I walked into the Rogue Audio room and was nearly swept up by the
vitality of the music being played. There was more
life in here. Hugh Masekela was throwing
a party, starting
a revolution.
On hand were Rogue’s M-180 monoblocks ($5495/pair), Athena line preamp ($4995), and Ares phono preamp ($1995). A turntable equipped with an Oswalds Mill slate plinth, two 12” Schick tonearms ($1475 each), and a Miyajima Shilabe cartridge ($2800) was helping to produce enormous, fleshy images with tons of color and impact. Then, Robyatt Audio’s Robin Wyatt quickly and effortlessly switched over to a Premium BE Mono cartridge ($1140)—I think he might have had his eyes closed when he did it, too—and suddenly everything just got bigger and better. The record was Ben Webster’s
Soulville.
I’m sure the speakers also had something to do with the awesome sound. The
Revel Ultima Studio2 loudspeakers ($16,000/pair) have received high praise from Kal Rubinson, Fred Kaplan, and John Atkinson.
Cables were supplied by Tel Wire, another company completely new to me. In fact, Tel Wire’s Chris Kline informs me that this was his first show. Tel Wire Cable ($1299) was used for the Revels; Tel Wire Connect ($699, RCA) was used between the phono stage and preamp and between the pre and power amps. Tel Wire Cord AC cord ($799) was used for the phono stage and preamp, while Tel Wire HC (high-current) Cord ($999) was used for the power amps.
This was one of my favorite rooms at Rocky Mountain.
