Question Is it worth the hiss ?

A question.

Trevor Lloyd

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Looking for some sound advice, if you’ll excuse the pun. I have a Nord Purifi power amp with a Rogue Audio RP1, mostly I play CD’s through a Roksan Caspian CD player, as well as LP’s on a Michell Focus One turntable, I know the Nord is dead quiet, because I previously used an Arcam Amp as a preamp, wasn’t too pleased with the sound though. The rogue gives a much better all round sound stage , and with remastered CD’s it can sound stunning, but there is a hiss, not noticeable when playing but to my ears very noticeable in the absence of any music. Also the volume control clicks when turned quite loudly, and sorry to list a multitude of ‘problems’ but if you have the phono stage on and leave the turntable playing, switch the selector to Line you can still hear the turntable through the speakers almost as if it is bleeding through. Is it a case of finding someone to service the Rogue ?
 

JANDL100

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Wow, that's a difficult to disentangle single paragraph, mentioning equipment like the Rogue I'd never heard of before!

Trying to delve into that...

What speakers are you using, are they very high sensitivity?

I'm not surprised you didn't like the Arcam preamp. Preamps aren't there strongest suit by a long way in my experience.

Stereophile give the Rogue valve preamp a good review, with good technical measurements. So it shouldn't hiss. But it is a valve (tube) design, so faulty valve(s) are always a possibility.

When you say the volume control clicks, is this mechanical sound from the preamp unit itself, or sound coming through the speakers?
The Stereophile technical review mentions that the volume control works in 0.95db steps. Stepped volume controls can sometimes click, depending on how they work. But stepping noise isn't mentioned in the review.

The phonostage bleed into the line level is obviously not good either. It shouldn't do that!

All in all, as a non-techy myself, I'd say that getting the Rogue pre looked at by someone competent is a good idea.

Emphasising once again that I am not technically competent, I do wonder if something is wrong with the grounding of the preamp.
 
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Trevor Lloyd

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Wow, that's a difficult to disentangle single paragraph, mentioning equipment like the Rogue I'd never heard of before!

Trying to delve into that...

What speakers are you using, are they very high sensitivity?

I'm not surprised you didn't like the Arcam preamp. Preamps aren't there strongest suit by a long way in my experience.

Stereophile give the Rogue valve preamp a good review, with good technical measurements. So it shouldn't hiss. But it is a valve (tube) design, so faulty valve(s) are always a possibility.

When you say the volume control clicks, is this mechanical sound from the preamp unit itself, or sound coming through the speakers?
The Stereophile technical review mentions that the volume control works in 0.95db steps. Stepped volume controls can sometimes click, depending on how they work. But stepping noise isn't mentioned in the review.

The phonostage bleed into the line level is obviously not good either. It shouldn't do that!

All in all, as a non-techy myself, I'd say that getting the Rogue pre looked at by someone competent is a good idea.

Emphasising once again that I am not technically competent, I do wonder if something is wrong with the grounding of the preamp.
Wow, that's a difficult to disentangle single paragraph, mentioning equipment like the Rogue I'd never heard of before!

Trying to delve into that...

What speakers are you using, are they very high sensitivity?

I'm not surprised you didn't like the Arcam preamp. Preamps aren't there strongest suit by a long way in my experience.

Stereophile give the Rogue valve preamp a good review, with good technical measurements. So it shouldn't hiss. But it is a valve (tube) design, so faulty valve(s) are always a possibility.

When you say the volume control clicks, is this mechanical sound from the preamp unit itself, or sound coming through the speakers?
The Stereophile technical review mentions that the volume control works in 0.95db steps. Stepped volume controls can sometimes click, depending on how they work. But stepping noise isn't mentioned in the review.

The phonostage bleed into the line level is obviously not good either. It shouldn't do that!

All in all, as a non-techy myself, I'd say that getting the Rogue pre looked at by someone competent is a good idea.

Emphasising once again that I am not technically competent, I do wonder if something is wrong with the grounding of the preamp.
Thanks for that reply, speakers are B & W 805’s the Arcam was actually a power amp in preamp mode but very unsatisfactory.
I have swapped the valves but although I think the sound stage has improved the hiss remains pretty constant, it doesn’t increase as you turn up the volume same level at 1 and up to 60, however the click on the volume control is not mechanical you can only hear it in the speakers, and it does increase as you turn up the volume.
iI suspect you are right and it needs an overhaul but not sure who would do it, don’t know anyone within travelling distance of here ( Shropshire )
 

Jazid

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Crosstalk which is what you are hearing is usually circuit design, not a maintenance issue. Add in hiss and I must say, maybe not a fabulous stage... Or maybe you like s/s type silent, and if so fair enough.
 

rabski

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Bleed through from a 'live' input to an unsed one is not uncommon, but it should be killed by anything plugged into the 'other' input. If it isn't, then either the selector switch is lousy or the internal wiring is lousy. That's assuming you're not winding the gain up flat out. If you do that, pretty much anything will bleed through a little.

