In order, I would try:
1. Put some heavy duty power cords on everything. You should be able to order some from Directron.com or find them at an electronics shop. Just so long as they aren't those super thin, bottom barrel power cords.
2. Twine all of your power cords together and run them down one side of the rack. Run all your ic's down the other. Try to have at least 3" distance between any power cord.
2. Try rebiasing the Rogue amp. (if you can).
3. But some new tubes for the cal cd player.
4. Retube the Rogue. If your music is sounding a little lifeless without top end sparkle, it could be the power tubes. It should cost around $100 for 6550's or $120 for SVETLANA KT88's. Let the tubes burn in for 100 hours, and if you don't see an improvement take them out and keep them as spares. Power tubes last around 2000 hours.
5. Swap your speaker cable for a $300 8 foot acoustic zen satori speaker cable. Excellent cable, especially with tubes.
6. Retube the Rogue.
6. Try a few different ic's. For tube systems and not a fortune, I like the $150 retail Supra EFF-ISL ic's. Nordost red dawns are good with tube systems too.
7. Next I would try selling the CD player and buying a Sony XA7ES or a Resolution Audio CD-50 for $1000-1200. I know from experiance that the XA7ES direct driven sounds as good as with a preamp. I've never owned a RA CD-50 but I've heard them and think they have a wonderful analog output stage. Both of these players hold their value quite well.
8. If you still don't like what you hear, I would then try buying some virgo II's for $2500. Alternatively, the $2500 (new) JM-Reynaud Trente is a great transmission line monitor w/lots of bass and a pronounced midrange.
If you want to try a preamp, I would try a $750 Adcom 750 preamp. Those are nice because they can be passive or active. Usually a component with a tube output like the Cal will have lots of drive, so you can run the Adcom passively. If you want a tube preamp I would the the rogue, Audible Illusions Mod 3a, or a BAT vk-3i. My guess is that the passive Adcom would better all of them.
Disclaimer: I sell JM-Reynaud speakers and Supra cables
1. Put some heavy duty power cords on everything. You should be able to order some from Directron.com or find them at an electronics shop. Just so long as they aren't those super thin, bottom barrel power cords.
2. Twine all of your power cords together and run them down one side of the rack. Run all your ic's down the other. Try to have at least 3" distance between any power cord.
2. Try rebiasing the Rogue amp. (if you can).
3. But some new tubes for the cal cd player.
4. Retube the Rogue. If your music is sounding a little lifeless without top end sparkle, it could be the power tubes. It should cost around $100 for 6550's or $120 for SVETLANA KT88's. Let the tubes burn in for 100 hours, and if you don't see an improvement take them out and keep them as spares. Power tubes last around 2000 hours.
5. Swap your speaker cable for a $300 8 foot acoustic zen satori speaker cable. Excellent cable, especially with tubes.
6. Retube the Rogue.
6. Try a few different ic's. For tube systems and not a fortune, I like the $150 retail Supra EFF-ISL ic's. Nordost red dawns are good with tube systems too.
7. Next I would try selling the CD player and buying a Sony XA7ES or a Resolution Audio CD-50 for $1000-1200. I know from experiance that the XA7ES direct driven sounds as good as with a preamp. I've never owned a RA CD-50 but I've heard them and think they have a wonderful analog output stage. Both of these players hold their value quite well.
8. If you still don't like what you hear, I would then try buying some virgo II's for $2500. Alternatively, the $2500 (new) JM-Reynaud Trente is a great transmission line monitor w/lots of bass and a pronounced midrange.
If you want to try a preamp, I would try a $750 Adcom 750 preamp. Those are nice because they can be passive or active. Usually a component with a tube output like the Cal will have lots of drive, so you can run the Adcom passively. If you want a tube preamp I would the the rogue, Audible Illusions Mod 3a, or a BAT vk-3i. My guess is that the passive Adcom would better all of them.
Disclaimer: I sell JM-Reynaud speakers and Supra cables