One of our shop favorites has a fresh update! The Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum 3 integrated tube amplifier is the latest in the series, with a wonderful list of upgrades. Hand built in Pennsylvania, the Rogue CM3 is a fantastic combination of musicality and bold looks. If you haven’t had the opportunity to experiment with tube electronics, you’re in for a treat with this unit.
The first thing you will notice coming from the CM2 to the 3 is the return of the all-metal remote, it’s simple, great looking, and feels delightful in your hand. Additionally, they have completely redesigned the phono-stage of the Cronus Magnum 3. Rather than a fixed moving magnet phono stage, the unit now has an adjustable gain-stage with varying loading options, opening the availability for moving coil cartridges in addition to moving magnet. What you’ll notice in this refinement of the phono stage most is the the quieter background noise, which allows for more definition of depth and width of the soundstage.
For headphone users, the headphone section has been redesigned as well from the CM2. Now, the CM3 features a dedicated headphone circuit based closely off of the circuit designed for Rogue’s RH-5 Headphone Amplifier, featuring massively improved current capabilities for improving dynamics as well as providing proper power for harder to drive headphones.
One of the most impactful changes with the new CM3 is the completely redesigned internal circuit layout, also known as the line-stage. The line-stage redesign has two major benefits, first and foremost, the CM3 has a much lower noise floor than the CM2. A quieter noise floor brings about many benefits; revealing more dynamics and microdynamics, better tonality and resolution of instruments, better soundstage depth and width, and generally better musicality as a whole. In addition to this, the new line-stage brought with it the ability to switch between different operating modes on the tubes. Traditionally, the Rogue Cronus Magnum operated in Ultralinear mode, which provided great bass control and more power, coming in at 100 watts per channel. With the new design in the CM3, they have added a switch to the rear allowing you to switch between Ultralinear operation to Triode operation on the fly. Switching over to Triode mode often provides a slightly softer sound, some might call it 'tubey' or more romantic, with slightly less output at 60 watts per channel.
At the time of this writing, our Cronus Magnum 3 is paired with a pair of Dynaudio Excite X34. If you’d like to hear other combinations, we’re more than happy to pair our other speakers, or we invite you to schedule a time to bring your speakers in to try out!
In combination with the right speakers, the Rogue Cronus Magnum 3 is the heart of an amazingly musical stereo and an amazing value performer at $2995.
