Rogue at Cloney Audio

Based in Pennsylvania USA, Rogue Audio was founded by Mark O’Brien who remains the driving force behind this progressive valve and solid state amplifier company. O’Brien has an impeccable track record having graduated with a B.Sc in Physics from Cal Poly and subsequently working in research at the legendary Bell Labs before starting Rogue Audio.

In a very crowded marketplace, Rogue has distinguished itself by offering made-in-USA products that are strong on performance at very reasonable prices. By developing close relationships with its component suppliers, Rogue has access to economies of scale that benefit both quality and price and which are beyond the scope of most specialist companies.

The Rogue Audio design philosophy is quite simple. As O’Brien says: “we only design products that we would want to own ourselves. An excellent example of this is the Cronus integrated amplifier. I wanted a small but powerful integrated for my living room and I recognized that there was probably a market for a reasonably priced, US made integrated. This turned out to be one of the most popular amps we have ever made.”

The award winning Cronus Magnum has garnered an enviable reputation in the high end audio world. This all valve amplifier delivers 100WPC and effortlessly reproduces even the most demanding musical passages.

The Magnum, now in version III features a number of exciting new upgrades. For vinyl enthusiasts the phono section has been completely redesigned to accommodate both MM and MC cartridges. Two gain settings provide for 45dB and 60dB of gain so you can now use either high or low output cartridges. The phono also has five individual load settings so you can fine tune the phono for optimal results.

A Triode/Ultralinear switch allows for on the fly switching between Ultralinear operation and pure triode. Ultralinear offers the most power and a commanding grip on the bass while triode provides a slightly softer and more romantic sound.

The Cronus also features an excellent headphone amplifier circuit based around MOSFET buffers capable of massive current sourcing and which puts out enough power to drive the most difficult headphones for clean crisp personal audio.

Whereas many electronics manufacturers tend to be avowedly in favour of valves or solid state devices, Rogue Audio is utterly pragmatic and is definitely not one of those companies rehashing designs from the fabled RCA tube manual.

This is epitomised by Rogue’s latest designs which combine tube input stages with output stages based on the very popular Hypex module. This hybrid approach offers the liquidity of tubes with the slam, dynamics and high power outputs of solid state - and all in a relatively compact package. However, Rogue is keen to stress that its hybrid designs are much more than just a tube circuit in front of a class D circuit. O’Brien says: “We actually combine the tube and buffer stages with the output section, using proprietary circuitry that makes the output section perform like a tube stage rather than solid state”.

The Sphinx III is an excellent example of Rogue’s hybrid designs - a 100 watt per channel integrated, with ample inputs including an excellent phono stage and headphone amplifier.

For more info on Rogue Audio, visit their website rogueaudio.com or visit us for a demo!