Rogue vs ARC

Reynolds853,
Thanks for your in-depth description on your post. What you said about the Rogue M180s being faster, have a more tightly controlled bass, and possess more air in the top frequencies - is the exact information I am hoping to find out as this will be a perfect match with the slower sounding Harbeths. As with its reliability, I have owned Audio Research VT amps before and to be frank, mine have gone for minor repairs quite a few times. I am convinced by the other posters that Rogue make quality products on par with AR. I will surely follow their products and hope to audition one in the near future.

Luna,

Thanks for your reply and I am glad you found it useful. In my post I wanted to make sure that I answered your question right away before I started rambling!

The guys at my local shop speak very highly of Harbeth speakers so I'm sure you are going to build a very nice system.

Also, regarding Rogue, my experience with them has been excellent. Mark O'Brien has been quick to respond to my questions about tubes whether I was asking them via my dealer or just emailing him directly. Also, when we ordered my preamp, we asked for a non-standard feature to be added and Mark was very accommodating for what I consider a very moderate up-charge. I am very happy with my system.

I used to sell both ARC and Rogue for several years. The Rogue gear is nice for the money and more round and tube colored sounding. Bass is not as extended or tight, highs are not as extended or open, nor is there as much detail. But the sound was always nice and musical.

Build quality, parts quality and design sophistication with the Rogue are not at the level of ARC, regardless of how you feel about their sound. Rogue uses more off-the-shelf and ordinary parts including transformers, where ARC uses more specialized parts (output coupling caps) and proprietary custom designed transformers, nicer circuit boards with double wide traces, etc... Fit and finish with ARC is better and more consistent including the chassis and even shipping cartons and packing methods. ARC gear is quieter and more immune to noise issues even with their non-balanced gear.

Rogue gear is more like a good home brew design where they ordered circuit boards and metal work to make it more professional. ARC sets a standard for build quality and sound quality that other companies have tried to equal for decades.

Again, none of this means you have to prefer one sound over the other. But to me it is no contest.

I imagine Rogue would acknowledge as much on the parts side to the extent that they offer the Magnum upgrades to most if not all their products, but value on their standard offerings would seem to me their driving mission. I can't imagine anyone would ever argue that ARC is not one of the finest manaufacturers in the audio business (and has been for a very long time - an American Luxman?), aside from issues of sound, they make execeptional quality products and provide first-rate support (Rogue may too, but I've never owned their gear...)