Curious to know which caps the Dark upgrade uses? Were the caps the only upgrade performed? As far as the Dark upgrade I doubt Upscale really gave 2 poops lol.
Rogue Audio and Audio Research Comparisons
Recently I've purchased a Rogue ST-100 amp and enjoying quite a bit. My personal opinion is it punches way above its price point and in my opinion has a lot of the Audio Research sonic characteristics. Curious has anyone owned both Rogue and ARC and what are your thoughts? I'm not referring to the current Ref series but the older such as REF110, REF150 and REF75SE.
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If I recall correctly, Mark said that two major "improvements" in terms of electronic components in the Dark version are VISHAY resistors in key locations and more and better capacitors that are Murdorf's best. He also uses Telefunken small signal tubes and I believe SolTol for the power tubes.. (mine are too hot at the moment to remove and check...been listening for several hours). According to his site: Apollo Dark Extended Features: [back to top] I am now driving Sonus Faber Il Cremonese speakers with the Apollo Darks which are in turn being fed by Rogue's RP9 preamp. The Apollo's are articulate with tight bass and a beautiful treble and midrange. No bloom, no veil. Some say Rogue's amps are more SS than tube in character, and in that they are definitely not warm and syrupy, this is probably accurate. But, not harsh or clinical either.
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Thank you everyone very much. My next step was to upgrade the caps however, I came across a ARC REF75SE that had just been serviced at ARC and has new tubes and a clean bill of health. Only had it 2 days but it's amazing so far. I really enjoy the Rogue and I'm sure if I upgraded the caps it would have improved the amp quite a bit but I'll be selling the Rogue soon unfortunately. |
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