Rogue Sphinx Magnum $2000 (100×2)

My favorite integrated amp value just got better! An already classic integrated has been improved in crystalline detail and a more airy top end.

Rogue has made the Sphinx v3 ($1700, 100×2 with Skeleton remote) for several years now. It’s a dynamite integrated amp, with MM/MC phono section, outstanding headphone amp and uses two 12AU7 tubes in the preamp stage. The tubes are JJs from the Slovak Republic. Rogue provides a matched pair- vs just grabbing any two out of boxes- to insure you have proper channel balance.

Oh, and it’s built in the USA, at a price point where everything else is made in China or has very little power.

I didn’t even know that Rogue was planning to pull a rabbit out of its hat. From left field Rogue just announced a tweaked version of the Sphinx v3, that they’re dubbing Sphinx Magnum. What a pleasant surprise, that Rogue wasn’t just resting on its laurels- since they already had the best integrated amp performer in our biz for under $2k.

The Mag version has a handful of upgrades that make it an easy choice over v3. Although, if you can hit $1700, but not $2k, we can still get the v3 version for you. But for 3 bills… go a little crazy!

The Mag version has the following upgrades:

*Improved linear power supply that features high speed diodes, larger output coupling caps of higher storage capacity

*PRP resistors in the tube preamp stage and phono stage

*Cardas binding posts for speaker connections

*JJ Gold Pin tubes from the Slovak Republic, which are warmer sounding and more open on top than the non gold pins used in v3

*Comes with more solid metal remote, vs plastic Skeleton remote

Axiom Loudspeakers

These Axiom speakers are the result of the merger of Bryston/Axiom. They are made in Canada with stringent quality control and a five year warranty.

With the arrival of these Axiom models we’ve jettisoned the Chinese imports that have dominated the sub $5k price range.

Axiom speakers are tough- but don’t have Bryston’s uber high power capability or 20 year warranty. Bryston speakers have higher powered drivers, crossovers and more heavily braced cabinetry.

As with Brystons, the Axiom models have a very friendly impedance swing. They’re easy to drive by affordable amplifiers.

If you take a look at speaker TESTS in Stereophile or British Hi-Fi News, you’ll see that most speakers claim to be a 4-8 ohm load. But when actually tested, you’ll see that many of them drop to 2 ohms at some part of their impedance curve. A perfect example is the modestly sized Kef LS50 which dips below 2 ohms in the bass, but is still called an 8 ohm speaker. Flag on the field!

This isn’t the case with Bryston or Axiom models. Bryston knows most of its customers need an impedance that won’t dip below four ohms. Paying attention to this curve is JUST as important as paying attention to providing reasonable efficiency.

Axiom’s new models have a smooth top end as well as deeper, more tuneful bass than the Chinese imports. Virtually all the imports are designed with a “smile curve” response to grab your attention when you first hear them. It’s like watching a TV with vivid cranked up. Those are the characteristics that wear you out in short order. Axiom speakers share Bryston’s Steinway Smooth timbrel balance.

Axiom speakers are available in Black Ash, Boston Cherry (red), Walnut or White.

Models

M-60 Tower, $2000 Per Pair

{37.5h, 9.25w, 15d, 48 lbs, 92 dB SPL, 8 ohms, 10-250 w/ch}

Two 6.5” Aluminum Woofers, One 5.25” Aluminum Midrange, One Titanium Tweeter

M-60 is effectively a scaled down Bryston A3. M-60 benefits from the merger of Bryston/Axiom more than any other model.

M-60 has significantly deeper and cleaner bass than any $2k import. Its bass is only down 3dB at 36Hz. That’s not an advertising claim. That’s a true measurement. To compare, B&W’s 703, $6000 pr, is made in China and measures (Brit Hi-Fi News) down 3dB at 46Hz.

Of even greater importance, M-60’s impedance swing barely touches 5 ohms at 30 Hz. The rest of its impedance measures an amp friendly 7 ohms and up. The B&W measures 2.9 ohms at 111 Hz, proving it is a BEAR to drive and you need a far more expensive amp to control it, vs Axiom.

Bryston parsed the DNA of its highly successful A3. Their goal was to scale back as little as possible but still manage to reduce the price by a grand. By reducing size/weight/power of cabinetry and drive elements, M-60 is still quite formidable.

M-60 has a large image with surprisingly solid bass. The top end is mellow so you’ll enjoy the character of female singers and acoustic instruments.

If you can go north a grand, of course you should buy Bryston’s full bore, higher powered model A3. It has higher power handling, even deeper bass and more precise imaging- along with a 20 year warranty. Bryston’s heavyweight cabinetry with superior bracing and stronger drive elements take you there.

