Sound

Transformer hum. Finish quality

This is a good amplifier, and possibly the best in its price range (I tried many alternatives, some costing up to ten times its price). I would rate it five stars it it were not for the noise (mechanical transformer hum, I asked for a replacement but it was still noisier), and a quality of finish which can be improved. In any case, if you are considering some top brands at Rolls-Royce prices, don't buy before listening to this amplifier; you could be able to buy lots of records with the savings. Incidentally, while in the US this model costs twice that of the 200W Rotel equivalent, in Spain it costs almost 3 times as much!(no comment).

Transparent; clean, accurate and neutral with all frequencies; never loses control, handles power hungry speakers very easily; has no listening fatigue; very good value for money.

None so far, except it is very heavy and not practical to move or carry.

It has been more than ten months since I had my RB-1090. I have not observed a radical break in period, but it sounded better after 2-3 months. I agree with many comments about this amp, it is a champion according to its cost/perform ratio. It never loses its control with any sound level or frequency. I use them to drive a pair of B&W Nautilus 803, these speakers require an accurate and strong power supply, fast and more current delivery for harder loads, their impedance can be as low as 3 ohms according to the signal. I have never observed a difficulty in any music or power level, in fact rb-1090 can handle much more difficult speakers easily, I could not test its limits! (As a part of a H/T sytem also, it is hard to beat and handles all kinds of signals so effortlessly!)
But to me, the magic behind this beast is the sound, not the muscle itself. The sound is mostly neutral, you can feel the bass is always there, mids are there, the highs are never harsh but smooth. It is so close to live performance, we tested it with more expensive amps like Classe, Mark Levinson, Conrad Johnson, Krell and it never failed in any kind of music. Although it is not so logical to expect the same aspects and features of a cost-no-object design from a cost conscious one, RB-1090 never seemed like (or lets say very less) it was the cost conscious one!
I mostly listen to jazz and so satisfied with its job. I think I will not upgrade this champ for a very long period time. My weakest link is currently the preamp which I bought it as a good value 2nd hand and will upgrade soon to a better pre which also has a processor input.
My system:
Audio
Preamp: Rotel RC-995
Cd player: Rotel RCD-991
Power amp: Rotel RB-1090
Front Speakers: B&W Nautilus 803
Cabling: Transparent Audio Super biwire speaker cables and Super interconnectors
H/T add on
A/V Amp/Controller: Denon AVR-3300 A/V receiver (use its preamp outputs for main channels as aux inputs to stereo preamp)
DVD player: Pioneer DV-515
Center: B&W Nautilus HTM2
B&W Nautilus 805 as rear speakers
Subwoofer: JM Lab SW27A

Plenty of clean power, runs cool, priced very low for an amp
with this much power, will fit in equipment rack. Sounds wonderful!

Very heavy, poor packaging. The first amp was damaged.
May be too much power for some speakers.
No online dealers.

I'm using this amp to power my Maggie 1.6QR's and will be
receiving a pair of 3.6R's this week. All I can say about
this amp is wow! If you own Planar Speakers, Electrostats,
or any Speaker that can benefit from a high current amp you
need to check out the Rotel. The Conrad-Johnson that I auditioned was the MF-2300A and was a fine amp. It ran
very hot and lacked the power of the Rotel. It was also
too wide to fit in my Middle Atlantic equipment rack and
I didn't care for the Gold Face in my HT/Music room.
I cannot say anything bad about the Bryson's because
I was never able to audition one. The 4B would have cost
almost as much as the Rotel but is rated at 250w per channel
compared th the Rotel's 380w. The Bryson twin mono's would
have been an excellent choice putting out 500w per channel,
but would have cost about 1600$ more than the Rotel. For
the price you cannot find a better amp!

Similar Products Used:

Conrad-Johnson,Bryson.

Massive power

a back breaker!!

I just bought this amp and it is all you could ask for. You won't have to worry about running out of power here. You do need to have a large space to place this amp in, it is enormous! Also at 83 pounds you don't want to be carrying this very far, believe me. If you want a stereo amp for $2000 you can't go wrong here.

Transparent, neutral, unfatiguing sound.

I really can't think of any.

I have been experiencing a revelation lately and I wanna share that with you all future buyers of this amp. My system is:

Audio Research LS8MkII - preamp
Rotel RB1090 - amp
CEC transport
MSB - DAC
VPI, SME 309, Benz L2, ARC PH3 - turntable setup
B&W CDM 9NT - speakers
Transparent Cables all around

