Strong user community with close ties to Rotel

very few.

I have now owned the Rotel 1066, 1055 and now the 1098 and run the Club Rotel at http://www.htguide.com/CFBoards/index.cfm?fuseaction=Threads.listings&forum=25&CFB=1 Please feel free to drop in for the most up todate info on these products. Many of the quirks you've described have been addressed with firmware updates.

Similar Products Used:

Denon, Marantz, Sony, Pioneer, HK

Strong user community with close ties to Rotel

very few.

I have now owned the Rotel 1066, 1055 and now the 1098 and run the Club Rotel at http://www.htguide.com/CFBoards/index.cfm?fuseaction=Threads.listings&forum=25&CFB=1 Please feel free to drop in for the most up todate info on these products. Many of the quirks you've described have been addressed with firmware updates.

Similar Products Used:

Denon, Marantz, Sony, Pioneer, HK

Excellent sounding equipment. Very open, very detailed, smooth and clean. Set up screen is very simple yet sort of confusing but you'll be playing music in no time. Connections connections connections. Beautiful looking piece of equipment. Just beautiful. Finally a receiver where you can turn off the display from the remote!!! Extensive remote (and to think I was going to buy a new Sony big-a$$ remote). Fairly expensive but I don't think you will find a better looking AND better sounding unit than this Rotel RSX-1055 in this price range.

Light up that ring around the volume knob Rotel! Receiver randomly sends a power blip to my subwoofer causing it to "rumble" when nothing is playing (CD/DVD player is off). Static "click" always happens when playing a DVD movie and pressing the "EQ" button -- stop the movie first and then press this button. Annoyance with the Automatic signal sensing feature (not as robust as my trusty old Marantz SR7000).

Ok, let’s get down to it. I’m not audiophile but I do find listening to good quality music and movies to be extremely enjoyable. Thus, I find myself buying new stuff all the time. It’s a sickness really. Anyway, I recently had a Marantz SR7000 and to be quite honest, I never thought I would spend more than $800 on a receiver. But since a co-worker of mine was looking for a start set, and I had been eyeing the Rotel RSX-1055, I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. I was actually sad to see my receiver and two floorstanding B&W 602.5s leave my home. Well, in came the Rotel and new B&W 603s. The first disappointment was the fact that I thought the blue (for the silver faceplate) ring around the volume knob was to light up. It never did. For some reason before I bought it (there wasn’t a demo unit on the showroom floor), I had the understanding that it did light up. To me this was a selling point perk as I love the attention to detail. Whatever. On to what matters most… how it sounds. I was so disappointed with how it sounded out of the box (both my new front speakers and the receiver itself). Could it be that my 602.5s sounded better and cleaner than the new 603s?! Absolutely! And you know why? Because they were broken in! So I had to wait for the break-in period. I played MP3s on the new setup and they sounded absolutely horrible! Very compressed, very bland with very laid back detail. I was disappointed as I didn’t even think my Marantz sounded this poorly out of the box. So you’re probably concluding that I would not recommend the Rotel. Wrong. After 2 weeks of breaking it in and adjusting tonal controls etc… I have found this receiver to be quite a pleasant surprise. The soundstage already sounded 2x better than it originally sounded out of the box. And this is only after 20 hours of playback! My speakers have opened up as well. It truly is more detailed and cleaner sounding than my Marantz, however, I will always have a fond memory of that old receiver. Wattage concern: yes it’s only rated at 75W per channel. Yes it is a drawback in numbers and I didn’t want to fork over more money for the RSX1065. So what, just listen to the 1055 receiver and a set of nice speakers. You won’t notice the wattage difference (at least I don’t unless I look at the manual). However, I did notice that when you push stereo to all 5 channels, the intensity of the music fades in volume without me even touching the volume knob. My Marantz actually increased in volume when I pushed the stereo to all 5 channels (and I didn’t even have to touch the volume knob). Weird. Second thing that I miss about the Marantz SR7000 that maybe Rotel could fix into their upgradeable software: The Marantz had an “Auto” feature that automatically sensed the signal being fed to it (whether CD, DVD etc..) and it would automatically switch the surround mode to 2-Channel (CD/MP3 playback) or DTS (if DTS was sensed) or Dolby Digital (if it was sensed). The Marantz would switch back and forth as it sensed the signal being fed to it. The Rotel doesn’t do this… here’s a perfect example. If I am playing a CD in 2-Channel on the Rotel, and then pop in a DVD with DTS, the 1055 DOES switch to 5 channel surround. However, when I stop the DVD and pop back in a CD, the Rotel throws the signal into Dolby Prologic II. THIS IS SO ANNOYING!!! I think Rotel needs to fix this via a software update/upgrade. After taking you from pillar to post, I do recommend the Rotel despite its minor annoyances. Expect to hear good quality music AFTER a reasonable break-in period for both the receiver and the speakers. You won’t be disappointed. My setup: Panasonic RP82S with Faroudja (2) DM603s (2) DM601s (1) LCR600 (1) ASW650 Rotel RSX-1055

