I baught mine for a steal of 70 dollars (1300 rand) and i have been amazed. Nothing I've ever heard sounds this good for the price. I am running them with a pair Wharfedale crs3 speakers.

No downsides for the price i paid. Just sad the RC-03 wasn't available with it.

Great design clean looks and true under dog in terms of performance. When setting up in Bridge mono you will be truly impressed. You can pick these up for $250 each and then if you set them up in the mono fashion you’ll have mono blocks for 500 bucks

None really That I can think of

Very detailed and powerful sound for this price category especially as bridged mono mode . I have two of them which drive perfect B&W 805.Totally VFM choice(paid 150€ per each)

Nicely articulated sound throughout the frequency range.
Nice build quality.
Good value for the price.

No protection circuit (save for internal fuses).
Cover must be removed to bridge to mono.
Discrepancy between mono power rating and suggested speaker impedance.

I am using two of these in a bridged-mono configuration. Funny thing is that they are rated at 180 watts in mono at 4 ohms and in the manual they state they should not be used for speakers under 8 ohms! Huh? Well I am using a pair of Energy RVS speakers with a minimum impedance of 4.3 ohms (8 ohms nominal). While I cannot say too much about driving loads any lower than this they have NO problem driving my speakers at all, at any volume. As I live in an apartment letting them really go is not an option (not to say I have not cranked them up though, no police at the door yet but I have freaked out my wife a couple of times ;) They reproduce music remarkably well at any volume I have dared to try. At this price point they are hard to fault. Bass is very full and midrange is well articulated. Cymbals and hand-clappiing sound very life-like as well. The amps have been accused of being "bright" but with my Energys they sound perfect as these speakers are anything but sibilant. A nice combination.

My preferred source is a Pro-ject Xpression 2 turntable (stock except for a rubber platter mat) with the AT-95 cartridge and dealer supplied interconnects. Blows my older Pioneer PDS-503 away. Loudspeaker cable is a short run (80 cm) of Lifeline solid core cabling from each amp to speaker. Preamp is a NAD 306 using just the preamp stage. Yes, I just love that wonderful phono pre-amp!

Downsides? Hmmmmm..... None sonically. Technically? The RB-03 amp does not support bi-wiring in mono in the sense that you cannot use a separate run of cable for each of the two frequency ranges though you can find (or make) cable that supports biwiring in this case (looks like a 4 headed snake with two tails). As my speakers do not support biwiring this was not an issue for me. Might pose a problem should I feel the need to upgrade though. Something to think about. Another potential problem for some would be the necessity of removing the amp cover to bridge the channels for mono use. Requires moving three internal jumpers. Dead easy if you feel comfortable with electronic innards but let your dealer do it if you get squeamish at the sight of transistors and capacitors. Lastly there is no protection circuit save for the internal fuses. There is an audible transient pop when the unit are powered up but nothing dramatic and certainly nothing that could damage a driver or tweeter. Hey, what do you expect for 300 bones?

All in all, definately recommended at this price point assuming you have suitable speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel RA-712
Rotel RA-921
NAD 3240PE
NAD 306

price, appearance,sound

none at this price

nice physical appearance. very clean, very clear, very balanced, very detailed sound. sounds like a 150W power amp. bass is tremendous. mid/highs are very cool.

Similar Products Used:

marantz, pioneer, yamaha

Sound Build

None

The Rotel RB-03 is a simple but very good power amplifier that drives my 4 ohm Linn Ninka's with ease. The sound is refresingly pure and honest with good bass control, pure highs and good mids. You do not have to pay much more than this Rotel for very good sound. I used it with the Rotel RC-03 preamp. This ia a very good combination.

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NAD C270 Sony 3es integrated amplifier

Great look and sound and seam only seperates choice for 600USD market and thw power is easy to drive the biggest speakers of Audience Dynaudio

TA the price 300 USD for RB 03 and 300USD for pre RC-03 I nerver feel sorry. If you want "better" sound from other brand It may take 4 to five times cost more like Krell or even 10 times more like MCintosh

Hi. Denon AVR is famous I've used it for many years. It is very hard decision to give up your custom. Denon is very satitified with movie mode but in Music the sound is very poor and weak. Even the Denon AVR 3802 over 800 USD or something around else is no capable of driving the 4 ohm speakers: denon product is low-current amp. Good-looking stuffs: denon made it only to sell their products more easily. After choosing the Dynaudio speakers for music stereo and I look around for a high-current amplifier to drive it ... The NAD is very lack of details, Arcam is good of seperation but alttle bit week Marantz SR is warm and easy relax listening but not clean as Rotel Buying amplifier is not very easy, there are alot of ampli that higher class than rotel such as : Primare, Rega , Krell .. but under 1000 USD I picked Rotel RC03 and Rb 03 Until now I still don't know where Rotel come from : UK, Japan but their products are all made in China. Rotel sound may little bright but if you hook it to the B&W DM or CDM series metal tweeter but with My danish speakers, it just clean and never bright. The look of the rotel RC RB03 in silver may be a little bit for ladies but I realy love these and I always let the rb 03 seats above rc 03 on my rack and I start to love the look. Rotel UK choose BW as their dealer but I never like UK speakers because they are weak and over-advertised by their hifi magazines. I finally Choose Dynaudio audience.

Similar Products Used:

Dyn audience