Integrated Amp Reviews

I first saw the Rogers High Fidelity 65V-1 a few years ago, silently displayed at a hi-fi show somewhere—impossible now to say where or precisely when. But I do remember one thing: This ostensibly rugged, single-ended, tubed integrated amplifier looked like a hell of a lot of fun. For just $3999, the US-made 65V-1 gives the user the ability to choose between two types of output tube—at time of purchase, the buyer selects EL34 or KT88 power pentodes, and the tubes not taken can be later bought and swapped in—and between triode and Ultralinear operation. Designer Roger Gibboni also created for the 65V-1 an iPad app that duplicates the amp's every user control except the Power switch, and that adds an animated, real-time power-output meter. (The user-supplied iPad communicates with the amp via Bluetooth.) How cool is all that?

My friend and colleague Herb Reichert thought it cool enough to request a review sample, which he reported on in the June 2018 Stereophile. In that review, Herb praised the 65V-1 for delivering "unusually intense" textures, and for its "uncanny ability to present instruments and voices in vivid textural relief" when used with his easy-to-drive, electrically sensitive DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93 and Zu Soul Supreme loudspeakers. But he noted that the Rogers was less than perfectly satisfying with his easy-to-drive but insensitive (the brutes!) Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a's. And though in his "Measurements" sidebar John Atkinson praised the iPad app, he also noted the amp's low gain (25dB max from its headphone output), high output impedance (8.8 ohms at 1kHz with EL34 tubes in Ultralinear mode, which is higher than many loads it may be asked to drive), and, most important, low output power and high distortion: with the Rogers in triode mode, into 8 ohms, JA measured only 275mW at 1% distortion; at 8W, the distortion rose to 10%.

Never one to let a little distortion stand between me and a good time, I endured in my desire to try a 65V-1 at home. Last summer, Gibboni, who lives within a two-hour drive of my house, came by with an EL34-equipped review sample, which I used to drive my DeVore O/93s. I busied three of the 65V-1's four line-level inputs with a selection of sources: the lingering review sample of Mytek's Liberty DAC, which I reviewed in November 2018, driven by my Roon-equipped MacBook Air; the Sentec EQ11 phono preamp, itself driven by my usual phono sources; and, on one occasion, the output of my Shindo Laboratory Monbrison line stage plus phono preamp, an effort inspired by the 65V-1's low gain.

My approach to reviewing the Rogers amp was different from my usual practice: Partly because Gibboni didn't need his review sample back right away, and partly because I wasn't locked in to writing about the 65V-1 for any particular issue of Stereophile, I took my time. I loafed. I had fun with the amp, listening to it for a few days at a time, switching back to my usual gear—or some other product in for review—then returning to the Rogers. This went on for a couple of months: it was hotter than blazes the day Gibboni delivered the amp to my house; on the morning of my last day with the 65V-1, there was frost on the ground.

During that time I formed a couple of impressions, pro and con. On the one hand, the 65V-1 let me get what I needed from many of my favorite recordings: emotional wallop, intellectual satisfaction, just plain kicks. It did so, I think, because it was musical—not in the sense of making everything sound soft and warm, but in the sense that lines of notes went somewhere instead of just floating dead on the surface of a stagnant pond of pretty sound. Pitches were clear, note values distinct; there was realistic momentum in abundance, and at least a reasonable amount of drive.

On the other hand, during its time here I never really cozied up to the sound of the 65V-1. With some recordings, particularly of solo piano, it sounded midrangey, almost pungent, perhaps because reproducing notes in the bass range didn't seem to come as naturally to the Rogers as did the middle frequencies. If it were a car, I'd say the Rogers's midrange was free-revving, while its bottom end didn't make it into the best part of its torque curve. One sign of this was that the 65V-1 lacked power even in my modestly sized room, and even with my own pair of DeVore O/93 speakers.

