Rogue Amps: Unlike other Tube amps

I think alot has to do with the fact that they are not Audio Research or Conrad Johnson, or other well-known name brands. Rogue is pretty well known in some audiophile circles but not near as well as ARC and CJ. Even though Rogue has very good sounding products, the name recognition factor may be holding them back some.

I auditioned the Rogue 99 Magnum head to head with the CJ 17LS and the Cary SLP2002 yesterday. The Cary had a unique room filling sound that is not what I expect in Audiophile heaven. However the sound will definatley appeal to some. The Rogue however had me A/B'ing back and forth between it and the CJ for a while. The CJ was definately a bit smoother and had a deeper sound stage. But at almost half the price the Rogue sounded good. Perhaps with some work with the right amp, IC's and speakers the Rogue could work for a lot of audiophiles. It did run hot, however, when compared to the others. Salesman said something to do with the biasing or some techno stuff which causes Rogue to run their tubes on the hot side. After that was all said and done I listened to the CJ 16LS again and made my decision. Although I wanted to fall in love with the Rogue for the price/quality reason, I am not someone who wants to change equipment every year and felt the CJ 16LS would fit into my systems for many years to come. Just my very un-professional opinion.

The Rogue was defiantely something that will appeal to the masses and should be listened to by all in the market for a tube pre...If for nothing else to hear what all the talk is about.

I hope this helps, happy listening.

I auditioned the Rogue 88/66 and Cary sli 80 together on a pair of Tannoy D700 and they both sounded great. The Rogues did not have quite the bass definition or control of the Cary but the mids and highs were basically equal. I think Twl is probably right. Arthur

I had a Rogue 66 magnum preamp and absolutely hated it, it did not fit my tastes or system at all. It was noisey as heck, large amounts of detail was obscured, the top end is rolled off hard, the bass was soggy and slow. It had amazing ability to layer objects in 3D space and was of course "smooth," as some people would call it, I found the midrange pleasant as most tube lovers I suppose do yet I found this manipulation artificial sounding, less true to life, and I couldn't live with the tradeoffs. The Musical Fidelity A3cr preamp ate it alive in my system.

I had a Rogue 88 power amp and thought that it was excellent for it price. It compared very favorably with my CJ Premier 11a (rated class A by Stereophile, if that matters at all), being darker and a tad less transparent. However, it had better bass and was more exciting to listen to. Must be used with efficient speakers (Coincident, Silverline, etc.) and run in triode mode. I sold it because I could not tolerate the fan noise.