Looking for advise regarding Rogue M180’s

I'm not sure I have much to add, mulveling covered a lot of ground. As he said, some hiss is normal with high efficiency speakers. I think I had Klipsch speakers when I had my M180s and if you got close to the tweeters, you could hear some hiss, but while listening it wasn't noticeable.  Also consider the KT120 power tubes and give the triode / ultralinear modes a try, and try both the 8 and 4 ohm taps. I preferred ultralinear, but triode might be better with the Zu speakers. It's worth experimenting. And yes, nice gift!

Having said that, if it was me, once you are confident they are working properly, I would consider flipping them and getting lower powered tube amps that are better suited to your speakers.

@big_greg , thanks for your input. I have Zu, Klipsch, and JBL 4312A’s that are in excellent condition. My front end is Innuos, Schiit Yiggy, Thorens TT with Grado Prestige. I’m currently running the Rogue RP-1 with Telefunken G73-R’s , vibration isolation under footers and upgraded power cord. I’ve reached the limits of what it can do without adding a separate phono stage. I have a Dennis Had Inspire Sep amp with 1/2 doz NOS rectifier tubes, 8 NOS input tubes, and about 10 pairs of power tubes from NOS GEC to KT-150’s. I rotate that with a modded Akitika SS 50wpc amp. My long plan is an entire new back end with a better pre and some speakers that like that much power. I will not connect them with the ZU’s at all. I was considering new tube monos when I was gifted the M180’s. I live about 2 hours south of Quicksilver and was considering the KT’s as Mike recommended at least 100 wpc for my JBL’s. However as a near field studio monitor, they are not that musical. If this works out I’ll be looking at some speakers in the $10K region which is a lot for my modest income. And again your comments are appreciated. Regards, Mike B.

I has some of Quicksilver's Horn monoblocks for a while and they were really good with my Klipsch Chorus speakers.  I was most impressed by how quiet they were. 

I moved away from tube amps, as much as I like the sound, I got tired of the issues with tubes, the heat, and cost of replacement tubes.  

I like the combination of solid state amps and a tube pre.  My current setup is PS Audio M1200 monoblocks, Herron Audio VTSP-360 preamp, and Gershman Studio Xdb speakers. The Gershmans are pretty hard to drive and the M1200s handle them well.

If you are going to go down the nearfield monitor route, it's hard to go wrong with either a LS3/5 variant or Harbeth P3ESR.

Congratulations on such an exciting gift. I have read a lot of positive comments on the Rogue amplifiers on these forums. Finally, the curiosity got the best of me to try one of these out when a good deal was found on the Apollo Dark monos.

I was a long time user of the CAT JL-3 mono amps. These throw out a lot of heat. And with the huge number of tubes, they are costly to maintain every few years. I have heard nothing in my system, tube or SS, that comes even close. But finally, I found a SS amp, the Symphonic Line (SL) Kraft 300 amp that is truly impressive. The SL product line is quite special. It does so many things beautifully, but the CAT amps are in a different ballpark, in dynamics, clarity and openness. The CATs are not tubey-sounding amps. I’m sure these 20 year old amps still hold their own against all the latest ARC, CJ, etc., of today.

I have been running the SL Kraft for about a year with great success and only two issues: 1) the SL amp sounds horrible until a long warmup, many hours to a day, and keeping it on all the time gets pricey! ; 2) I miss the "magic" that comes with a tube amp. Enter the Rogue amps.

After living with the Apollos for two weeks, I can share some setup details. Mine came with TungSol KT-90s. They came with Amperex 12ax7, and unknown 12au7’s. A number of years ago I spend a lot of tube rolling to find the coveted triplet (12ax7, 12au7, 6922) for the CAT amps. Replacing the Amperex with the 5751 (I can’t see the brand on the glass) I had used on the CAT was significant; there was a bite in the upper mids/lower trebles that was gone thanks to the 5751. The sound was good but I had one more test - replace the 12au7 pairs with my all-time favorite here - the RCA 12BH7. Every time I have used this tube in 12au7 sockets for DAC, Line Stage, amps, it always reigns supreme and it did not let me down here either. The mids were much more smooth with greater decays. After an hour or so, I was so impressed for the value of these amps. They locked onto the SoundLab A1s incredibly well. I use the 8-ohm terminals as I always have when I had a choice.

With all the success, I had/have some issues that I did not have with the SL Kraft or the CATs. With the Apollos, I suddenly had a ground-loop hum. I have three circuits in the room, one each (different phases) for when I use the cat amps, and the third for the rest of the system. I never had hum issues with this. Using the SL amp’s both power cords into a circuit on the opposite phase of the system never caused a problem. But this same setup caused hum out of the right speaker with the Apollos. I changed to my backup power cords and the problem was gone. Back to the first cords and the hum was back. I fussed with cable routing, cable lifters, etc. Finally I threw in a cheater plug and the problem was resolved. But I don’t like to have to do this. So you might need to be extra careful with cable layout, cables crossing/touching, circuits, phases, etc.

With the Apollos, I have more tube noise vs. with the SL amp, but once the music starts, you can’t hear it. And I tried the Triode mode. This was quite disappointing as I expected an even more lush sound, but it was too mellow and the strong bass foundation much diminished. So you can play with that switch as well to see what mode works for you.

I am back to a fully tubed system. And I have to say that I love it. Enjoy the 180s.

John

@jafox , Hi thanks for the detailed advice, I’m going to hook them up tomorrow. I returned home this afternoon from a trip to see Collective Soul in Las Vegas.               I have a strong suspicion that the previous owners hum issue was circuit related. He had a dedicated equipment room adjacent to his listening room that housed some of his theater gear, a server, and his reference system amps. He utilized long runs of Acoustic Zen cables to go from his Hera to the M180’s, then another long run to his speakers and subs. As you noted room heat became an issue so he put the amps in a separate climate controlled room. That room was a new build and had a wiring issue and the power company’s transformer had to be changed. As mentioned above I have a modest single ended low power system. One plus is I’ve had the opportunity to tube roll before prices exploded. I have about 6 pairs of Tekefunkens including Tektronix and the black G 73-R’s, Seimens CCa , Silver plated Seimens, RCA tripple mica. In 6922 numerous NOS American and my favorite Tekefunken E88CC. I’m wondering if the KT 90’s you have are EH not Tung Sol. I like the new KT 120 and 150 tubes. I very much like the GL KT 88’s. One of my all time favorites is the Svetlana Winged C, but they’re hard to come by and mostly factory seconds. They have the sweetness of the Gold Lion KT88 and the low end of the Tung Sol KT -120’s. I needed to know about an open loop on input , which has been answered. But you guys have given me tremendous advise regarding input tubes. I do not own any 12AX7’s or 12AY7’s or any of the lower gain tubes. The advise I’ve received will help me with my choices. After this, I will shop for an affordable balanced pre. Unfortunately my quest for the appropriate speakers will be on hold as my wife is purchasing 2-3 slabs of Quartz tomorrow for our pending kitchen remodel. She’s looking at Taj Mahal quartz, Thermidor appliances and oak flooring. My dreams of Big Boy speakers will have to be put on hold . Also I’m very humbled and honored that the three of you have taken the time to guide me. Regards , Mike B.