernet or USB connection, although in fairness, Jeff Rowland suggests a dedicated USB to RCA converter gives the best performance. The MM/MC phono stage, on the other hand, is a good option for many audiophile listeners. It’s not as refined, detailed, or flexible as the best external options, but it’s more than just a make-weight phono stage. At Munich in 2014, Jeff Rowland put together what I think is the perfect configuration, with the company’s Aeris DAC connected to a laptop for digital duties, and the built-in phono stage for playing the black stuff.

Like most Jeff Rowland equipment down the ages, this is a balanced amplifier that can ‘do’ single-ended well. Balanced operation, where possible, is the best option, both in terms of flexibility (there are only two single-ended inputs on the amp, one of which can end up a phono stage) and in sonic terms, although in fairness the Continuum S2 works far better with single-ended inputs than most balanced amps. Nevertheless, if you have the chance to run it in balanced mode, go for it!

The Continuum S2 is one of those rare amps that does not shout at you. Audio systems are increasingly bright and forward, which might make for more immediate aural pleasure (roll your tongue over those words a few times for the sheer fun of it), but makes sustained listening enjoyment harder to achieve. This forward sound has become so prevalent that the alternative can get overlooked, even though music rarely has the same forward presentation in the real world. In fact, after listening to the Continuum S2 for some weeks, a lot of amplification sounded hard and glassy, and I found the Jeff Rowland amp harder than most to give back.

Beyond that natural presentation, the Continuum S2’s presentation is difficult to pin down, but in a very good way. It’s not the kind of sound that lends itself to pithy description, and that’s a fault of the vocabulary, not the electronics. It’s the way it makes stereo happen; it’s like it redraws your listening space around you. It’s not ‘holographic’; it projects the sound of the recording on your room with such drive that it makes you think you are sitting in a different listening space. The amplifier is remarkably transparent (but not to a fault, bad recordings are not laid open for autopsy – they are just bad recordings) and has a noise floor and grain structure so subtle, unless you live a cloistered life in a soundproofed bunker, the world outside is more imposing on the music than the Continuum S2 will ever be. But, this is a double-edged sword; few electronics systems have that kind of absence of coloration and noise, and as a result many will be used to hearing some excess flab along with the music, and when the Continuum S2 takes that away, you might spend time reorienting yourself to how music is supposed to sound.

 

The Class D elephant in the room is actually not really an elephant at all, unless you make it such. The Continuum S2 is not just a good Class D amplifier. It sounds like any good Jeff Rowland amplifier; enjoyable, detailed without sounding forward, unfussy, and natural in a way that you wish other brands could discover. It gets on with the task of making good sounds, and does it with real aplomb. In fact, my only real grumbles with the Continuum S2 are the binding post terminals (which only take bare wire and spade lugs as standard, although 4mm clamps are available as an option) and the cheapie remote it comes with. Given the luxury finish of the amplifier, I’d hope for something just as sexy in my hand (careful now), but the handset is like something from a 1980s Philips CD player.

I like the Continuum S2 for the same reasons I like products from brands such as conrad-johnson, because it sounds unforced and intrinsically ‘right’. It’s the polar opposite to the highly detailed, extremely analytical and musically ‘cold’ sound many like. As a reviewer I need to have both sounds on tap to deal with the demands of walking the path of the listener, but I can’t help but feel the Continuum S2’s sound is more right sounding, even if this less forward presentation is not so immediately attention and headline-grabbing.

There are two contrasting forces at work in audio today, and the Jeff Rowland integrated is just about perfect for both. On one side, we have the upgrader, who is beginning to return to the audio fold after a decade and a half’s absence. They have rediscovered that music isn’t just an accompaniment to an early-morning jog, and are busy rising through the audiophile ranks. On the other, we have the downshifter, who has spent decades at the audiophile extreme and wants something that delivers the goods without the space and expense of a full-blown system. Both of these types of listener are usually dealing with smaller spaces for a listening room. This means less room, but does not mean compromise. All of which points to the Jeff Rowland Continuum S2. To say this comes highly recommended is putting it mildly – this is the kind of amplifier I could happily live with and never feel the need to upgrade ever again!

Technical Specifications

  • Inputs: 2x XLR balanced pair, 2x RCA single-ended pair, 1x RCA single-ended bypass pair
  • Outputs: 1x XLR balanced pair, 1x RCA single-ended pair
  • Speaker Terminals: CE-approved wire/spade-lug clamps
  • Optional inputs: DAC or MM/MC phono board
  • Power output: 400W into eight ohms, 800W into four ohms (continuous, both channels driven)
  • Frequency Response: 5Hz-70kHz (-3dB @ eight ohms)
  • THD+N: <0.05%, 20Hz-20kHz
  • Dimensions (WxHxD): 394x135x380mm
  • Weight: 15.9kg
  • Price: £7,995 (£8,495 with DAC or Phono board option)

Manufactured by: Jeff Rowland Design Group

URL: www.jeffrowlandgroup.com

Distributed by: Signature Audio Systems

URL: www.signaturesystems.co.uk

Tel: +44(0)7738 007776

Back to reviews

Read more Jeff Rowland Design Group reviews here

Tags: FEATURED

Read Next From Review

See all

Adblocker Detected

"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..."

"There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."