Similar Products Used:

Marantz SR7000, Rotel RSX-1065, Marantz SR7300.

Beautiful natural sound , best clarity I have heard esp. when up against Pioneer and Sony mass market kit.Build qualty and high end design , very versitle and clear OSD menu drivers.Excellent service back up- I had one query and they replied same day .Upgradable product , helps with price problem .

Remote whilst very capable is a real pain to use- tone and AV switching is under a flip lid, only lights when room is pitch dark !! No sleep funtion . Minor really .Expensive in Europe but you are rally buying two seperates in one , two seperates

Exteamly clear uncoloured sound - if it is on CD/DVD the rsx1055 will reveal it . I found no harshness and I was trading up from the warmth but cloudy Marantz SR7200 .Plenty of power , way more than 75 per channel at least 100 watts . Really it is like having seperates in one very beautiful box .Loads of connections. Very close to audiophile standard , works well with lazy speakers eg B&W . Superb build quality .Has all sound modes for 5.1, an excellent receiver if music is first love and want clarity and ambience in movies - this has power but also clarity and finesse.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz ( very good at budget level ), Pioneer ( lacks subtlety for music ), Sony ( plain ugly ), Arcam ( almost as good but underpowered for movies .

Good coherent DTS sound imaging. Good Dolby dig.5.1 althoug the higher registers sound a little too sharp. Fast and dynamic sound overall.

Poor stereo reproduction probably due to phase problems from the stereo channels. Fairlure to reproduce a believable soundstage. Soundstage remains "inside" the speakers, particular when listening to solo voices or instruments. Extremely agressive sounding high registers. Saxophone solo sounds like a concert trumpet. Miles Davis' CD "Kind of Blue" is a good example to use for listening. Turns stereo into two-channel sound effects.

On first auditioning I used Sheffield's lab "Drum and Track record" CD. What sounded very spectacular became tiresome after prolonged listening. Good quality CD recordings of solo voices and/or instruments show the RSX 1055's weakness in stereo imaging. Dick Parry's saxophone on Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" (Original Master Recording UDCD 517) was unrecognisable and sounded like an overblown trumpet. Soprano voices suffered from very harsh "s" and "t" sounds. Only speakers that are not very analytical and have a somewhat flat high frequency response (B&W for instance) could benefit from Rotel's harsh, agressive high frequency reproduction. When listening to DVD music (Corrs: Unplugged, Warner Music Vision 8536-53116-2) the sound was very pleasing with a reticent but firm bass response. (Not the LFE channel however; this was a Dolby dig. 5.0 track). Dolby 5.1 on the whole sounded reasonably well, although a stampeding herd of buffalo (Dances With Wolves, 20th Century Fox P8652DVD) sounded overwhelming and muddied up the bass to the extreme. The DTS track on the same disk performed much better on the Rotel. DTS is clearly Rotel's only really strong point. The DTS track on Donny Darko (A-Film Home Entertainment DS90115, Europe) exquisite DTS track sounded very harmonic and all of the speakers worked well together and made the movie come to life as with few receivers I've heard. For a receiver of this price range it should do at least fair on all fronts. Costing almost half, the NAD performed much better with stereo material. With movies, the Rotel could convince with it's very good DTS performance. The poor stereo performance is something that can't be forgiven a receiver of this class.

Similar Products Used:

NAD T761 NAD T752 Marantz SR7300 Arcam Diva AVR200

Sound, features and software upgradability. HDCD decoder included on digital ins from any CD player (with a digital out). Now I don't need to buy a HDCD player - darn it! :-)

The remote is powerful, but has some silly usability problems - for example, having to open the little door to switch inputs and overall is very confusing to my wife. Still, this is not enough to detract from my overall rating. The remote is still better than most. No phono preamp.

