Field Trip: DCHFG @ Rogue Audio 05/19/18
On the inaugural field trip, a score of DCHFG members hit the road for a factory tour of Rogue Audio. DCHFG Founder/President John Gatski filed this report:
More than twenty DCHFG members traversed the freeways and back roads of Pennsylvania May 19th to visit the new Rogue Audio factory. Located in Brodheadsville, PA, the spacious new factory gives the successful tube hi-fi company more elbow room for its design and manufacturing operations according to President and Founder Mark O’Brien.
Rogue Audio opened its doors in 1997 manufacturing from a cramped warehouse just down the street from the new digs. Over the last twenty plus years, Rogue has emerged as one of the top American tube hi-fi/audiophile companies manufacturing the very well received:
- Apollo Dark monoblock amplifier
- Pharaoh integrated amplifier
- Model 99, Athena and RP flagship (new) preamplifiers
- Ares and Triton phono preamplifiers
- RH-5 headphone amplifier (new).
Having reviewed nearly every Rogue product since day one, and owning several including the new RP-7, I was impressed by the new factory.
Its nice to see that Mark and his team have a brand-new state-of-the-art facility to come up with their fresh approaches to tube audio design. In my view, Rogue Audio products are a bargain in the hand-built tube audio realm. They always have an accuracy impression that rivals the best solid state designs with the smooth tube character adding just a bit extra.
Thanks to Rogue Audio for their very kind hospitality to DCHFG.