M-3 Stand Mount, $760 Per Pair

{13.5h, 8.5w, 8.25d, 90 dB SPL, 8 ohms, 10-200 w/ch}

One 6.5” Aluminum Woofer, One Titanium Tweeter

M-3 is a terrific, moderately priced bookshelf speaker. As with M-60 above, it shares much of Bryston’s DNA and is scaled back from its more powerful brother, Bryston’s Tiny A.

Up until now, the class leader at this price point has been the Klipsch RP600v2. To hit the price point, K builds its speakers in China. The sonic fingerprint is brighter and fatter than Axiom. It’s got a smile curve. With M-3 we have a more mellow sounding, higher powered monitor with deeper bass, made in Canada! Bryston’s Tiny A is more precise and handles greater power levels.

M-3’s impedance swing is at 8 ohms and above, which makes it very easy to drive.

M-2 Stand Mount, $700 Per Pair

{11.5h, 7.5w, 8.5d, 89 dB SPL, 8 ohms, 10-150 w/ch}

One 5.25” Aluminum Woofer, One Titanium Tweeter

M-2 is a small-ish bookshelf speaker with a smooth top end. Its bass isn’t as rich as M-3 above, so if you have room for M-3, buy it, or better yet, it’s more muscular Bryston brothers.

Yet many customers need a petite, accurate mini that doesn’t sound harsh, for a smaller room. M-2 makes sense in that application. By the way, it’s also made in Canada, not China, with a 5 year warranty.

Good Hearing

It’s generally accepted that humans with great auditory range can hear from 20-20kHz. More specific tests have determined that with most of us, you have to knock 20% off at each end.

What about these guys? We’re told they hear from 360Hz to 42kHz. That explains why they don’t need subwoofers.

Bryston Model T-10 Speakers, $20,000 Per Pair

{72h, 12w, 17d, 133 lbs, 92 dB SPL, 4 ohms}

Black Ash, Walnut, Walnut Expresso, Boston Cherry, Natural Cherry

Bryston has just shipped its LINE ARRAY big boy towers, Model T-10. The T-10 denotes that Bryston has been making speakers over a decade. All Brystons are made in Canada with a 20 year warranty!

Model T-10 is a full assault on putting the musicians in your room. Most speakers are quite scaled down from reality in their presentation. We understand that and accept them for what they are. Your wife would prefer shorter/leaner speakers. But the Model T-10 is for YOU.

Model T-10 is large and in charge. Bryston will not apologize for its size. It looks, and better yet, sounds HUGE. So what?! Find a room for your music system and give her the rest of the house!

Model T-10 purveys an enormous sound field, in terms of height, weight and depth. You just can’t get this kind of real scale sound out of a modest 3 element system, like almost everyone else sells.

In fact, when you look at speakers for anywhere near $50k, basically you get Seas or Scanspeak 3-ways along with CRAZYTOWN money for heavy cabinets. I’m not saying they’re not good. I just think Bryston invests your money more wisely to get amazing results.

You can talk till you’re blue in the face about towers that are basically 6.5-8” 3-ways. If you’re lucky you might get a pair of drivers firing out the sides with a moderate amp to help out the 3-way. Model T-10 features FOUR thunderous 8” contiguous Pure Aluminum woofers PER TOWER. Each 8” is 5.5” deep and weighs 15 lbs! The difference in musical SCALE with Model T-10 vs is ginormous. Running eight 8s in the pair of towers pressurizes your room in four locations. When you hear Model T-10 for yourself you’ll realize the other guys just can’t do the same WORK.

Bryston chooses to spend its money on a prolific LINE ARRAY of drivers and house them in a sturdy Canadian Rangerwood enclosure. Bryston makes its own drivers, in its own house in Canada with full TLC control. The other guys buy drivers from Scandinavia and spend WILD money on heavy cabinets of epoxy resin or aluminum. It’s not that those aren’t good materials. It’s just that you get much more performance for your money with a larger array of drivers housed in a prodigious, thick, dense wood enclosure- vs running a small array of drivers in dangerously heavy cabinets that you’d need Green Bay Packers to move.

Axiom ADA1500 Power Amp $2990 (325×2)

Axiom has just shipped its top of the line power amp, ADA1500. It’s on our floor now.

Bryston and Axiom merged some years ago. The resulting company is simply called Bryston.

Bryston has opted to use the Axiom banner for its more affordable amp and speaker designs. While Axiom models don’t quite have Bryston panache for parts and power, they’re terrific products in their own right and priced similarly to the Chinese imports.

Please buy Axiom instead of the Chinese imports! On top of getting mellow sounding amps with a big kick, you’re supporting N Americans in the process. Please don’t send your money half way around the world when we have better products built in our neighborhood. Bryston is closer to us than Atlanta.

