Rogers HG88 Mk II

The Rogers is a 12 watt stereo integrated valve amplifier. This model was built in the early 1970s and I have owned it since 1991, when it was bout for me to take apart and play with. It was such a fine amp and worked well and I never did dismantle it, just gave it a bit of a cleanup..

When I first got it we used it for several months prior to 'upgrading' to a Musical Fidelity A120. Apart from blowing a power resistor and an electrolytic capacitor, it was relatively reliable. Due to space considerations it went into a cupboard for a couple of years, but happily, was returned to active service last year.

When it was first used last year it gradually lost power and I eventually discovered that it had silently blown one of the ECL86 valves. Replacing it brought everything back to normal for a while, but it managed to blow another one (very noisily this time, lots of banging and purple fireworks inside!). This time I replaced all of the ECL86s and thankfully nothing has gone wrong since.

I enjoy using the Rogers, it is a nice amp that sounds good with the Mordaunt-Short speakers it drives.

Although the Rogers HG 88 has a phono section, I am using the Pro-Ject PhonoBox. The phono section of the Rogers is fine, sounds very nice, but as soon as you plug anything into the tape output (such as cassette deck or computer sound card) most of the bass disappears. Looking forward to finding an answer to that one!

If you are interested, there is a scan of the schematic available on this site: Click here to view. If you are interested in a copy of the whole user manual and installation sheets then let me know.

I have also added the text and images from the manual. Click here to view