Incoming! The New Equipment Thread

Ok I drove 6 hours roundtrip and bought a 2016 Rogue ST-100. It's mint and has been well taken care over the life. The seller was a really cool older audiophile. Has a basement of tubes on the shelf and a workbench with testing equipment. He replaced this ST100 with a pretty impressive looking Pass amp.

Now, I have a reference quality tube amp:censored: and can shop around for preamp with built in phono for the same price of that open box phono stage from AA.
This will give me 3 upgrades instead of just the one phono stage upgrade for the same money.

Main reason things clicked last night and I decided this path over the ARES phono stage.
Also, in the future this amp can be upgraded at Rogue with the Dark package. It's about $1500 currently but interested in seeing what owners are thinking about those upgrades rolling out recently. I really like all the upgrades Rogue offers for the various components that are sold. Very cool way to keep a customer coming back and investing in their gear.

The new amp has 4 matched KT120 tubes, (2) 12AU7, (2) 12AX7 up front. It's a beast at 60lbs.

Can't wait to get this going but it's going to be a while before I can get everything settled.


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Somewhat of a cross post from the new awesome phono thread because I'm all over the place right now 😬

I finally figured out I can preamp my AVR to the new Rogue power amp until I get a proper 2 ch preamp. I'm even using some sketchy RCAs now until I get more official.

Regardless, the big power amp is up and running.
Damn this is some power. Very commanding sound right out of the gate running Ultralinear. This thing sings.

The hot tubes are gorgeous...
Very cool amp. Totally worth a day drive now.
It's a game changer.



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New cartridge on the way.
 
Somewhat of a cross post from the new awesome phono thread because I'm all over the place right now 😬

I finally figured out I can preamp my AVR to the new Rogue power amp until I get a proper 2 ch preamp. I'm even using some sketchy RCAs now until I get more official.

Regardless, the big power amp is up and running.
Damn this is some power. Very commanding sound right out of the gate running Ultralinear. This thing sings.

The hot tubes are gorgeous...
Very cool amp. Totally worth a day drive now.
It's a game changer.



View attachment 194645
That's a sexy piece of kit!
 
Thanks!
Yeah I am really jelly right now with the sound.
I just adjusted the bias on the four KT120 tubes.
I felt like some kind of tube wizard but really they just made it so simple I could do it ~ 5 mins.
It's such a cool amp.
If Rogue is an expert at anything, it's tubes. They approach their hardware with a surgical precision.
Came awful close to one of their integrated amps last year, but sold a couple items to afford what I really wanted -- my AHB2 Monoblocks.
 
If Rogue is an expert at anything, it's tubes. They approach their hardware with a surgical precision.
Came awful close to one of their integrated amps last year, but sold a couple items to afford what I really wanted -- my AHB2 Monoblocks.
Yeah getting out of an integrated has kind of opened my eyes and ears to another level, especially with the tubes involved.
No telling what monos would do to my wallet so I'm not listening to a system anytime soon. 🙉

But in all seriousness that's very cool!
 
I've tried several of the AT carts but have not heard one from the OC9 lineup.
Heard a lot of good things about it so far.
Looking forward to your feedback.
I’ve been working my way up through the audio technica cart lineup. My first was the vmn 95 ml of which I owned three, so much better in every way compared to the Grado blue, as it should relative to price. At the end of 22 I went for the vm740 ml. Now time for a MC option, like that the stylus profile is the same so I can know how much the cart sounds different. Also pretty sure the cantilever on my 740 has always been askew.
 
I’ve been working my way up through the audio technica cart lineup. My first was the vmn 95 ml of which I owned three, so much better in every way compared to the Grado blue, as it should relative to price. At the end of 22 I went for the vm740 ml. Now time for a MC option, like that the stylus profile is the same so I can know how much the cart sounds different. Also pretty sure the cantilever on my 740 has always been askew.
That's a heck of a nice first LOMC.
I bet you will really like it.
 
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