All Axiom amps are made in Canada with a 5 year warranty. Bryston has a 20 year warranty.

ADA1500 is dubbed 1500 because that’s the wattage of its BIG BOY toroidal transformer. ADA1000 has a 1000w transformer.

Huge toroidal transformers and massive filter capacitance are hallmarks of Axiom power amps. ADA1500 weighs 58 pounds. That’s fine with Bryston/Axiom. When a Chinese company makes an amp, they want maximum wattage rating and minimal weight. If the Chinese can cut even one pound off an amp, they’ll do it to save on freight. Bryston/Axiom use LINEAR power supplies and chunky parts, the Asian imports do just the opposite, running SMPS power supplies and often claim wattage ratings they cannot meet. That’s right. They blatantly lie about their power claims. The typical Chinese amp rated at 300×2 weighs 11 pounds. Where’s the BEEF?

ADA1500 throws 325×2 into 8 ohms and 650×2 into 4 ohms. It hits 975w on musical peaks and 4500w on dynamic peaks. I’ve been running it on a variety of Bryston, Klipsch and Magnepan speakers. It’s a fabulous mate for all.

When an amp uses the SMPS power supply, you’re lucky to achieve rated power- AND, there is NO HEADROOM for dynamics.

Axiom uses its real estate to space out the components within its amps. The Chinese cram a pile of smallish parts and chips in a tiny space and even drizzle them with epoxy or mortite to make SOME attempt to minimize the RFI and ringing of everything being in close proximity. It looks like bird poop in many of these mass produced imports.

More importantly, ADA1500 has mellifluous sonic attributes. It isn’t a brutish, screaming amplifier. This… is matched with very tight bass response so your speakers don’t sound soggy. Where ADA1500 offers more than its little brothers is primarily in bass WEIGHT and faster acceleration.

If you have speakers that are a bit spiky up top, you should consider an Axiom amp to shake hands with. We have many customers running old Rotels, Adcoms, Haflers, Parasounds etc. They sound more grainy than Axiom and can wear you out, especially at stronger volume levels. A move to Axiom will make your speakers much more palatable.

Your speakers might actually be better than how you currently perceive them- when you rid them of the raspy character of a grizzly amplifier.

If you’re willing the buy a Bryston 4B Cubed ($7500, 300×2)- please do! But if you’re thinking of something south of that, one of the amps in the Axiom family is worth your consideration. ADA1500 is the biggest in the family, but it isn’t a roughneck.

Axiom’s ADA1000 ($1390, 125×2) is a dynamite value! With musical peak power of 375×2, ADA1000 will be plenty for the majority of our customers. Yet if you have more money in your piggy bank and like to kick your speakers in the tail, you should treat yourself to ADA1500.

Here’s an interesting comparison. Axiom’s ADA1000 is again, rated 125×2 and hits musical peaks for 375×2. The 12 pound Benchmark AHB2 ($3500, 100×2, “assembled in USA”) was tested by Stereophile and shuttered one channel when hitting 108w. I’m not saying the Benchmark is no good. I am saying Axiom is a GREAT VALUE.

Rogue RP5v2 Stereo Tube Preamp, $4000

Rogue’s new mid level tube preamp is without equivocation- AWESOME!

Rogue has had a successful RP5 for many years. The v2 version maintains Rogue’s famous smoothness and brings a new level of transparency to the party.

Rogue introduced its Dragon ($4k, 300×2) power amp about two years ago. It has a warm sound with tremendous inner detail and breathy dynamics. RP5v2 is the perfect mate as it shares the same characteristics that Dragon has. The prior RP5 was a notch below the Dragon in resolution. RP5v2 has solved that issue of a somewhat incongruous pairing.

Where I heard RP5v2 show its heart and soul is when I started playing a variety of female singers. You can hear the lilt a great singer brings to her phrasing that mediocre electronics obfuscate.

We tend to think of dynamics as a term used for orchestral crescendos. Fair enough. But there are micro dynamics purveyed by great singers to bring out a certain emotion or deliver a smattering of sex appeal. Running RP5v2 with Dragon is an $8k combo that competes with anything out there.

As I look at the hi-fi mags that come in every month, preamps and amps regularly run $15-25k, per unit. I’m not at all being preposterous in telling you that this Rogue pairing is RIGHT THERE with them in performance.

When Music Career Ends

Few musicians have a career that spans from teenage years till death. Like pro athletes, most musicians are lucky to have a nice RUN. After that splash of success, what’s next?

Kevin Jonas of the Jonas Brothers had a good run. After four albums (20m sold) from 2005-2013, Kevin exited the music business to become a home builder. He went from helping construct songs to constructing houses.