It’s a pentode with a metal rather than a glass envelope. The 6SN7 is a very common dual triode, but the 6SJ7 is rather unusual in current amplifiers. The tube choice is a bit unusual, comprising two output tubes per channel–normally KT88s or KT150s (KT120s will also work)-and one 6SJ7 and one 6SN7 low-level tube per channel. However, there’s a fair chance none of those controls would ever be used, so leaving them off makes financial sense. There’s no mute control, balance control, mono switch, or phase-inversion switch, either, all of which might have been useful. I don’t know that the VU meters serve a functional purpose, but they surely look cool, with their blue illumination matching the status window on the right. The right half of the faceplate is reserved for two VU meters. To the right of the switches and information window is the silver, serrated, single-knob volume control, CNC-machined from aluminum. The labels for the switches are engraved in the front panel, which looks nice but in my view is harder to read than painted labels. The faceplate has, from left to right, four toggle switches (power on/off, standby, mode, and input) along the lower part, with a blue information window on the upper part. (I’d welcome more color departures from black chassis. I thought the combination of the brushed aluminum faceplate and transformer trim plate with the red paint on the chassis looked quite elegant and attractive. The red color is not a garish, bright hue, but sort of a candy apple red. In a departure from the norm, the chassis is painted red instead of the usual Boring Black. The Corona is built on a wide, flat chassis with a silver, brushed-aluminum faceplate in the front, tubes in the central area, and in the rear a transformer that spans the full width of the chassis. The Corona has the typical integrated amp advantages: It requires no preamp-to-amp interconnect, and it occupies just a single shelf, albeit a very sturdy, well-ventilated shelf. Rogers makes a very interesting phono preamp, the PA-2, which is definitely worthwhile considering to match to the Corona, but doesn’t offer a DAC or headphone amp. You know exactly which of those units suits your system, and don’t want to waste money on the type of limited or compromised integral DAC, phono preamp, or headphone amp that’s typically included in some integrated amps. This makes sense to me if you’re willing to shell out $15,000 for the Corona, you’re probably a very serious listener who wants an advanced stand-alone DAC, phono preamp, and headphone amp. There’s no DAC, no phono preamp, no headphone amp. The Corona deliberately leaves out features that can be found on several other integrated amps. Just specify when you buy the amp which output tubes you want. Rogers High Fidelity’s new Corona KWM-88 integrated amplifier’s automatic bias circuitry makes it possible to switch between KT88s and KT150s. Just insert the new tubes and the bias circuitry changes the necessary parameters. So if an amplifier is shipped with E元4s, you can change them to KT88s and the automatic-bias circuit will adjust the bias to suit the KT88s with no adjustment from the user. Those circuits make it feasible to switch easily between different types of tubes. One of the more recent computerized hi-fi circuits sets the bias current of the output tubes on tube amplifiers. Your car is full of computers that make it eas ier to operate and maintain why shouldn’t your hi-fi follow suit? Increasingly, that’s what’s happening.
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