Price Paid:  $1000.00 from Northern Audio excha

Summary:
I first heard the Rogue 99 and thought it was awesome. So I bought the 66 figuring it would have pretty much the same sound but less extened. I was wrong. For the last 3 years I've upgraded everything in my system. I refused to believe it was the Rogue dragging my system down all this time. I'm afraid it realy is the worst example of tube sound. It's dark, the highs are rolled off, the bass is mush, and the details are just missing in action. To be fair I did hear this pre-amp sound good once. It was in a friend's system. He was using a Mesa Baron amp, some very cool Gallos speakers, a Oracle turntable and a solid state pre-amp I've never heard of before. All in all an excellent system, except it was so bright it could burn the paint off the walls. We popped in my Rogue and it was just what the doctor ordered. So if you have a very revealling and very bright system give the Rogue66 a try, everyone else stay away.

Strengths:
In a bright system it can be the bees knees. It's also very pretty.

Weaknesses:
It hums, channel seperation is crap, the phono section is crap, it dominates the sound over all other components, the chassis is flismy, it's smooth to a fault, no detail and it muted.

Similar Products Used:
Denon,dynaco and sony reciever.

Price Paid:  $900.00 from www.audiogon.com

Summary:
I had high expectations for this preamp as being the missing link for my system and was let down greatly, which influenced my review and ratings of what is not a bad preamp, just not one that lived up to the hype in my system; which consists of: Von Schweikert VR3's Odyssey Stratos Amp MSB Nelson Dac Pioneer Elite CD carosel DIY Belden and DH Labs cables Monster HTS2500 Conditioner You read of many people touting the benefits of a tube preamp with a solid state amp as the best of both worlds, I found it to be the worst of tubes exemplified. I value a dead silent background, this pre was very noisey, with its hiss slightly audible from the listening chair, which obscured detail, as did its sharply rolled off topend. Great for a hot tweeter in a bright speaker, otherwise a bad thing. The bass was extended but soggy, midrange had magic typical of tubes but the overall presentation I felt to be synthetic, the SS pre's I put in place sounded more real, true to life is timber and just overall sound quality. The best feature of this preamp is its ability to layer 3D images, a very cool artificat, but for me its virtues did not come close to outweighing its vices, but I can see how some would be allured to some of the good qualities of this preamp. To each his own.

Strengths:
Amazing ability to solidly layer images in 3d space on a huge soundstage fleshing out in the midrange and vocals smoothness, not really liquid, but smooth (perhaps to a fault).

Weaknesses:
Presented a very synthetic sound Bass was soggy, slow, not articulate Topend was rolled off hard, which, along with the noise, obscured a lot of detail. Loss of dynamics and energy, less engaging, more laid back.

Similar Products Used:
Musical Fidelity, Kinergetics, Chiro, NAD, Parasound, McIntosh, Creek, Rotel.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
This review is for the Magnum version. This is my first time entry into tube audio. I have heard so much about tube that I just have to try it out for myself. After extesnive research base on my budget of $1000, I narrowed down to either Rogue 66 or Blue Cicle BC21. I finally found an used Rogue 66 and then sent it back to the manufacturer for a complete makeover including the Magnum upgrade. I have been using Acurus RL-11 and I also own a Creek OBH-12. Both are a very decent SS preamp (see the reviews) but the Rogue just sound much better to my ears. I am not an audiophile so I realy can not describe it in audiophile terms. All I can say is that it gives my system a much warmer, fuller sound than before and it should because the Rogue cost twice as much as the Acurus. For a cheap (less than $500 used) SS preamp, I recommend the Acurus RL-11 or LS-11, or the Creek OBH-12 for a lot less. But for a decent tube preamp (if you can afford a little more), you can't go wrong w/ the Rogue. There are not too many of them on the used market so they might be a little hard to find. The rest of my stuff include: Acurus A-200 SS amp (great w/ the Rogue) Cambridge Audio D500 SE CD player Magnepan 1.6 speakers Goertz Alphacore MI3 speaker cable and an assortment of interconnects

Weaknesses:
The knobs feel a little cheap but I am not paying for knobs anyway so really doesn't matter.

Price Paid:  $1500.00 from Rogue Audio Direct

Summary:
This review is for the extra cost Magnum version which incorporates several upgrades.

Having read several reviews of this preamp both online and in magazines, I was not certain what to expect from this unit. I had been using the SP9 for more than 13 years and had been satisfied with its performance overall despite its tendency to sound a little bright at times. I intended to search for a reasonably priced all-tube preamplifier to ease the hardness of most compact disks. I felt that the component I could live with would not have to surpass the SP9 in any other aspect, as it has always proven itself to be of reasonably high performance quality. The 66 Magnum fulfills this need and then some.

Soundstaging, inner detail and microdynamics are much better served by the the Rogue. Bandwidth is also wider yet more controlled than that of the SP9 - which sounds slightly compressed in direct comparisons - yet the Rogue seems never to add or detract to the music. It's just doing what it's supposed to do without adding any sonic signature of its own. In fact, the preamp allows the subtle differences between the sound of different tube brands to be noticed quite easily, so if you buy this unit you might want to try something other than the Sylvania 12AU7s that come with it. So far, I've had good luck with Telefunkens and Mullards (I prefer the military version of the Mullard, but these are a bit hard to find).

The preamp's one weakness is its phono stage. By comparison with the SP9, it is not quite as tight in the bass, and is a little too soft in the upper midrange. I have not yet experimented with different brands of tubes, but if I were to do it all over again, I would opt for the line stage version with the remote, and use my existing SP9 for vinyl playback.

In all, though, I find this preamp to be a bargain at its price. You could spend more and get far less performance. Components in my system include:

Rogue Audio Magnum 66 preamp with phono section
Quicksilver Audio MS-190 tube amplifier
Sony SCD-333ES SACD/CD player
Rosinante Evolution Signature speakers
SOTA Star Sapphire turntable/JH Formula 4 arm/Shure cartridge
Velodyne ULD-12 subwoofers.

Strengths:
Line stage is superb

Weaknesses:
Phono stage is a little soft

Similar Products Used:
This unit replaced an Audio Research SP9

Summary:
this is a follow up to my original Review.It just better and better.I put in a Pair of Mullard CV 4003 and this little beauty just got much better.Its a argin.If you have never had tubes try this unit.You will be converted.

Strengths:
Phono Stage for 1295.00

Weaknesses:
Would like a remote but for 1295.00 you cant have it all.

Similar Products Used:
Conrad johnson PV 7,