Cronus Magnum II

I have hooked my new Cronus Magnum 2 up.....it replaced my Proton D1200 power amp.....
It is my first tube amp........I'm running Alon model 1 8 ohm 87db speakers my Clearaudio performance DC turntable and a Yamaha CDR-D651 's player......all I can say is WOW!!!!

My soundstage widening considerably and the softening of digital music was my first impression.....I did not test drive this amp and went with the fact that I saw no negative reviews and I wanted a tube amp.....I don't think it runs that hot.....I bought a cage and I have a fan blowing across the top..... This thing is a beast and I feel I definitely got my money's worth.......I played nirvana unplugged CD and Sonny Rollins "Sax Collossus" on vinyl......amazing results on both....."realism".....I'm pleased

 

Congrats and welcome to the sound of tubes and that smooth huge wall of sound!

 

I can't believe the effect on the soundstage......it's unbelievable.....I am playing AC/DC "razors edge" currently to hear how it handles hard rock and it's equally impressive.....I'm not hearing what I never liked with digital cd's.....namely the sharpness of it......I'm hearing the power and slam still but with a more realistic (for lack of better term) .....truly amazing.....

 

Welcome to the dark side...
-Bill

 

Carl Marchisotto speakers, excellent! Glad to hear the CMII makes them move. That amp is on my short list.

 

They sound great on my SS amp but the CM2 makes them open up to a new level.....now if I can only find someone to re-cloth the grills for the Alons....a funky design due to the tweeter & mid-range being suspended outside the bass enclosure......you need skills to re-cloth these...

 

No worries; those gals look better topless anyway.
-Bill

 

This is a question ice been wanting to ask....I have a Yamaha cx-2 preamp...
Can I set the selector to the phono stage and run this preamp through the auxiliary input on the cronus magnum 2 so that I can use the yamahas phone stage as well alternating when I want to? I'm assuming I would have to plug the turntable output hacks into the Yamaha manually when I want to utilize its phono stage....

 

Yes. You'll want to use the tape out of the CX-2 into the Aux input on the Cronus. You could even connect two different turntables that way. Of course that's a lot of duplication.
-Bill

 

Congratulations, The Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum has to be one of Audio's "Best Values"!

 

I mostly want to do it just to compare sonic signatures of both....thank you for clarifying that

 

So how much the Cronus Magnum II has warmed up your listening area?

 

Totally . A tube amp at 90 watts/ch and made in the USA ...

 

In answer to an earlier question, I lived with the Sphinx for a year and the CM II for about three months with RCA Cleartops in both. Listening through a Shure V15 V ultra with an SAS stylus (IMHO still one of the most neutral sounds available) I found the CM provides a significantly better level of detail and spatial separation on most recordings (classical and jazz). I recommend the remarkable Sphinx on a regular basis; but, if you have the extra $1K, well...you'll find yourself rushing home from work.

Now what I really observed is that CDs (Rega Apollo) sound substantially better and are closer to LPs than ever. Anybody share that experience?

 

I left my CM 2 on one night and fell asleep.....i awoke sweating like a pig......love my CM 2

 

The Rega Apollo-R makes for a great sounding source for the Rogue Audio amps. It has made a good effort to get analog sound back from CD encoding.
-Bill

 

Have we got a definitive answer on whether the CM2 uses tubes in the pbonostage?

 

Here is an Austrian-made $400 tube phono preamp ...

 

yep, congrats. Ive had a CMII for over 2 years now! Not getting rid of any time soon!

 

Yes I spoke with the guys at Rogue. It is a solid state stage but not even close to the Rogue Triton's capabilities.

 

I hooked up an EAR 834P yesterday to the CMII. For me, it was SPECTACULAR. I was worried about too many tubes, but not an issue. I've been using a Lehmann Decade, which sound fantastic as well but the EAR just brings something special to the game. I think I may have found my nirvana for now.

 

Yes, the phono section is a solid state, MM type. All inputs go through the tube amp, of course. So you have a clean and flat phono gain section and then some tube warmth and depth added once it is amplified to line level by the phono section. That keeps noise down and better matches channels. You can certainly connect an outboard tube phono amp into one of the line level inputs and then it will be all tube, all the time. There is usually a noise trade-off, as well as bass definition, top end extension, with tubed phono stages until you reach a pretty hefty price point. For instance, their Ares phono stage adds four tubes in front and has LOMC ability by adding a step-up transformer as well if you use that setting. It is nice and quiet, but adds another $2k to the system price tag.
-Bill

 

there it is!

 

Revisiting this older thread as i have a issue that i know im going to have to have serviced but hoping someone here might have any guesses as to what happened.

Every month i take the grill/cage of my CM2 to dust it off and check bias...i bought the tube cage as i have cats.....anyway, 4 days ago i took off cage and immediately noticed the Kt-120 in the V3 tube slot was dead cold and it had white heat spots on the side of tube....the working tubes have black heat spots. .......

I checked fuse and it looks perfect........i opened the bias area plate and the tube was at zero when i flipped toggle......the others were up to about 44 instead of the 35 they are usually at. So i biased them back down to 35 (the 3 of 4 tubes that are working)....next day i buy two new tung-sol kt-120's. I replace the dead tube with a new one...i turn on amp and tube starts to glow red like others......after 10 mins i notice new tube is glowing just like the other 3 but....its only luke warm and other 3 are nice and HOT...so i check all 4 bias toggles and they are all at 35 except the new tube in slot V3....its still at zero......

The amp sounds fine but i turn it off as i dont know if its ok to run like that....

So, in between last mobth and this month something happened.
I dont leave amp on unattended, I neither saw, smelled, heard, or otherwise noticed anything unusual going on with amp.

The only changes ive made to my system was about 5 months ago i added a Parks audio Budgie phono stage (which works perfectly) i havent changed any interconnects, speakers, anything etc.....

This is a mystery to me....i know almost nothing about tube electronics but the tube is getting some power as it glows red......but its not drawing any real power or doing what it is supposed to do.....

Does anyone want to take any wild or otherwise educated guesses on what may be happening? I bought it 4 mos. Old preowned as the Original owner decided he wanted the rogue mono blocks.....so the amp is only 1 and a half years old. I treat this amp like a son....i vacuum my room every several days, i have an air purifier in room, i have a small computer fan that blows across the top of the grill to dissipate heat.......and i mention it in my prayers every night.......i cant see anything that i might have done wrong......because i bought it off the original owner Rogue probably wont honor the warranty....they should but ive accepted the fact that they probably wont. Im automatically out $100-120 for there and back shipping..... someone mentioned that they do or used to have a flat $175 repair fee.....and i could really use the money to buy a LPS for my budgie but it is what it is.....