The Rogue is in

[LeRoy]

The Cronus Magnum arrived on Monday. I went to my audio dealers home after work and fired up the unit. Well, much to my surprise that Integrated is a pretty big unit and much heavier that I thought it would be.

Chalk the first night up to operator error. In my haste to get the unit up and running I did not realize till it was too late that the tubes boxes were labeled for the tubes to go into a specific tube port on the amp. So, my audio dealer and I were only able to bias 2 of the power tubes and were wonder why the other two tubes were not glowing! lol

The sound of the unit the first night left me wondering what the heck is going on here....turning up the volume on the unit led to a whole bunch of noise/distortion sound.

On Tuesday, my audio dealer was able to speak with Rogue and got the tube order corrected and the unit properly biased. Now all the tubes are glowing as they should be.

Tuesday, I listened for a couple of hours. My estimated break in time on the amp up to point that I arrived for my second listen was about 8-10 hours.

Here are my impressions:

Separation of voices, and instruments is outstanding. Some of the very best separation I have heard in a really long time. Tonality is very good especially with voices and piano though I thought the voices sounded like they needed more body or texture. Pace is not a fast as SS amp's but the presentation is relaxed, played on time, and coherent/whole. As much I as I was yearning to hear that infamous midrange tube sound...it's just not there yet...

The leading edge bass notes did not really have an edge to them however the trailing edge of the bass note was defined and tight. I thought that was weird. With regard to upper frequency detail...I am accustomed to more inner detail but so far all I can say is that the detail is just okay but I most definitely expect more. Cymbal taps sounded recessed and lifeless and there really was not much of a shimmer to the cymbals. No snap in the snares and tom-toms being struck sound soft and rounded but not thuddy.

The amp is currently being used on some home made tower speakers in which each speaker has 2 cross-overs. These speakers are much like an Usher tower clone so they need power. Pumping up the volume on the amp to near maximum simply filled the room with modest SPL's and nowhere near the SPL's of a 150 wpc SS amp. I intend to use the Rogue with my bookshelf System Audio Aura 1- so I should not have power shortage with that combo.

Tonight I did no listening but will be picking up my Rogue tomorrow, Thursday.

I am going to do a lotta listening over the next few days and I will keep all posted.

Thanks for checking in.

LeRoy