Consider the times I used the Rogers amp, initially in Ultralinear mode, to play the Electric Recording Company's reissue on vinyl of Wilhelm Furtwängler's live recording of Beethoven's Symphony 9 with the 1951 Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Chorus, and soloists (LP, EMI/ERC ALP 1286 and ALP 1287). Intellectually, it was sublime. While enjoying the first movement—particularly the way the amp nailed Furtwängler's elastic deliberateness in the descending figure in the strings just before the reprise of the opening bars—I found it easier to think about Schiller and Schopenhauer than about David Hafler and Herbert Keroes. But the sound and, at times, my emotional connection with the music were held back by the simple fact that dynamic peaks sounded gritty and coarse.

I played my mono copy of the 1962 recording of Samson François playing Chopin's Préludes (LP, UK Columbia 33CX 1877), and found pros and cons similar to the above. On the pro side, the Rogers amp allowed François's pianism in Prélude 2 to sound as Romantic as it should, every note invested with meaning, every pause dramatic, every crescendo breathtaking—a musical experience so involving that, when he plays that simple E triad near the end, I almost laughed out loud. The cons: In Ultralinear mode, the piano tone was less rich than what I hear when I play this recording through my Shindo electronics, and once again, dynamic peaks were a bit harsh.

I played the record again with the Rogers in triode mode—during the amp's time here, I occasionally switched back and forth between modes, although in the aggregate I preferred triode—and found that the piano tone was pleasantly and realistically richer, and the peaks distorted a little more gracefully. But it still wasn't as dramatic or as truthful of tone as I'm used to hearing from my system.

In Ultralinear mode, with complex orchestral music in particular, the Rogers amp put out a bit too much texture. In the recording by Hermann Scherchen and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra of Beethoven's Symphony 3, "Eroica" (LP, Westminster/Speakers Corner WST 14045), from the very first measures the strings sounded a little rough, and when the brass entered, their sound was also excessively textured. On top of that, the double basses' first pizzicato E-flat lacked pluck—there wasn't the same force behind the note that I hear through my usual system.

In triode mode, pizzicato notes had even less pluck—but while there was still a little too much texture, it was a more natural-sounding sort, its presence in the brass less objectionable. In triode, the soundfield was also bigger, if a little puffier and less corporeal than it should have been.

The Rogers wasn't always kind to pop music, especially recordings made with prominent, close-miked voices, such as Sandy Denny's in "Late November," from her The North Star Grassman and the Ravens (16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC, Tidal); At first I was encouraged by the beautiful, momentous sounds of the instruments in the intro—electric guitars burbled realistically, and Gerry Conway's drumming was unmistakably its clever, agile self—yet Denny's voice was intolerably harsh.

But with the right material, the Rogers amp was spine-chillingly, emotionally satisfyingly good, musically and sonically. My time with the 65V-1 was never more enjoyable than when I listened to the quietly unsettling "Things Behind the Sun," from Nick Drake's Pink Moon (24/48 MQA FLAC, Tidal): Drake's reticent, breathy, rather dark voice was believably toned and perfectly locked in place before me, with exceptional substance—its presence was believable. Moreover, his steel-string acoustic guitar had proper tone and scale plus good tactile qualities, and the music itself flowed naturally and relentlessly, as it should. Just wonderful.

Two observations about the 65V-1's user interface:

• The amp's iPad app and Bluetooth connectivity comprised the easiest, most fun-to-use remote control I've ever tried—and, as HR also noted, the app's graphics proved much easier to see than those on the amp's own illuminated display. I even enjoyed the animated power meter—although, as JA pointed out, this virtual power indicator, which averages its readings of the left and right channels, is surely not calibrated.

• Whether done via the app or at the amp itself, switching between triode and Ultralinear modes reliably produced a pop through my speakers that was loud enough to bother and worry me.

The Rogers 65V-1 seems aimed more at experienced audiophiles than at audio newbies: There are easier ways to fill a room with reliably high-quality sound. But it helped me better understand my system and my own playback priorities—and, yes, having it in my system was indeed fun. The 65V-1 gave me some but not all of what's special about modern single-ended amps, and in doing so provided me with some but not all of the musical puzzle: It excelled at portraying the structure and momentum of musical lines and the sense of presence of the instruments and voices performing them, in both cases uncannily well. Assuming those qualities are among the keys to your own enjoyment of music, and that your speakers are considerably more efficient than average, this very distinctive amp deserves an audition.—Art Dudley