The hiss is another matter. Valve amps don't hiss much. At least, good ones don't and at least not noticeably. One man's loud is another man's inaudible or acceptable of course, but hiss shouldn't be noticeable. Again, if you wind up the gain with nothing playing, there will be some noise. Not much though.

If you let us know roughly where you are, there may be some of us who could drop round with a different preamp or two and see whether your's is actually faulty.
 

John (big)

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Looking for some sound advice, if you’ll excuse the pun. I have a Nord Purifi power amp with a Rogue Audio RP1, mostly I play CD’s through a Roksan Caspian CD player, as well as LP’s on a Michell Focus One turntable, I know the Nord is dead quiet, because I previously used an Arcam Amp as a preamp, wasn’t too pleased with the sound though. The rogue gives a much better all round sound stage , and with remastered CD’s it can sound stunning, but there is a hiss, not noticeable when playing but to my ears very noticeable in the absence of any music. Also the volume control clicks when turned quite loudly, and sorry to list a multitude of ‘problems’ but if you have the phono stage on and leave the turntable playing, switch the selector to Line you can still hear the turntable through the speakers almost as if it is bleeding through. Is it a case of finding someone to service the Rogue ?
I have a valve Rogue Atlas Magnum 100 wpc power amp with my Croft valve phono stage connected and my Ming da MC7R valve pre on full with no record playing there is just discernible a little hiss from my OTA Quad57's at mid way no noise at all. Rogue products do not normally make discernible noise at normal volume control settings, I suggest it requires attention. The Stereophile review makes no mention of noise or any of the other reviews I saw. I'm lucky I have a friend in Malvern who is able to service/repair valve gear he fettles all 3 of mine but valve not hybrids.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/rogue-audio-rp-1-preamplifier-specifications
 
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Trevor Lloyd

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I have a valve Rogue Atlas Magnum 100 wpc power amp with my Croft valve phono stage connected and my Ming da MC7R valve pre on full with no record playing there is just discernible a little hiss from my OTA Quad57's at mid way no noise at all. Rogue products do not normally make discernible noise at normal volume control settings, I suggest it requires attention. The Stereophile review makes no mention of noise or any of the other reviews I saw. I'm lucky I have a friend in Malvern who is able to service/repair valve gear he fettles all 3 of mine but valve not hybrids.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/rogue-audio-rp-1-preamplifier-specifications
Thanks first stop I think is to have someone look at it, got a couple of suggestions I’ll give them a call, no question that hiss in the ear of the beholder as they say, I think I’m particularly sensitive to it, whereas one or two of my friends who are relatively knowledgable said it wasn’t noticeable, however as members of the older brigade they do admit that hearing was not what it was.
 
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DiggyGun

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Looking for some sound advice, if you’ll excuse the pun. I have a Nord Purifi power amp with a Rogue Audio RP1, mostly I play CD’s through a Roksan Caspian CD player, as well as LP’s on a Michell Focus One turntable, I know the Nord is dead quiet, because I previously used an Arcam Amp as a preamp, wasn’t too pleased with the sound though. The rogue gives a much better all round sound stage , and with remastered CD’s it can sound stunning, but there is a hiss, not noticeable when playing but to my ears very noticeable in the absence of any music. Also the volume control clicks when turned quite loudly, and sorry to list a multitude of ‘problems’ but if you have the phono stage on and leave the turntable playing, switch the selector to Line you can still hear the turntable through the speakers almost as if it is bleeding through. Is it a case of finding someone to service the Rogue ?
Contact Class A Audio in Sheffield.

They may be able to help and offer a collection and delivery service as well.

DG…
 

Trevor Lloyd

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Oct 31, 2022
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I have a valve Rogue Atlas Magnum 100 wpc power amp with my Croft valve phono stage connected and my Ming da MC7R valve pre on full with no record playing there is just discernible a little hiss from my OTA Quad57's at mid way no noise at all. Rogue products do not normally make discernible noise at normal volume control settings, I suggest it requires attention. The Stereophile review makes no mention of noise or any of the other reviews I saw. I'm lucky I have a friend in Malvern who is able to service/repair valve gear he fettles all 3 of mine but valve not hybrids.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/rogue-audio-rp-1-preamplifier-specifications
Thact’s a shame, as I don’t live at all far from Malvern
 

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