Rogers HG88 Mk II OR Leak Stereo 20
I’ve rebuilt Leak Stereo 20s with PIO caps and Holco resistors to very good effect. The Rogers, I’ve not heard but there are a lot of controls and complexities to the circuit which may derail the sound. A clean Leak will sound as good as any modern amp as long as the speakers are reasonable efficient. Main characteristic is sweet and detailed. |
If you have a small listening room and don’t listen loud a properly refurbished 20 should be magical/rich/balanced with the Rogers (dependent upon the preamp used). I owned Rogers Ls3/5a’s from 1978-1986 and did try them with a refurbished 20 using the preamp/phono section of an Advent 300, and also the phono section of the Advent piped through a Dynaco PAS3X preamp. In my room (14’ x 22+’ with a 10.5’ ceiling height) there was not enough power for higher SPL’s, but it was fine @ lower listeing levels. The same was true of an Eico integrated el84 PP amp that I also tried/owned. I ended up using two slightly modified (choked PS + a few other changes) Dynaco ST70’s as mono blocks instead (the Leak was a loaner anyway from an X-GF’s father). This said the 20 would need to be properly refurbished, though they are easy to work on (the layout reminds me of the Harmon Kardon tube power amps that came out of few years later). Oddly enough my cartridge of the time was the Sure V15 III on a Thorens 160/SME 3009 combo (currently still using a Thorens/SME combo, but sold all the Sure’s along with the rest of my gear in 1986). Never paid much attention to the Rogers integrated amp, though heard them in a few systems years ago (liked the looks of the later model). DeKay |
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203478561103?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20... This is the Rogers Valve Amp I'm talking about.. Best, Will |
Oh, that's the earlier ugly one... From the repair receipt it will still require a real refurbishment/going over. Another thing to think about is the phono section if you are planning on using it. The stock phono sections in my vintage Eico and Pilot integrated EL84 amps were/are not very good by modern standards (or by 1980's standards either). If you look @ my listed system you will see that I use nice (I think) older, but not high end gear and though somewhat picky I'm happy with the sound of my <$200 Musical Fidelity V-LPS phono preamp. If you go for a 20 what are you planning on using for a line/phono preamp? You have not mentioned budget, but this all adds up as we both know. DeKay |
Bingo… you’ve given me the answer I thought I had in my gut!!! Haha. I love my phono stage In my sugden a21 and a48 which I re worked with modern components..: and some new fish caps so thinking I’d want something valve but with a good phono stage … will take a look a look at your setup …. These always an option of using an older luxman with the their options as a just a pre amp?? |
