Rogue Audio?

Posted by: Top Cat on 10 November 2003

Hi folks.

I know that this is the Naim forum, but I'm interested in whether anyone has actually heard any of the Rogue Audio products (specifically their preamps) and how they stacked up, in PRaT terms, against other amps - particularly things like the Naims.

Reason I ask is that I am looking for the best of both worlds - Naim-like PRaT allied to that certain something that the better valve amps have but which I can't reliably quantify...

John

TC '..'
"Sun went down in honey. Moon came up in wine. Stars were spinnin' dizzy, Lord, the band kept us so busy we forgot about the time."
Posted on: 10 November 2003 by Vaughn3D
I owned a Rogue 66 Magnum preamp matched with an Odyssey Audio Power amp before I had my current Nait 5. My impression of the pre-amp is that it was VERY revealing and put some extra emphasis on the treble. My pre-amp also had some reliability issues that Rogue worked hard at trying to fix, but were unable to cure the problem.
Posted on: 10 November 2003 by Top Cat
Hi, thanks for that. How do you find the Nait-5 (an amp I'm familiar with) compares to the 66M/Odyssey combo (reliability aside)?

I'm toying with a few ideas for a possible about-turn, amp-wise, due to increasing pressure for a remote & a single volume pot. I know my power amp can hack it, but the preamp is increasingly being revealed as the weakest link in my system these days, hence looking around at alternatives...

John

TC '..'
"Sun went down in honey. Moon came up in wine. Stars were spinnin' dizzy, Lord, the band kept us so busy we forgot about the time."
Posted on: 10 November 2003 by kuma
quote:
Originally posted by Top Cat:
Reason I ask is that I am looking for the best of both worlds - Naim-like PRaT allied to that certain something that the better valve amps have but which I can't reliably quantify...


TC,

You might know that not all valve preamps go well with solid state amplifiers. i've faced either gain or impedance mismatch with the combination. Even the ones that work sort of ok, not ending up sounding their best.
The one valve preamp I could think of that offers excellent timing and bass definition along with valve's clarity and immediacy is Nagra PL-L or PL-P (if you need a phono stage ). The noise floor is also the lowest amongst valve preamps I have tried. These are not warmish preamps so, if you are looknig for a tinge of color, they are not it.

Altho, they work with any number of solid state and valve amps, I've had few instnaces that its 60 ohms output impedance caused problems with other amplifiers.