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Review: Rogue Audio Cronus Tube amp

Category: Amplifiers

Wow. Only two hours into this after setting it up, firing it up and listening to this amp. Compared to the Jolida 302B, everything is greatly improved in every way. But especially jazz piano (Lisa Ekdahl and trio, Back to Earth, BMG/RCA Victor), there's so much harmonic content in there. The extension has the equivalent of the best solid state amps I've heard (Krell 400cx in my main system) and the imaging is very wide and outside the speakers. Front to back depth is huge. Emotional connection is unavoidable. I will write a follow-up to this review as the amp hasn't even broken in yet, but siffice it to say that Vandersteen and Rogue are truly compatible and together are greater than the sum of the componenents.

Before installing the tubes and firing it up I opened up the unit to change the impedance taps over to 4 Ohms. The build quality in there is stunning. High quality ceramic tube sockets, huge power and output trannies, heavy solder masked circuit board with quality components.

After warming it up for the required thirty minutes, I checked the bias on the pre-position specified Svetlana EL34s and they were right on the 35mV setting. The pre tubes are Sovtek LPS 12AX7 (2), EH 12AU7 (2) and one special low noise german made 12AU7 (Siemens?).

This amp just oozes quality though and through. It's comforting to know that Made In The USA still means something.

The only weakness so far that I can see is the speaker binding posts could be the better all metal type, but these are much better than the usual plastic KEF type that I can't stand, stay tuned for more...

Wow. I'm a Rogue Audio fan big time. And that piano...

Associated gear
Music Hall MMF7
Jolida JD100 CDP
Jolida JD9 Phono Pre
Jolida Tuner
Vandersteen 2Ce Signature
Tara and Synergistic ICs and Speaker Cables

Similar products
Jolida JD302B
Rotel RA 921
stevecham
tom6897's avatar
tom6897
1,484 posts
 
Would this integrated be a contender to drive Dynaudio Contour S1.4's with 86db efficiency and 4ohm nominal?
chrissain
470 posts
 
rogue audio makes sweet, sweet music ! happy listening, chrissain
dog_or_man
68 posts
 
Are you still happy with your Cronus? I'm looking at one right now in the "magnum" package, for use driving a pair of Salk Songtowers (4ohm, 91db). Slightly underpowered given Mr. Salk's recommended 125wpc rating, but have driven them with low power already and not noticed any significant problems, plus these are tube-watts. Anyway, let me know what you think now that you've had it a while!
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,681 posts
 
Steve....Glad to hear you are pleased with the Cronus.I heard a Magnum Cronus with Vandys awhile back and was amazed how much better it sounded than the stock unit.Look into this conversion,it's definitly worth it.Definitly do some tube rolling.Try out some NOS Amperex or RCA 7025 in place of the 12ax7's,sweet as sugar!!!I own the Rogue TempestII Magnum and absolutely love it.Again,glad you're pleased.

BamBam....you can connect a sub with the preamp outs.

Dog....I heard the Cronus Magnum,I mentioned above,driving a pair of Magnapan 1.6's.Maggies are notorious for being,shall we say.."fussy", in regards to power.The Cronus was making them sing a wonderful tune.I'm not familiar with the Salks,but I think if the Cronus can handle the Maggies,it should handle the Salks.

To all....I agree,Rogue Audio makes "Made In The U.S.A." a proud statement.
mistodog
1 posts
 
I changed the three 12AU7 tubes to NOS GE's and the 12AX7 to a pair of NOS Telefunken (marked Sonotone). The sound further flatened out, retaining the frequency extremes and letting more midrange harmonic structure come through. The soundstage is wide and rock solid. Buying the Rogue was a very good choice. I truly hope many of the out of print tube designs (GE, Telefunken, RCA) come back.
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