Accuracy, cleanliness, true power, warmth

Hmm... binding posts? Maybe?

I just purchased this amp a few weeks ago along with the Rotel RSP-976 preamp to replace my Yamaha RX-V596 receiver.

I don't think that "improvement" is nearly a strong enough word for the change. I was quite tired of listener fatigue caused by the excessive brightness. The new equipment has eliminated 95% of that problem.

I like this amp a lot. I listened to several other comparable units and decided to go with the Rotel. I based my decision primarily on my ears, but to a degree on the recommendations found on this site. If you want a laid-back transparent 5-channel amp, this is it. It does what it should, and does it well. I suppose Rotel really impresses me because of its purity and simplicity. There aren't a lot of things I can say about this unit. It really doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. It's clean, warm sound at a nice price.

I tend to listen at a medium to slightly high volume most of the time and this unit produces very little heat. I have it on top of my Premier rack, so cooling is certainly not a problem for me. The unit is fairly tall. In fact if I had placed it on the bottom shelf of my rack, there would've only been about 1.5" of clearance between its top and the bottom of the next shelf.

The 12VDC trigger is "ok". It's nice that the preamp will power it up with a slight delay to avoid transients, but there is no delay when powering the unit off. I suppose I'll end up buying a power management unit (Rotel actually makes one - how odd).

I do have to remind myself not to get annoyed with this amp though. It's so clean that it really does reveal the horrible inadequacies in the rest of my gear. A lot of CDs that I used to be very impressed with now sound crappy. My bluegrass HDCDs sound way better than they ever have before though, which is fantastic. This is certainly not a complaint about the amp - it just means I'm going to have to buy better sources and interconnects.

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Rotel RMB-1075
Rotel RSP-976
Proscan 32" high-res TV (pure crap)
Paradigm Monitor 7 v.2
Paradigm CC-370 center
Klipsch KSW-12 sub
Toshiba SD-2700 DVD player
Sony single disc CD player (soon to be replaced)
Panamax surge protectors
Audioquest A-500 interconnects
Audioquest speaker cable

Similar Products Used:

Adcom, NAD, & various receivers