On a recommendation from Michael Fremer, I checked out the Rogue Audio room at CES in Las Vegas this year, a company that I had admittedly never heard of. Friendly people and great sound seems to be the norm for this US-based company.
Better yet were the prices. The entire tube electronics/magneplanar speaker setup in the pictures below would set you back just $6,750. Trim the system down to just the speakers and amplification and it's a paltry $4,190. That's an amazing price for such a fine-sounding and unique looking setup.
The speakers were borrowed from Magnepan -- the Magnepan 1.7s, to be precise -- the baby brothers of the 3.7s found in the Audio Research room. Magnepan rates these speakers at 40 Hz to 24 kHz. They still have that big Maggie sound, and are even less expensive than the bargain that is the 3.7s.
The Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum integrated amplifier ($2,195) is rated at 55 watts-per-channel and has a claimed frequency response of 20 Hz to 30 kHz. It uses EL-34, 12AU7 and 12AX7 tubes on its input and output stages. It will also work as a headphone amp.
You can also split it up and get the Atlas amp ($1,895) and Metis preamp ($1,395) .
Pretty cool sound for the price.
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