Rogue Vs Classe

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I was in two stereo shops comparing both speakers and amps. I had the chance to listen to some B&W 804s with Classe amplifying them. The other store had Focus 788 speakers with Rogue 99 pre running two mono block Rogue amps. I was listening to the same music on both. First off I must say even though I was listening to 804s on Classe, the depth to the music in between the speakers was not as good as I've heard from B&Ws before. There was still air to the music, but the sound didn't open up like I had remembered before. I wasn't sure if it was because I was not in the triangle between the speakers and may of been setting too far back. I kept leaning forward a lot. There was still an edginess to the music. Kind of that sharp sound. I was expecting Classe to sound better then this since I've heard older B&Ws on YBA that impressed me a lot. It didn't help they didn't have a SACD player for some of my music.
On to the other store. This place is old school which carries a lot of records, tube components, and turntables. I had the chance to listen to the Rogue pre and amp setup in a slightly smaller room then the other store. This may of been partially why the sound may of been different. He had the Rogue mono blocks setup to some Focus 2 way speakers. These speakers weren't bad for 2 ways and were quite expensive. They did sound somewhat different then the B&Ws, maybe not as refined. What I got was a very open soundstage, a slightly softer sound from the music, and good presence. I was assuming this to be attributed to the tube setup. Power output was not that great. We had it near max level before distortion and it was not as loud as one would expect. I did get some popping and scratchy sounds when over driven. I was wondering whether the one speaker on the right was partially blown or not. I wasn't sure.
From this it was hard to know exactly what component was making what kind of sound. If I heard both amps in the same room with the same speakers, it would help. Even the source deck was different. I was impressed with the SACD playback. I had Miles Davis: Kind of Blue and Celine Dion playing for some music. I must admit I did like CD playback better on the tube system though. Aside from the opennous sound from tubes, it didn't sound as different from the solid state amp I heard earlier. I was expecting more of a dramatic difference. The high end still sounded as pronounced on the Rogue as it did on the Classe. I was expecting some roll off.

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Topic - Rogue Vs Classe - shpickering@yahoo.ca 20:39:06 03/24/06 (4)

Re: Rogue Vs Classe - Mike D 17:09:01 03/29/06 (0)

Re: Rogue Vs Classe - sogood 08:35:00 03/25/06 (0)

Re: Rogue Vs Classe - Blooze 22:34:24 03/24/06 (0)

Re: Rogue Vs Classe - shpickering@yahoo.ca 20:45:30 03/24/06 (0)

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