How quiet is your Rogue Sphinx?

further to my last post, I have a rega brio in the TV room and the noise consists only of typical 'hiss', noticeable through the tweeter, little deeper in the mid unit and barely perceptible in the bass unit.

If I turn up the volume knob to maximum (no signal) there is no change that I can detect in the level of hiss and to the nature of the sound, it really does demonstrate to me how noisy the sphinx is, unacceptable by comparison.

Reynolds853.

the transformer hum you described in the perseus, did that give any noise through the speakers also? Or was it only the hum from the unit itself? I do wonder if my 'variable hum' is related to that which I hear from the unit.

I have a Rogue Cronus Magnum and have had it for years. It's been a perfect amplifier. I've been in contact with Rogue several times with questions and their customer service has been excellent. Devil boy's comments are the first negative comments I've ever read about Rogue anywhere.

I'll agree with Donjr, the customer service response is excellent.

Mark O'Brien did email me this morning. He suggests that the grounding for tubes and class D to be tricky and that in different environments there may be noise at the balance. He reckons that any sphinx in my set up would do the same. Perhaps its not ideal but as long as my unit is operating to spec then I can be assured that at least at future upgrade I can say it's working to spec.

On the topic of rogue I did also home demo the cronus magnum but I found it quite mushy sounding compared to the sphinx, maybe I'm not destined to be a full tube fan. I was actually surprised just how much softer the cronus was compared to the sphinx, still it made a street harp players recording sound incredibly seductive instead of biting.....and it made thinner or bright recordings much more manageable, but overall I prefer the more 'direct' sound of the sphinx.

I think being so used to SS that I'm used to the extra detail, plus im not sure I'm ready for hot 60lb metal and glass in my house!!

Big_katydid,

Regarding the hum you hear when you put your ear close to the amp, that may be normal. My Ayon Triton 1 has a very, very low hum that I can hear if I put my ear about six inches from the unit, but even then I have to listen closely. It is normal for that amp, so again, if you are hearing something like that then perhaps it is normal.

However, you also mention hearing a hum audible at 2 and 10 feet depending on the operation of the balance knob. That one I would have a difficult time accepting as normal. Again, if it were me I'd send the unit back.

With my M180s it was easy to ascertain that there was something wrong: one amp was quiet, the other had an audible hum that could be heard ten feet away. It wasn't a hum that was coming through the speakers, it was a hum coming from inside the amp itself. Concluding something was amiss was an easy call. I took the amp into the shop here, they called Rogue, returned the amp for repair, and that was all it was to it. As I mentioned before, we eventually got feedback that some bad transformers had made it into some amps so Rogue didn't really question the issue, they just took care of it immediately.

I would like to add too that when I had a Rogue system I always found them to have excellent customer service, from handling that transformer hum issue to replying promptly to my emails about tube compatibility. Though I have moved on with my system I still consider them a good brand and could only imagine they will give you an honest assessment if you get the amp back into their hands.

Regardless of how you choose to address the issue, I hope you end up enjoying your system.

Cheers,

John