Editors' Choice Award – The Absolute Sound Magazine
"A Beautiful Balance Between Elegance and Power"
The award winning Cronus Magnum has garnered an enviable reputation in the high end audio world. Even at its attainable price, it outperforms other integrated amps costing many times more. The pure tube design provides a smooth, almost liquid sound that has made this amp a reviewer favorite. With circuitry borrowed from our most advanced amplifier designs, the Cronus Magnum's 100WPC effortlessly reproduces even the most demanding musical passages.
Never content to stand still when it comes to excellence, Rogue Audio has just upgraded the award-winning version II model of the Cronus Magnum, presenting the new Cronus Magnum III.
Award-Winning Excellence
The Cronus Magnum won an Editors' Choice Award from The Absolute Sound magazine. "As I would hear on a wide range of music, the Cronus strikes a beautiful balance between elegance and power. Its dynamic scaling is very fine – lilting with chamber music, muscular with rock and orchestra. Yet that muscle is sinewy and well defined, bringing a great sense of tunefulness and detail to low-frequency instruments," notes. Wayne Garcia. "The high end and music lovers alike can only benefit from such a satisfying design."
The "II" version of the Cronus Magnum won a Best of 2016 Award from EnjoyTheMusic.com. "Am still shaking my head in disbelief at how well this glowing tube amplifier performed," notes Steven R. Rochlin. "Music sounded very natural and authentic to the recording. There is an openness backed by an abundance of drive, if the recording calls for it naturally. The guys at Rogue Audio most definitely tuned this hefty jewel by ear, versus just choosing this or that part off the shelf."
Magnum III Upgrades
The Magnum III features a number of exciting new upgrades to the previous model. For vinyl enthusiasts, the phono section has been completely redesigned to accommodate both MM and MC cartridges. Two gain settings provide for 45dB and 60dB of gain so you can now use either high or low output cartridges. The phono also has five individual load settings so you can fine tune the phono for optimal results.
A Triode / Ultralinear switch allows for on-the-fly switching between Ultralinear operation and pure triode. Ultralinear offers the most power and a commanding grip on the bass while triode provides a slightly softer and more romantic sound.
The line stage has been improved and has an amazingly low noise floor for a completely black background for your listening.
From a technical standpoint, the Cronus uses a triode preamplifier coupled to Rogue Audio's excellent Atlas Magnum power amplifier. A large oversized linear power supply stores tremendous energy for low frequency response and dynamic headroom. The tube circuitry is cutting edge with short signal paths exacted in a low noise design. Finally, precision components are used to provide the transparency and air that are so critical to accurate musical reproduction.
Completely New Headphone Circuit
A completely new headphone circuit is based around MOSFET buffers capable of massive current sourcing. The design is basically a simplified single ended version of Rogue Audio's RH-5 headphone amplifier and puts out enough power to drive the most difficult headphones for clean crisp personal audio.