Rogue 66 vs Rogue 99

I have a 99 which has been by far, the biggest sonic improvemnt my stereo has seen ever.The 99 uses an all tube mu-follower circuit.It is a bigger and heavier pre than the 66.Both use nobel volumn pots.The 66 has a balance control,the 99 doesnt.The 99 has a headphone jack located on the back right of the unit.The 66 doesnt have a headphone jack.The 99 has a slow turn on to lengthen tube life.The 66 doesnt.Both come with a heavy,machined,aluminum remote but its an option with the 66.Both are avaliable with a phono board which I have.They both are avaliable with NOS tubes but I recommend getting the stock tubes then rolling with NOS.Kevin Deal of Upscale Audio is up on Rogue and knows what sounds the best in them.I have found BDR cones #4 to be mandatory with my 99.I havent heard the 66.Audio Musings has a review of the 66 where it was put against the A.I.mod.3A Overall the reviewer liked the 66 better.In other threads here the 99 is discussed.One owner of the S.F. line 2 has decided to get rid of the line 2 in favor of the 99.In my opinion either the 66 or the 99 will give complete satisfaction as an addition to an already excellent system.The only written review of the 99 I am aware of was in Listener mag. a while ago.I didnt read the review.I heard it was very good though.Mark O'Brien designer and prez of Rogue is very attentive to customers needs.

I just replaced my Rogue 99 with a SF Line 2 Signature (just released). Wow! I didn't realize just how colored sounding the Rogue actually was. The SF has far superior sound staging, better extension and articulation on both extremes. It also mates much better with my amp due to the fact that it has far lower output impedance than the Rogue. Oh, it's also much quieter.

how much is the SF line 2 signature? The Rogue is just under $2000

also is the Rogue "colored" or is it that the SF signature has the well reported "uninvolving emotional"
traits as the "regular" line 2?

i had a hot-rod version of the rogue 99, & yes, it's coloured. besides, nice as mark o'brien is, he ain't up-front about the output impedence of his preamp. he states its 100 ohms - real-world experience told me 2400 ohms is more likely. i, too, had extremely poor bass response, most likely due to a long cable-run between the 25k-ohm input-impedence of my active x-over, and the high output-impedence of the rogue. i, too, had noise problems w/this unit - ewe could hear any rheostat-light in the house being adjusted thru my speakers! took a while to figure out what *that* was! ;~) while the rogue had better soundstage depth than the linn kairn it replaced, the kairn bested it in all other areas.

not satisfied w/the rogue, but still wanting that *toob* sound (those colourations *were* kinda nice!), i then tried the cary slp98. ($1300, used). better than the rogue in all areas, especially in accuracy & frequency extension. (and this was their stock wersion - they, also, offer a *hot-rod* wersion.) no impedence problems w/this unit, which is rated at 600 ohms output impedence, which my field-testing confirmed.

i'd have stopped my preamp search here, but yust after i got the cary, i came across a melos music-director at a reasonable price, & i yust had to try it - i *loved* a melos sha-gold i'd heard several years ago, but couldn't afford it then. well, the melos is in another league all-together, imho. at ~$2k used, i don't see how it could be beat. (regarding s/f pricing, btw, i dunno about the s/f line-2, but the line-3 can be had brand-gnu for <$2.4k, delivered...)

oh, one more thing - both the cary & the melos have a tape monitor, which the rogue doesn't have. i like this for my dbx-3bx, which i can now keep out of the signal, except when in use. not possible w/the rogue, so i dint have it hooked-up. also, the cary & the melos have balance controls, which the rogue doesn't have... and, regarding the rogue 66, if ya get the built-in fono, don't ya have to lose the balance control?