A staple of Rotel’s product line for about a decade was its Euro Series. Rotel offered a classy integrated amp, CD player and tuner. They looked good. They sounded good. They were a cut above the main stream. We loved them!

          In 2007 Rotel quit bringing the Euro Series into the USA. As the recession started, I guess they had to cut back somewhere. But we’ve missed the Euro products! They continued to offer the Euro Series in Europe, where size is almost always an issue.

          We’re happy to report that Rotel has decided to bring back the integrated amp and CD player. The tuner world is a bit bumpy now. Rotel doesn’t think AM-FM will be viable for the long term because of the rise of Internet Radio. They made a sweet HD Tuner for a while. But they’re working on an Internet based tuner. We’ll probably see that at some point.

Integrated Amp: Rotel RA-05SE $600 (40x2, 2 7/8h, 17 1/8w, 12d) With Remote

          The world of QUALITY affordable integrated amps is evaporating before our eyes. The vast majority of what’s out there now is just badged mediocrity. We’ve seen a plethora of companies literally vendor out pretty weak stuff- and try to market it as something special. I’m not interested. I don’t care if company ABC has a $400 integrated amp that is respectable sounding- but built in a flimsy fashion that we know won’t hold up for many years. And when it breaks, it won’t be able to be fixed properly! You’ll have to replace it.

          Fortunately, Marantz has taken the “entry” level market by storm and makes a fine $450 integrated with a nice consideration of “choices” in the design. But even it…. doesn’t do what RA-05SE does.

          RA-05SE starts life with a Rotel built, custom wound toroidal transformer. It uses Black Gate slit foil capacitors. The circuit board is laid out nicely and has no spaghetti. The concise implementation of parts delivers a clear, smooth sound that exceeds what you can get from a $450 more basic integrated. The 40x2 amp is enough to drive the vast majority of bookshelf speakers and even many towers. Even the RCA jacks (gold plated) and binding posts on the back of the amp are nice quality! Both Euro pieces have detachable power cords which may help you in installation or- allow you to upgrade to an after market power cable like the Gutwire on p. 19 of our catalog.

          Rotel was forward looking with this design. RA-05SE has a preamp out. You might use that to add a sub at line level or, if you think you need to muscle up to a couple hundred watts per channel some day, just connect the power amp of your choice, and use RA-05SE as a fine preamp!

          RA-05SE has a quiet MM phono section on board! It has 4 other high level ins and a tape loop. The face features an IPOD input connection and mini headphone jack. It has speakers A-B, and tone controls along with a tone defeat switch. The source switching is done through relays, not clunky mechanical clicks. This should hold up for many years!

          While there are dozens of options in the category of “cheap integrateds” made by companies we’ve never heard of, RA-05SE offers something much more- for not a lot more money. This is a moderately powered HIGH QUALITY piece, made by Rotel, in Rotel’s factory, and comes with a five year warranty!

Single Play CD Player: Rotel RCD-06SE $600 (2 7/8h, 17 1/8w, 12d) With Remote

          Rotel’s Euro CD player is a cutie! It is sleek looking and sweet sounding. It has a serious Wolfson DAC on board, which is typically employed in CD players running $1k-2500. While most of us will use this DAC and the nice analog outs, it does have a Coax digital out too. Hence RCD-06SE could be used as a hearty, center load transport.

          It plays Red Book CDs- not every format under the sun. The result is the black background of great recordings is preserved. You can hear the attack of a pick against guitar strings more clearly than if played through a DVD player or cheapie CD player. Vocals stand out more from the blend of instruments.

          If you have a nice pair of speakers, and they don’t necessarily have to be big, you will appreciate the sound of CDs coming through a fine player like this. Having video and multi-channel on board a disc player does compromise its audio two channel performance. Hence RCD-06SE is for us- music lovers that want the most from our CDs.

          I’m still a big fan of CDs. I don’t like what Itunes does to classical music. It spits different movements all over the place. It is confused by anthology discs. On top of preferring the sound of a fine CD player to computer options, liner notes in my hands enhance the experience for me!