General Asylum: Half an answer by John Marks

Hi;

I reviewed the Concentra I for TAS and had some slight reservations. Scuttlebutt has it that some dealers and export trading partners felt the same. So JRDG redesigned the unit for more oomph and a more open sound.The Concentra II I had here for Stereophile, and commented upon it my column in IIRC May issue. I think that they met my concerns about half-way. I would still prefer a little more dynamics in the treble, but I also think that room acoustic differences and speaker selection probably swamp any differences in the real world. It is a great product, you could buy it once and buy it right, assuming that you are overall happy with the JRDG house sound.

I am not up to date on what is out there for phono stages, so I cannot really say how good the phono board option is against competition. OTOH, what can you get out there for that price increment--Lehmann Black Cube and Plinius Jarrah. Not much else with pretentions to high-end; everything else costs a lot more.

Final point re: Concentra: the Mark II looks SO MUCH BETTER since they lost the 1970s disco-red LEDs. Ugh.

The principal competition overall for the Mk. II is the Chord, which is more money. For a lot less money, Plinius 8200 sounds great, but is nowhere near the fit and finish of the Concentra, and lacks both balanced inputs and balanced architecture.

At the NYC Show I saw the new Perreaux integrated, a total clean sheet of paper design from what is to all intents and purposes a new company. That will have a phono stage. Michael Fremer has dibsies on a review of that.

Halcro is rumored to be showing an integrated at CES 2003, and if past experience is any indication, it should be fabulous but also not cheap, either.

But at the end of the day, seeing as you already have a JRDG Model 2, I think you can buy the Concentra II and not worry sbout sitting up late nights, staring into the fire and nursing a Cockburn's 1963 Port, muttering "I coulda had a..."

More qs, email me privately,

JOHN