It’s been a bumper few years at Audiophilia on the integrated amplifier front. There have always been outstanding examples mating a preamplifier and power amplifier in one chassis and playing nicely together, but more and more high end companies are designing and manufacturing expensive integrated boxes with varying topologies.

In fact, my reference power/pre is the Jeff Rowland Continuum S2 Integrated Amplifier ($10,000) which has served me spectacularly well—it’s a Capri II preamp ($5,500) on top of a 400W Class D power section. It is not only much improved Class D—as seen and heard over the past decade—but Class D as sanctified by Jeff Rowland. Which means it’s a gorgeously transparent, sweet, very powerful solid state component.

I'm not sure why the Brits call a fully featured 'integrated amplifier' an 'Amplifier'. I'm sure it's just another example of the many idiosyncrasies of the English language and its enigmatic [eccentric] users. We've all got our favourites. Mine, a car 'hood'. In England it's called a 'bonnet'. Cute. What's the phrase? 'Two nations divided by a common language.'

I've been a big fan Jeff Rowland's audio gear for many years. Rowland's solid state amplification has always been a segment leader featuring smooth, detailed and powerful sounding products highlighting the best that solid state design can bring to the high end. If you have researched a solid state product to purchase over the past few years, I'm sure a Rowland audition was scheduled.