Rouge M120 With 99 or 66 Preamp

hi plato, ya, i'm the guy w/the *alleged* impedance mismatch. re: the magnum upgrade, perhaps it's not official, but it's real, i paid real money for it. also, further upgraded my 99 w/nos ge tubes which helped a *lot* (line-stage only; i have an outboard fono-stage), but still not enuff for my liking. here's why i tink there was an impedance mismatch: Rogue sez the 99's output impedance is 100 ohms, I think it's a bit higher. My x-over's input impedance is 25kohms. This means there'd be potential impedance mismatch problems when a preamps' output impedance starts to approach 2.5k ohms. Well, I crossed a 2.2kohm resistor over the outputs when the 99 was plugged into my x-over, & there was an easily audible drop in the volume output, indicating at least a 3db reduction in volume. This indicates an output impedance of somewhere around 2kohms, a lot higher than rogue's claimed 100ohms. A similar test w/my cary preamp, rated at 800ohms output impedance, showed no reduction in volume w/the 2.2kohm resistor - it took a 1kohm resistor to reduce the volume by 3db, & this is consistent w/the cary's 800ohm output impedance rating. perhaps the rogue's extension is better w/amps (or crossovers) w/input impedances of 100kohms... regards, doug

I have a 66 LSR with NOS Mullard CV-4003's and love it. I directly auditioned it (with stock tubes) against a BAT 3VKi and thought it was a close contest, the BAT being darker, but with a wonderful low end. I recently auditioned the 99 against that same BAT and the 99 blew the doors off the BAT. The BAT sounded veiled and strained compared to the 99. The setup included nice ancillaries: AudioPhysic Virgos, Classe Monoblocks, BAT CD. With the 99 in the system, I'd have to say my CD's sounded better than I have EVER heard them. I'm saving my hard earned ducats as we speak, because I'm moving on up to the 99! A further plus is Mark O'Brien's fantastic customer support.

thanks