Listened to an hour on Triode mode this morning without the heartbeat-like tapping sound appearing. Knock on wood, but it seems like the issue was tied to the amp being set at 4 ohms. Overall, the amp sounds fantastic. How much of an upgrade it is over the CMII is harder for me to say though (maybe that'll change over the next couple weeks). It's definitely quieter. Would be interesting to A/B the two amps to see if my memory is playing tricks on me.
I think that there were some substantial limitations to the earlier models. Not that they were bad, as I had the CM1, but limited in scope. I have the Rogue M-150's, which are KT88 based monoblocks and the CM1 goes a long way to come close to the monoblocks for half the price of the monoblocks, but only when the M-150's are running in the Ultralinear mode. But I enjoy listening to the monoblocks in triode mode, which the earlier versions of the CM did not have available to them. Many of the smaller amps in the 30-Watt power range do have the triode mode available to them. The problem with running lower powered amps in the triode mode is that you loose the definition that you retain with the higher power amps running in the triode mode. With larger amps like the Rogues, you don't have this limitation. While the triode mode on powerful class A/B amps, is not the same and the lower powered single ended amps, it still is very nice. Triode mode lends itself to Jazz, Vocals and Acoustic Instrumentals quite well.
Great points. To be clear though, I meant "A/B" in terms of comparing my CM III to the CM II and seeing how different/improved the phono section is, etc. Also, zero issues on either channel running the amp today with regards to weird noises/interference. Sounds like I'll be sticking with 8 ohms. Have listened to a few hours in Triode today and it sounds great!
No, I understand, I was just pointing out for the readership, that the triode mode on a class A/B amp is still a class A/B amp and is not the same sound that one would encounter on a pure class "A" single ended triode amp (which are usually far less powerful and completely different from a design point). For powerful tube amps, Rogue amps have a real nice sound signature when the triode mode. Not every tube amp can execute this feature as well as the Rogue amps do.
Gotcha. Agreed, hard to complain with what I've heard of Rogue's amps. Listening to the amp more today and feel like I'm starting to hear the improvements in the phono stage. Bill Evans-Village Vanguard 45 RPM being a standout.
I figure I'd provide a short update after a week+ listening with the amp set to 8 ohms. I recently moved things around in my room a bit to give the speakers a little more room as well as provide greater listening distance. I mention this only as this change definitely helped to hear the improvements in my setup irrespective of the CM III improvements. That being said, the CM III sounds fantastic. The bulk of my listening time has been devoted to its phono section. I am hearing a better sense of clarity and separation overall while listening. Also, the amp runs extremely quiet; I had my CM II tinkered with a bit re: transformer hum as well as a couple other minor complaints, but haven't experienced anything like that yet with the III. The low noise floor combined with a more detailed phono makes my setup finally sound like "audiophile quality" to my ears. I still plan to move my setup to a larger room and put the KEF Ref 1's on proper stands down the line, but for now, I'm very happy. If you're in the market for a great integrated amp and it's within your budget, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Thanks again to the folks who helped out with the decision.
Hello, I have a new CMIII amp, and I'm planning to buy spare output tubes, 4 KT120s. As far as I understand they should be "matched" tubes. Other than to believe what the seller claims, is there any to check if they are really matched tubes? Thank you.
Order them from Rogue. They sell to Rogue owners at a really good price and they carefully match them.
Thank you for the suggestion. But I am not living in the US. With shipping + customs tax could be still expensive. Plus, the tube they provided (pre-amp) before. were kinda defective.
Usually the boxes should be marked with each tubes power rating. To double check, put them in place and use the on-board meter to check each one. As long as they don't very greatly from tube to tube you're all set. When you remove the existing tubes take care to make some sort of marking so you know which slot they came from and put them back into the same slot. It may not make much difference but that's standard procedure.
Since the power tubes are individually biased, as opposed to cathode bias, having matched tubes is not essential.
Random question regarding the CMIII. I was just listening to music through it and the sound randomly cut out, with the amp changing its colour status to red (indicating it is on mute). Out of caution, I turned the amp off. Any idea what's going on here? Thanks for any help. For what it's worth, I was listening at quiet volumes to acoustic music. Nothing has changed in my setup regarding any wiring, cables, speakers, etc. I'll keep it off for now but appreciate any insight if it's safe to use the amp still or should wait until someone looks at it.
does it say anything in the manual about that? i didnt know about mute status. if it doesnt, e mail rogue and get their input.
I don't see anything mentioned in the manual, but it's the same status that occurs if you press the mute button on the remote. When you start up the amp or mute it, it is red. Otherwise, it's blue. My remote looks a little different but same idea:
oh i got you, i never use the remote. so it randomly went into mute, not some kind of protection circuit. maybe the remote was triggered accidentally. i would give it a try...
Yeah, hoping it's just a weird isolated remote issue. I don't want to make things worse. Sending out heavy amps normally isn't fun, let alone in this year's context
Knock on wood, seems to be working fine. Have listened for an hour or so. I removed batteries from my 2nd remote in the other room just in case.
No further issues over the weekend. Hoping it was an isolated freak occurrence! Unrelatedly, I decided to order a couple 12AU7 tubes to compare (Gold Lion and Mullard) to the stock tubes for fun. Anyone else here messed around with tube rolling their Cronus? Any other tube recommendations? Cheers.
Both new reissues (though I'm not opposed to trying out NOS stuff). With my setup, I'm quite content as is, so hard for me to completely say, but probably leaning towards warmer/smoother of the two, as don't find I'm lacking in detail/top-end clarity. I probably won't be doing it this year, but plan to try a different cart down the road as well (currently have an Ortofon 2M Black MM).
Need your expertise here, fellow Rogue friends: I have been using CM2 for years. Now I am considering to spend my budget to get a pre-amp and am fascinated with RP-7. Dealer says it is OK to connect RP-7 into my current CM2, but it is not a permanent solution (without explaining why); must get a proper power amp later. Question is: what are the disadvantages on this setup, given I cannot bypass the pre-amp session of the CM2? Would it be actually a perfectly working idea, but just not optimized for the dealer’s $$?
It'll work fine, but it is not optimized for your best sound quality for your money. You are better off selling the CM2 and getting the RP5 and Stereo 100 set. -Bill
On my tube system, I keep a permanent tube preamp in place. I will usually just run a straight power amp for the final stage. But sometimes I am trying out an integrated amp or vintage receiver for the final stage. In either case, the signal is coming directly from the tube preamp. It does not matter that much to me, because I am interested in how the integrated or receiver sounds. But, if you have a high quality external preamp and then you run the signal into a lesser quality preamp stage of an integrated, you are loosing the advantage of your quality preamp and favoring the preamp stage of your integrated. I had a Cronus I, that I bought to have as a back-up to my Rogue monoblock power amplifiers. I wish that Rogue had a provision to bypass the preamp stage of the CM and allow you to feed your signal directly into the power amplification stage.