My system is nowhere near the top of what you would call high end. I get ultimate enjoyment listening to my analog setup but the past year i've been leaning towards the convenience factor offered by digital. Being a busy man, I only have about an hour or so to listen and enjoy music each night and with analog that's just too short a time for me. I want to sit back, relax and have a remote on one hand, no cueing, no flipping sides. Not so with turntable.
But I'm telling you, analog sound, at least with my setup, is so open, airy, transparent and unfatiguing. So I went on the quest of improving my digital front end. Lucky me I have a lot of money this time, $13,000 just for upgrading. (Don't ask me where I got the money ha, ha, ha). My plan was replace my ARC LS8MkII preamp with LS 25MkII so to have remote control and more transparent sound, replace my amp with Mark Levinson 334 or a used 333, and replace my CDM9NT with Nautilus 802s. Well, the past six months I've been listening to these equipments as well as other high end stuff (for the sake of comparison) such as various BAT preamps, KRELL KAV series and FPB series amps, Levinson amps 334 and 333 among many other numerous makes.
My upgrade decision is this. I'll still trade my preamp. I'll still trade my speakers. But I'm keeping my Rotel. For the money it's just so unbeatable. Six months of listening and judging equipments is just darn stressfull and tiring. But I'm happy and satisfied. Let me tell you why I'm keeping my Rotel RB1090. Compared to the KRELL FPB and the Levinsons, they both have more transparency, you hear more of singers breathing and gasping for air sometimes
and a "bit" smoother. BUT, only by a bit. The difference in transparency, smoothness and openness is noticeable but ever so tiny that listening to my Rotel 1090 I don't feel deprived or like I'm missing something.
Honestly, at first I was disappointed because I really, really, really wanted a Levinson amp or a Krell. It's like owning either of these amps provide guaranteed performance. Maybe they do. But for me, the Rotel is just hard to let go. Now I know why they don't show up in the used market as often as Parasound and Adcom. It's a keeper.
Readers, thanks for bearing with me. I just wanted to be of help.

Similar Products Used:

Parasound 3500, McCormack DNA, Krell KAV 250 ans FPB 200 watt amp, Levinson 333 and 332

Absolutely good value for money. For a fraction of the price of a super amp you get 99% of what they can offer.

Should have a pair of handles for easy transportation. Weighs a ton.

Big sound with good transparency. Although not quite reach the finesse of the very more expensive amp. Smooth highs and solid bass. Drives any speaker load without problem. Love it like crazy for the kind of price. Crazy not to audition it. Forget about brand and save a lot of $$ with this amp.

Similar Products Used:

Lazarus, AR, Superphon

TONS OF POWER and very clean sound.

HEAVVVVYYYYYY!, wear your back brace.

Before i got this amp i was running a Yamaha RXV1 AV Receiver. Which sounded great. But somehow something was still missing. It seem i needed more power. So i decided to buy the Rotel RB1090. And what i did was i run the amp at 4omhs, I have two 8ohm speakers on each side, which consist of a Polk Audio RT2000 and RT800. Boy talk about GREAT. And of course i still have my other speakers left over. So i went ahead and bought the Rotel RMB 1095 200x5. To run the rest of my speakers and everything was history. When you get a chance buy JUDGE DRED on DVD. Talk about great sound effects. And as far as a pre-amp is concern, my Yamaha kick ass. This is my simple set up at home.


Fronts: Polk Audio RT2000i & Polk Audio RT800i (4ohms)
Center: Polk Audio CS1000i
Front Surround: Polk Audio FX500i
Rear Surround: Polk Audio FX500i
Rear Center: Polk Audio CS245i

Yamaha RXV-1 ( Pre-amp)
Rotel RMB-1095 Ultra THX ( 200x5 )
Rotel RB-1090 Ultra THX ( 700 x 2 at 4ohms )
Sony DVP 9000ES DVD
Sony KV450-XBR 36 inch Vega
Yamaha 5 Disk Changer
JVC 5000 CD-R
Pioneer 502 Karokee DVD
Toshiba 808 VCR

Similar Products Used:

B&K, Parasound

great sound, this is my first hifi purchase it was recomended by a friend and im bvery happy. 700 watts into 4 ohm thats power and affordable at that

heavy..need to get a bigger breaker in my wall to get the full output of the amp!

tons of power for the price and the sound is awesome but i cannot tell the difference from the day i bought it and now about 4 months later my ears must not be as good as others!

all around good amp with great sound and very clear! will drive heavy loads as my 2 pair of cerwin vega speakers are very power hungry and the amp performs greately! but does get pretty damn hot!

recomended

Similar Products Used:

none like this..old technics receiver for about 6 years and before that i had my dads old receiver but will not mention that piece!!

Dynamic,harmonically correct.

none

This is a very easy-going amp. It is very dynamic, and neutral across the audio spectrum. Its capability to drive difficult loads is excellent, and at no point does the sound becomes compressed, giving one the chance to listen to music louder than normal without any hint of stress.

The dynamics are awsome and can be fully appreciated when listening to classical material. The dynamic envelope is very good, and by itself, can lend itself to a very exciting listening experience.

Yet this amplifier is silky smooth and a pleasure to listen to, for long sessions.

Overall,this is an exceptional product, at the right price bracket. When auditioning this amp, go for the sound, and do not let the price suggest that this is a cheap product.
FYI the rest of the system is made up of the following:
Sony SCD1
Musical Fidelity A3CR
Dynaudio Contour 3.3
Dynaudio Ocos speaker, and Silver Blue interconnects cables.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel RHB 10

Price, transparency, fast transients, lack of listener fatigue

I agree with 95% of the good things said below about this amp, so I won't bore you by repeating them. Just four quick points:

1. Ignore the power rating; it's irrelevant. Buy a Rotzilla for the sound it makes.

2. It really brings out the leading edges of notes. Plucked strings and cymbols get more realistic, more detailed.

3. The guy who said his buzzed? Might be dirty mains: mine buzzed a little, especially in the early evening (mains quality varies with the time of day, apparently). A ferrite ring around the mains cord helped, and a mains conditioner made the problem completely go away (actually, the mains conditioner buzzed instead - duh).

4. Mine fizzed and smoked a few times when it was turned on, and finally died. A very sad day.

And my final (highest) compliment: you don't know it's there.

Similar Products Used:

Linn, Arcam