Rotel thoughts?

I'm a Pioneer person, but I own a Rotel amp which I like very much and wouldn't hesitate to buy another.
I think they are an underrated brand, I don't see a lot of them for sale.

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RX 1603

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RA 1412

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RB 5000

Top of the line Rotel was every bit as good as totl Pioneer/Sansui/Technics/Sony/Onkyo/Kenwood and other iconic brands that tend to spend more time in the limelight.

If Rotel was entry level to high end, then so were the others I just mentioned, and that could be, but I’d love to get my hands on either of the three pieces shown in my post.

Like most manufacturers, they had good and very good.

IMO.

RA 1412/RB 5000 photos from Vintage Knob
 

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Back in the 70’s I thought Rotel made good sounding gear and perhaps a notch above the mass market.
 
I really like my Rotel rx-802 receiver. Plays with lot more muscle than it's 50wpc rating, plenty of nice features, and sexy as hell. The jury is still out on a newly aquired 200 wpc RB-990bx amplifier.

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I don't know too much about their early or very new gear, but I have a lot of experience with their 800 and 900 series amps. These are basically 80s and 90s designed units. They are certainly hi-fi that's for sure. I currently use a RB976 Mk2 6 channel power amp and it's a cracking unit. Generally the circuit design topology was well thought out and they were well built. They used decent quality components available at the time, although their power supplies were sometimes a little on the lean side - easily improved by fitting larger power capacitors and rectifiers. The 800 series dual mono power amps were especially good. Good quality supply transformers were fitted, many of which were purpose built.
I think that generally the Rotel gear is quite underrated as they quietly brought a bit of quality to mainstream hi-fi at sensible pricing.
 
I have a Rotel 850 pre amp and amp in my garage and they work flawlessly, the amp is bridgeable too. I traded 48 beer for them a few years back. Dropped the ball not jumping on the matching 850 series tuner a couple weeks ago, it went for $25.
I have and RCD 1070 cd player I picked up for $10.00 in a thrift store. It sounds awesome it's my main player in the house.
depending on how rarified your standards are don't hesitate giving Rotel gear a look & listen if you get the chance.
 
What I like about Rotel is that over here in Europe they still offer a very classic, little integrated amp model in form of the A10 (successor of the RA-10), which still features a true tape-loop and also a fairly decent phono input (MM), that isn't plagued by excessive input capacitance. It's not exactly cheap (currently ca. 400 Euro (incl. 19 % VAT) here in Germany), given that its feature-set is somewhat spartanic (no DAC section, not even remote control), though.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
C71F1832-DBA8-4D49-BE31-15F50244F6DE.jpeg I just picked up a 1412 .... I’d give it a 9 for shape....also have the 1024 tuner on the way to match the set.....low a behold an RX 1603 just came up for sale....wished I had room for that one! Back to the 1412....it has power...and lots of it... handles my Focal 1028s like I haven’t heard before...I am impressed!. It is fairly clean sounding.....,,but.... The day after I got it, my Marantz 2265b (dad bought it new in 78)came back from a full recap, led kit, upgraded speaker posts, rca’s, Vishay Dale resistors, iec and 12 gauge power cord. Compared to the Rotel, this upgraded Marantz is super clean and so quiet in between notes... sounds amazing!.....so off goes the Rotel for a similar treatment....can’t wait to get it back! Will post the results of the upgrades and the tuner when it arrives
 
What I am reading is that the HK's were built by Roland or Shin-Sirasuna, not the other way around. Harman Kardon designs?
 
What I am reading is that the HK's were built by Roland or Shin-Sirasuna, not the other way around. Harman Kardon designs?

Right. HK did the design and had others, sometimes multiple for the same model, manufacture them.
 
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