Innersound ESL amplifier - good choice?

the zero's in his system. You can find out more by going to the thread "Rogue owners unite" under amps preamps and read what he says about them or send him an e-mail.

Hello Philojet,
I'm using the Innersound esl amp with my Magnepan 1.6's. It just so happens that the Rogue 99 is in my system as well. I compared a Odyssey Stratos amp to the Innersound and found that the Innersound is more revealing, dynamic, airy with voice and space, and overall a "effortless" quality to the sound compared to the Odyssey. My new Rogue 99 arrived last week and I was more impressed of the sound compared to my Rogue 66. My new 99 hasn't been fully broken in yet and came with stock Chinese tubes which seemed bright and lacked the "warm" sound I hoped for (probably due to the Chinese tube compliment). Today I sent my Rogue 99 in for the Magnum upgrade, which includes the nos Russian 6n7's and hope that the nos tubes(along with the Magnum upgrade) will warm the sound a bit more. The first thing I noticed when using the 66 and 99 was total control of the maggies and more "information" from the source which was not as revealing with the Odyssey Stratos amp. Don't get me wrong, the Odyssey Stratos amp is good, but it just doesn't have the control and revealing qualities like the Innersound esl amp. I'm sure it is because of its power, and high voltage of its design. I'll keep you updated as soon as I have more of a refined listening session with the Innersound esl, Rogue 99 Magnum, and Magnepan 1.6's !

Hey Asa... Have you heard the Innersound with Magnepan 1.6's? What was the comment about "and when all of this Innersound hoop-la by the young and exhuberiant necessarily dies down..." about? What do you know about the people who use the Innersound amp? All equipment is system dependent, so don't base your experience on just your system without hearing it with other equipment! Oh by the way, good comment Brianmgrarcom.

I agree that the Innersound was not as intimate as the Odyssey amp, but I was able to hear more ambience and detail with the Innersound. The Odyssey amp OTOH, would compress the soundstage (at higher volume), and lacked the effortless, uncompressed dynamics of the Innersound. I'll be getting my Magnum Rogue 99 back in about a week or two and I hope it will soften the Innersound amp down a bit. I've never heard the Plinius amp and sure it is nice, but I was able to buy the Innersound at a good price and took that into consideration along with the great customer service from Roger Sanders. I'm also in the process of looking into treating my room, due to the uneven dimensions.

Philojet,
I have to agree that Duke is very knowledgeable and a straight shooter. He allowed me to audition the Innersound amp at his shipping expense, no deposit required, and would have even paid for the return shipping! I can't speak more highly of Duke. I've never auditioned any of the Plinius products but I too think that the Innersound may be more bang for the buck. Are you auditioning the Innersound ic's? I've been curious about them and have been thinking of comparing my Coincident cst ic's to them. Looking forward to your results with the wires.

Good to hear that you've had good results with the Innersound so far Philojet. I've been curious about the Innersound ic's and speaker wires. Keep us posted about them please. I'm waiting for my Rogue 99 to get back from the Magnum upgrade and looking forward to hearing it. Currently I'm using a Rogue 66 in its place. Would also love to hear about any comparisons to the Innersound amp which you may do. I agree that the Innersound has lots of air and detail when I compared it to my Odyssey.

Cary 303/100 -> Coincident cst ic. -> Rogue 66 lsr (until the Magnum 99 arrives) -> Coincident cst ic. -> Innersound esl -> AP Oval 9 biwired -> Magnepan 1.6qr.