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Re: Rogue VS Conrad Johnson

The Rogue Audio amps are faster, cleaner sounding than the C-J amps, which are sweeter, warmer by comparison. Like coffee Vs milk. Both companies products are exceptionally well made as is McIntosh. The other US company that comes to mind in comparison is Audio Research. Of those four companies, the house sounds of C-J and Mac are more similar while ARC and Rogue are also.
Specifically, the 99 preamp is a little on the warm side of neutral but it does have a rather unique feature in its gain control. That allows you to select the level of tube gain on the fly, independently of the volume control. It changes the tone, dynamics and soundstage of the amp. Rogue has also just come out with a new preamp called the Perseus which is also very nice. It is slimmer in design and has in internal power supply as well as a fully adjustable phonostage that is solid state. The linestage section is powered by four 12AU7 tubes. You can get an optional phonostage in the 99, which is fully tube and brings that preamps tube count from 4 up to 8.
The best thing for you to do is to go in and listen. I think all of these companies have good customer service and make excellent products. Thank god they still choose to do it in the USA!
-Bill


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