Like the man said, sound, sound, sound is what this unit delivers. If you are impressed by long lists of useless features, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a unit that can handle all your home theater needs AND deliver awseome stereo for music, look no further. Nobody has mentioned this, but the 1055's DSP settings (Music 1 - 4) are really interesting and useful if you want to spread out music to your surround speakers. I prefer plain old stereo, but unlike other units DSP settings that are nothing more than cheesy reverb settings, ROTEL did something smart here. The 1055 was my latest upgrade and my new B&W speakers really came alive with the ROTEL. It was an instantly noticable improvement in every way - tone, sound stage - you name it.

power to control difficult speaker loads and great with music

limited in features compared to japanese amps

this receiver sounds hugely powerful despite the 75w output due to its huge power supply and makes all japanese amps sound puny and weak. music-wise, this amp easily beats all japanese amps in terms of purity of tone and transparency. the other option i had was the nad but while the nad sounded warmer, i prefer the rotel's clearer and tighter sound. a great amp for movies and especially for music

Similar Products Used:

nad, denon, yamaha, sony

Sound Quality, accepts separate amp for 6 or 7 channel surround (processors already built in), Build Quality, Customer Support, Clean styling

Remote could be better (poorly fitting sliding cover), not the cheapest receiver out there, but worth every penny!

I recently purchased this receiver after many months of reading magazine reviews, surfing the internet and driving to various retailers to check out their products. I had finally narrowed down my choice to the Rotel and the new NAD T762, but after hearing both I found the Rotel to have a more open, transparent sound with music, which was my absolute first concern. I do not believe there is another receiver at this price that provides as good sound quality, and I have had wonderful, fast response from company reps when I have made e-mail requests for information. Fabulous build quality, superb sound quality, especially with music. I couldn't be happier with this purchase!

Similar Products Used:

Old Sony Pro Logic Receiver, Auditioned NAD, Denon, Yamaha, Integra and Marantz

SOUND!!! Great looks (both black and silver models), lots of features, great radio tuner (best I have ever heard, I can now listen to radio stations I couldn't get before), warranty, UPGRADEABLE FIRMWARE!!! and many more

I find the remote somewhat awkward (very little punch through supported, and the buttons seem a little too soft), although it is a VERY flexible remote in terms off features. Manual is great, but good do with a little more white space, it reads more like a novel.

SOUND SOUND SOUND I have finally found an amp I can settle down with!!! This amp far outperforms others I have seen and heard (Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, NAD etc.) even though the specs would have you believe otherwise. The sound is pure and smooth, yet powerful when the time is right. I had recently purchased the Marantz SR7300, which had many features (more even than this amp), but after a while, I found that its sound was a little too flat for my taste. Don't be deceived by the website or literature, this amp has PLENTY of features, but you have to read the manual to find them all!

Similar Products Used:

Marantz SR7300 NAD T762 Yamaha RXV1200

My friend just got the Rotel RSP 1066 with the RMB 1095 surround amp. He also got B&W 804s with center and cheap rears at a total cost of around $10500. I wanted a system for have or less. I ended up with the Rotel RSX 1055 powering CDM 9NT, CNT and cheap rears using an older cheap Sony CD/DVD player. I started with the 7NT's and upgraded to the 9's within 5 days. I was skeptical if the 1055 could power it effectively and so far I love the system. I am new to this stuff so take what I say with a grain of salt. I first watch "The Matrix" and was very much impressed with the theater quality. It was really a blast, plenty clear. Mostly though I have been listening to two channel mode with CD's to try and get an appreciation of the 9NT's and the 1055. After fussing with speaker placement I think I've got it right about 7 ft apart in my little apartment. Listening to Beck's Sea Change in HDCD the instumental's are crisp and defined. I've also listened to a lot of Diana Krall, Beuna Vista Social Club and can't believe how great this stuff sounds. I'm completely hooked and will probably move up to my friend's electronic setup within the year. Mind you, at this point I can't imagine how much better it could sound, but from all I've read it will make my 9NT's sound that much better? For now I love this receiver. I condsider similarly priced Pioneer Elite and Denon 4802 & 3803 and came to the conclusion that this is just a way better piece. The Denon and such has lots of gismos I'll never use and it looks so cluttered and kind of cheap. My silver faced Rotel is beautiful and the 75 Watts in 5 speaker or 100 Watts in 2 channel, all driven just deliver better power than the other deceivingly higher rated output devices. If your receiver budget is around $1000 then get the RSX 1055, if you can afford more then get separates. Don't waste your money on the mass market all in one's, you will eventually not like them!