Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III

Current owner of the Cronus Dark. My previous amp was a Rogue Audio Pharaoh hybrid. You won’t go wrong with anything from Rogue Audio. Their service is first class, and manufacturing is rock solid. The phono stage in the Cronus is more than acceptable, and will serve you well until you decide to upgrade to a separate phono stage. I use Psvane Summit KT-88’s and Psvane Horizon 12AX7’s. My 12AU7’s are Ray’s Select. I’m driving Klipsch Cornwall IV’s with it, and the sound is excellent. 

If you get the Cronus make sure to get some respectable tubes. I use Gold Lion (Reissue) as power tubes and NOS Sylvania Jan tubes in pre-amp section. I think with many brands, one can always increase the performance and sound with better tubes. I think most audiophiles would agree that different amp topologies and designs will give a distinct sound signature. I have been drawn to tubes upon listening to my first tube amps. That is why I have two integrated tubes amps in two separate systems. A tube phono preamp in another and a tube line stage preamp in a fourth system.

Current Cronus Magnum 2 owner here. Absolutely love it. Powerful and transparent and neutral warm. Unless I have Financial needs, I can't see myself ever really selling this. I'm using Sophia Electric kt88 and electro-harmonics kt88. The Magnum 2 and the Magnum 3 are beautiful amps for an amazing price.

Bought a CM3 for an older friend on Kauai 5 years ago. At 84 she still listens almost daily as background music. I was over there a few weeks ago and listening thru her Gallo 3.1 speakers. She is still happy with the amp and I am asking myself why I never got one for myself (especially after getting a Hegel H120 and being unexcited by it). We had one issue with it a few years ago and emailed Rogue on a weekend hoping to get an answer I could address before leaving 5 days later, which I stated in the email. 4 hours later they had searched out her location and called on the phone on a Saturday. DAMN good service. Guy talked me thru some diagnosis and it turned out just to be a tube that got jarred when she was digging around behind her rack...she is an active 80+er. Reseated it and the amp was good to go. I have not heard the Magnum or Dark versions but I would not hesitate to recommend this amp and company. I went with Hegel after LOTS of pro talk on forums and in retrospect should have just gone with something I had already heard. 

Current owner CM3. It’s awesome. I built my system around this amp as I wanted an integrated tube amp under 5k. Primarily used for vinyl I used the integrated phono stage for a while but then added a luxman phono stage when I upgraded to a Hana mc cartridge. I’ve also rolled the center 12au7 tube to a nos smoothplate telefunken and both 12ax7 to smoothplate telefunken. I feel like the system still has tube warmth but feel the soundstage improvement. Not lean more crisp and punchy.  Bass is tight.  I drive golden ear t66. Again looked for speakers that punched above their price point. I’ve spoken to rogue audio about tube suggestions and I now plan to upgrade to dark version.  And this I believe is the biggest benefit of this amp. You can build slowly enjoy it while you decide your next rabbit hole to jump into.