cedargrover. Thank you for response. Yes, you are right, it is a tube pre-amp. I appreciate the link you provided which offers the Soundstage review
The Rogue would be hooked up to a BAT VK-200. My major media source is an Ayre CX-7eMP As of now, it is hooked to the pre-outs of the a Rogue Sphinx integrated amp; and it sounds good..
However, my intuitions tell me the VK-200 deserves a better front end BUT, at what cost.
I ran a similar earlier thread asking about whether the pre-out of an integrated amp could provide sound quality equal that of a separate quality pre-amp. The reviews were mixed, but favored the separate pre.
I have looked at a variety of pre-amps including several older BAT pre-amps which even used are not inexpensive and almost always have neither a remote or phono stage. I could always buy an out board phono box or stage, but a good simple remote is a given. BAT offers both at $500 each....far.too much added dough
BAT VK-200 is a mix of balanced and unbalanced connectors, but I am not convinced if using a balanced pre-amp will make a major difference in the sound quality of either than amp, or the Ayre CD player which recommends using a balanced output to input cable.
In addition to older BAT pre-amps, I have considered a Coda CP preamp, and a used Conrad Johnson 18LS which comes with remote and received very good reviews. The Coda CP has both remote and phono stage, the CJ has no phono stage and a few HT features I would never use. The Coda is current, and the CJ LS18 was issued in 2004.
Lastly, did you check out the phono stage of RP-1 ??
According to Rogue it is superior to the one in their Sphinx integrated which I think is quite good, but has a low overall output with some MM cartridges., and MC high out put MC's.
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