Jeff Rowland 9 ti against JR 301. Anybody compare?

I made this comparison about 10 years ago. At the time I had purchased a pair of 301s (I think it was the 6th pair produced) and lived with them for about 6 months. They were very good amplifiers, but lacked some of the Rowland "soul" that I had come to love. They simply didn't draw me into the music the way that some of the earlier designs did. I ultimately sold them when a pair of 9Ti became available.

the 9ti was an excellent amplifier and many would say was the pinnacle of Jeff's achievements as a designer. It wasn't as fast or transparent as the 301, but it was far more musical and enjoyable to listen to.

Having said that, Rowland did make a huge revision to the 301 in 2006 or so. I'm not sure why he continued to call it the 301 as almost all of the internals changed to follow the direction of the 312. I haven't head the second generation 301, but the feedback that I've gotten on it suggests that it retained the positive qualities of the original with vastly improved harmonic resolution and musicality. I don't know if it surpassed the model 9ti in overall performance, but based on what I've heard about it it's very much worth an audition in comparison.

There's an article on Rowland's website in the knowledge base which describes the changes between the two versions as well as the serial number breakpoint between them.

Hi JPetek, the JRDG Knowledge base contains over 40 articles on M301. Technology differences between M301 first and second versions are at:

http://jeffrowlandgroup.com/kb/questions.php?questionid=518

The second version of M301 starts with serial number 72. See:

http://jeffrowlandgroup.com/kb/questions.php?questionid=571

The technological differences between the 1st and 2nd versions parallel the differences between the M302 stereo amp and the M312 stereo amp.... And i concur completely with AMP's view: I do not understand why Rowland has not named the 2nd version M311.

I have heard the 2nd version of M301, which sounds very much like a more powerful and expansive form of M312. M312 is a very exciting and emotional device, which remained my favorite amp and my reference until mid 2012, when I replaced it with the M725 monos, which combines all desirable characteristics of M312 with greater resolution, transparency, bass pitching, and control of treble intermodulation.

While I have never heard the original M301, I have had the opportunity of listening to its stereo sibling, the old M302 stereo at some length. I found M302 to be sweet sounding, but somewhat sedate and uninvolving. By comparison to the newer M312, M302's harmonic exposure was just slightly blanched, its microdynamics reduced, and its macro dynamics less than what I was looking for. Bottomline.... Even though by dereferencing, I concur completely with AMP's findings on M301 original version.

I suspect that with any of the old M9 variants you might find a somewhat more "liquid" sound than on M301 2nd version and M312, but you are likely to lose significantly in resolution, imaging and transparency. have you considered looking at the newer M725 monos instead, or the even more advanced M825 stereo?

Best, Guido