Rogue Tempest II magnum or Cronus Magnum for VR-33

I have had the Tempest II Magnum and now have a Cronus Magnum. The Cronus is as you describe. The Tempest is a bit thinner. I forgot the name of the guy I talked to at Rogue (it wasn't Mark) when I was thinking about buying the Cronus. He said the Tempest is probably the most solid state sounding amp they build, and that they sell far more Cronus' than Tempests. The one redeeming thing to my tastes about the Tempest was its passive preamp. There was more incremental volume adjustment to it. The remote on the Cronus makes far too big a jump each time the button is pushed. I just turn it manually. Whatever model you choose, one thing is certain, you won't find better customer service than Rogue- maybe some are as good, but none better.

Thanks for chiming in Valinar. I suspected I might lose in terms of body with the tempests and its passive pre, but it sounds like while it may be a great integrated, it could be a departure from what I am after.

I pretty much committed to buying a tempest, so it may be a learning experience. Not too big a deal I suspect as they seem very liquid on the use market.

I will keep my eyes peeled for a Cronus still...

Dont buy it, I had a Tempest II and my Modded Dynaco kicked its ass....and compare 90 watts/per to 35. I was using Spendor SP1/2e speakers at the time with a bottlehead preamp (300 used) I pd 1200 for the tempest and sold in 1 month after trying multiple tube sets.

Just my actual experience

Regards

I've owned a Tempest II Magnum for over 2 years and have not once thought about replacing it.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I decided to pass nd just hold out for a reasonably priced Cronus Magnum. Sellers seem whacked these day, the last two listed for the same price I could walk into a dealer and get one new....

Gopher,

The Tempest-III is switchable between passive and active preamplification. It therefore works with a wider range of speakers than the first two Tempest generations. I believe it comes in a magnum version, maybe even a super magnum. I believe too that if you make your decision between one of the Tempest-III's or Cronus Magnum you can't go wrong either way, although I would give the nod to the Tempest-III.

A few years ago when I brought a Cronus and a Tempest home from the shop here in town to audition I found the Cronus to be a bit warmer than the Tempest. I don't recall which Tempest generation it was, 1 or 2. I don't believe I had the magnum version of the Cronus.

The guys in the shop have a Tempest-III Magnum (or Super Magnum, I can't recall) that has KT90 tubes in it. We didn't like the KT90s at first, but since they've been breaking in they've really changed character and are pretty nice. Nice musical texture. I have Gold Lion KT88s in my M180 monoblocks, and I like the detail they convey, but the Tempest-III with the KT90s is a nice setup.

" Dont buy it, I had a Tempest II and my Modded Dynaco kicked its ass....and compare 90 watts/per to 35  "

I'm currently running a 99 Magnum into a VTA modded ST70. I've been thinking about stepping over to the Tempest integrated for simplicity's sake, but this is quite a claim. Besides its hard to beat the iconic MCM look of the ST70

A well modified dynaco can sound excellent compare to others so don t downplay the rogue because when you modify a unit your pockets are the limits .