Modwright LS100 versus Rogue 99

It's been a while since Rogue came out with the 99 Super-Magnum upgrade, but I don't think they've been advertising it. Certainly, you can call Rogue to get the info and/or order.

Have a friend in town that had his 99 Magnum upgraded to super-magnum. He tells me it's a substantial upgrade (I trust his hearing). However, the Athena and Hera II are much better still - he's heard my Hera II several times, and plans to go there when funds allow.

I used to own a 99 Magnum (recent vintage) myself, and it's a nice little preamp with a good 6sn7 complement. However, the Hera II makes it sound (almost) broke, by comparison - no tuberolling required. The Athena that I've heard is also very, very nice. I think the Athena/Hera II are the finest components in their lineup, and I've heard a lot of them.

Wow I haven't heard of the 2009 Super Magnum. Does Mark O'Brien sell this version online? Does it look like the Rogue 99? Let me know. Thanks for then info.

You guys are not totally correct .Myself and others have heard the old Rogue 99 and the newer one as of 2005 with a much larger power supply transformer and capacitors
makes for a huge difference . I heard them together while in Ct this was a 2009 Rogue Magnum which brings better parts quality across the board at $3295 against the LS 100 this past June the Rogue with the bigger power supply was much more stable in the dynamics regions when playing at louder levels things stayed much more together and the fidelity of the quad of 6sn7 tubes also helps with the higher voltages and more 3 d imaging. Rogue just came out with their Super Magnum which I received late July and it is as good as anything out there at $6k or under. It has all Mundofs Best Silvergold oil capacitors which are $$$ prp resistors
custom Kimber wire harness including the seperate power supply and a bunch of other tweaks it is the best of the best in parts at $4300 it has not much competition My freind brought over his Cary 98 and that had upgraded parts and my Super Magnums soundstage was just locked in the performance was just so much more real.Check this out before saying anything .if you have not heard it you cannot voice an educated opinion.Also modwright s caps, all not all Teflon only the smallest values the larger caps are a poly metal oil .

Jriggy,

I guess you're correct to say that ModWright gear takes a good 3 to 4 hundred hours to settle in. I have less than sixty hours on my unit. Compared to the Rogue 99 Magnum the sound is still a bit edgy. Though I noticed it got smoother from day one. Thanks for the info.

Jriggy is correct, ModWright preamps use teflon output caps. In general, teflon caps bloom after 300 hours of music (not idling).

How many hours does the LS 100 have on it? ModWright gear takes a good 3 to 4 hundred hours to settle in.

I can't imagine why even a base model LS100 isn't sounding better than the 99. Amp, wire, something. My feeling is the Rogue equipment is ok, but Modwright and Musical Design are both making far more detailed preamps for the same money or less. As I just posted here:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1289028336&&&/Rogue-Audio-99-or-CJ-Classic-Preamp-

even my basic Musical Design SP2-B smoked my buddy's 99 Magnum. In particular, a far more 3-d sound stage and more natural vocals (mids).