Comments on Rogue Preamps?


I am currently shopping around for a tube pre-amp under $2000. I have heard some good things about the rogue pre-amps. I will be driving Magnepan speakers with an Odyssey Stratos Amp. Can anyone with a Rogue comment on satisfaction level. Thanks.
sibelius
i found the cary slp98 to be marginally better than the rogue in all areas except the bass response - where it was a *lot* better. current-production can be found for quite a bit less than $2k. but, i prefer the melos ma-333/music director, which can also be found for ~$2k, or less - in another league altogether, imho...
Here are a couple of suggestions. I own a pair of the Odyssey monoblocks and they are truly wonderful. I am using a Stan Warren passive pre-amp and it is incredible. You may be able to talk Stan into building you one. He is is "S" in the former PS Audio. He is a great guy to deal with. He has built this unit for me along with a modded Pioneer 525 DVD player. I am very happy with the results.His phone number is (541)344-3696. If you are not interested in a passive pre-amp call Klaus and ask him about the Tempest pre-amp. I think these options are far better than Rogue for a lot less money.
The Rogue is as good as you will get.Sedond should refrain from commenting.He was not happy after 1 hour and did not break his unit in contrary to his claims.He had it sold before it was even warm.
Stay away from passive preamps you wont be happy.I have never heard one sound good.
I use a 66 and am happy.I have the Phono version with some mullard 4003 in the line stage and the stock tubes in the phono stage.This unit is so quite you would think it was not turned on.
For the same money you could do much worse than Rogue.
even though the rogue 66 "only" got a class b rating from 'phile, it was run head to head with the very popular class a audible illusions mod 3 a and the 66 won out as being more enjoyable.see the several 66 reviews in audiomusings.I have the 99 with phono and some top of the line nos tubes.i dont think for under 3 g you will do any better than the 99.you can spend 2 g and do worse than the 66.I listened to several of the most popular preamps in the 2-4 g range and the 99 was easily the best.I havent heard the 66 but I have read its knocking some of the big boys down.
ya, leafs, 'twas i who gave ewe the two negative wotes for content - no problem w/the form, tho, altho i *do* wonder why ya tink i shouldn't post about my experience w/the rogue anymore. is that bad form? should i give it, mebbe *one* negative wote?... ;~)

as i said in another thread when ewe made basically the same erroneous statement that i hadn't broken-in my 99, i had over 500 hours on it before i gave up on it... ewe say:

"He was not happy after 1 hour and did not break his unit in contrary to his claims. He had it sold before it was even warm."

what didja do, mount a spy-cam in my listening room?!? ;~) while it's true that i dint like its dynamics & low-end response when i 1st turned it on, there *were* enuff tings i liked about it to give it a chance, including switching out the toobs to some nos ge gtb's. while full-o-bloom, it still dint improve its weaknesses in my system, even after 500 hours, so it had to go. and, i do confess that i missed having a balance control & a full-function tape-loop

i'm curious why yude tink i (or anyone, for that matter) wood be dishonest about my experience w/this (or any) product. whaddya tink, i'm tryin' to kill the resale walue of yer unit, or cause the brand to fail? ;~) i woodn't concern myself - enuff folks such as yourself, david99, & members of the audio press, say decent-enuff tings about the product to make it inneresting to others.

and, ackshully, i myself, wood like to hear the 99 in another system, w/short interconnects to the amp, and into a load of, say, 100 kohms; instead of the 18' i/c's & into the 25 kohm load of my system. equipment-matching, including impedence matching, *is* important.

ewe mite wanna relax a bit, over the fact that the rogue pre dint work for me, in my system. it doesn't invalidate yer liking the product. i happen to greatly prefer the melos music-director preamp. perhaps it's cuz the melos' output impedence of 15 ohms is plenty-low-enuff to drive the long i/c's & moderate input impedence seen in my system, perhaps it's someting else. but, if someone doesn't like melos equipment, well, i guess isle yust have to kill them... uh, i mean, it's ok w/me! ;~)

regards, doug

Leafs,
I have to reply to you statement "stay away from passives you won't be happy". If I felt that way I would never have given this unit a try. Stan Warren built a single DACT buffer passive pre-amp that I compared side to side with a AI Modulus L1 and it won hands down. This is the purest way to pass the signal on. Some people may not like it, but you cannot judge all passives the same. Once you have heard a very good one, then you will know....