. Seems to me that you most likely have bad cables (one channel at least) or a cold/broken solder joint on one of the phono jacks inside the amp.
I have a woo audio wa-2 headphone amp, a Parks audio Budgie & Puffin phono pre that i switch up in my CM II and i had Rogue perform a cap and Resistor upgrade on mine last fall so i dont really see the need to go to the CM III..... If i had known that the CM III was going to include what it did I very well might have gone that route and not sank the money into the peripheal gear....then again i love my Wa-2 and my Parks audio phono pres....so im happy....i have no interest in ever getting rid of my Cronus Magnum...its a keeper for sure
I too am curious I spoke to Mark the other day and he said the phono stage is solid state but feeds into to a tube follower section of that makes sense. There was also an upgrade to the ii that I was curious about with upgrades caps and resistors . Anyone that can give insight??
Hi! First post here. Did you ever get this resolved? I am having the same EXACT issue. I had it with the CM II that I borrowed from my dealer and the new CM III that I just purchased. I went back to the dealer today to troubleshoot. Every TT we plugged into the CM II had an unacceptable amount of HUM. Two decks were TEACs in fact. This is clearly an issue with Rogue. My TEAC TT is dead quiet with my SS amps. Separately, my dealer's CM II is tubey, lush, and romantic sounding. My CM III is bright and sterile. My dealer said that his unit is bone stock. How long should my CM III take to break in and will it take on a more lush sound? Thanks!!! Joe
interesting, Bill @KT88 said that the stock JJ tubes sound very good but take a long time to break in- he should know. I put my stock JJs back in and unfortunately have zero patience to wait it out!
They're telling me the amp needs 80 something hours for full break in. I've only got 10 but I'm listening less becuase I'm not hearing what I want.
Are you letting it warm up plenty prior to listening? I find my CMII far more enjoyable if I let it warm up for at least an hour. I run RCA Black plates for the 12AX7s, but settled on the stock JJs for all other sockets. They do improve with burn-in.
No, not really. Maybe a half hour at most. I just ordered an RCA clear top that I'm hoping will warm up the sound. It was recommended by Nick over at Rogue.
My RCM really Benefits from 60 to 90 minutes of warm up there is a point where you can really hear the sound Bloom and open up. It will sound better after 80 hours and it will sound better after about an hour of warm up. If that doesn't happen after 80 hours take it back to the dealer and listen to it hooked up to the same components he uses for demo and see if there is a difference. I think you will be really pleased in the long run with this amp.
Clear tops aren't that good. The long black plates is what you want. Alternatively, 1950s Blackburn Mullards is another way to go. Amperex Orange Globe is another. So you have 3 ways of warming up the sound.
Clear tops did exactly the opposite in my CMII. I agree that you should seek the long black plate RCA.
I’m guessing you have a ground loop somewhere. Is the volume of the hum effected at all by the volume setting or is it a steady constant hum? I’m betting it’s internal and the amp is the issue. A few things to try..... 1. Have access to another set of cables and another deck swap them in starting with the cables. 2. Also switch the cable l to r and r to l and see if the issue follows the cable. If the hum stays in the same channel it’s the source or the amp. 3. If that doesn’t work take left out from the CD player and plug it into the right channel, and the right out from the CD and plug it into the left input of the amp and see if the issue follows or stays in the same channel. If the hum stays in the same channel it’s the amp, if it moves it’s the CD player.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I am bringing the unit to Rogue on Friday for diagnostics. I'll post an update after my visit. I haven't received my RCA clear top from vintagetubeservices.com yet but I'm a little bummed by the consensus that it will not warm things up. It's exactly what Nick from Rogue and Andy from vintage tube said it would do. Oh well.
Just a quick update on this issue.... Neither Rogue or my dealer have been able to identify the root cause of the issue nor offer an acceptable workaround. My dealer provided me with a Parasound Zphono to demo, but that did not help. In fact it may have made the hum louder. I was trying things last night and found out if I use the built-in phono stage of my TT, the problem was completely eliminated. I'm just not sure about the quality of the phono stage in a $300 TT (TEAC TN400s w/ Ortofon II Black cart), but it sounds pretty good to me. I aslo received the RCA clear top and find it to be a good improvement over the stock JJ.
I suppose Rogue and your dealer duplicated the noise, despite using different (known good) cables between the turntable and preamp?
+1 to this.. My old PrimaLuna and my Luxman Class A sound night and day different after 30 minutes or so.. I never listen critically for at least that long.
You definitely have some odd interaction with the turntable grounding or shielding, it's internal preamp, and the external preamps that you are using. So, to date you have used at least four preamps, the Rogue internal, the Parasound external, which both have some residual hum when connected to your Teac deck; then your other integrated amp, a SS unit which does not seem to be effected (but I am unconvinced of this) and the internal preamp of the Teac, which is not effected. So the only thing that I find to be certain, ie universal, is that the table does not hum when using its built-in preamp. I did a quick Google search (you might try that before blaming other components) about your Teac and I found a post on another forum about the same issue. It turned out to be solved by replacing the wall wart power supply that came with the turntable with a linear power supply or a battery power supply. That means that the internal wiring of the table (maybe even on the circuit board) is interfering with the signal from the phono cartridge. It's not a ground issue, so grounding or not various ways won't help. It's a EMI problem, on-board the turntable via the included DC switching power supply. Here is a link to the full problem and the owner's solution: Problems with the Teac TN-300- Vinyl Engine -Bill
Bill, You've summed up the issue brilliantly with one exception. When the TT is plugged into the phono stage of my Belles Aria SS amp--it is quiet as a church mouse. Can you please elaborate on what a linear power supply is and where I can obtain one? Sorry for the noob question. Thanks!!! Joe
That's odd about the Belles. Maybe they have isolated the ground somehow. Here is an enclosed power supply, plug-n-play, but you'll need to use the cord from your present wall wart and observe polarity of the wires, contacts: https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Compact-Bench-Power-Supply/dp/B000A896GG -Bill
