(Rotel products available in store only, not through mail or internet order)
For most of us music lovers, two channel is still the way to go. There’s something warm and fuzzy about a great stereo system! Here’s why.
When you have a surround sound receiver you have a tuner and video
switching on the same chassis as the preamp and amp. Tuners and video generate RFI. RFI
runs around the circuit board like smog polluting the air. The result is that music’s
immediacy and emotion are muddled. You make a nice improvement in these areas of your
sound if you get the tuner and video switching off board.
Next, with a surround receiver your real estate isn’t used very
efficiently. Your box is a certain size. You have a preamp with extensive switching and
tuner to squeeze in there before you even consider the amplifiers. That doesn’t leave
much space left for the amps. To put 5-7 channels of amplification in what’s left
over… "Where’s the beef?!"
We’ve all known separates are the way to go for years. A good preamp is $500. A good amp runs at least that much. What about the tuner? What about the CD player? Almost $3k.
Well, Rotel has been in the separates business for years.
They’ve made among the best preamps and amps for the money since the 60s. Back in the
70s we had a lot of companies vying for this reasonably priced separates business (NAD,
Amber, Apt, Carver, GAS, dB systems among many). Rotel maintains its stereo audio strength
while most of its top competitors have gone bust or switched into the surround arena.
Rotel actually makes its own gear in its own factories. It isn’t just a
"paper" company who sources out its products from various vendors.
Rotel has just made a stupendous statement for the two channel world on a budget. They analyzed the law of diminishing returns to the Nth degree and have introduced a pair of products that hit the nail on the head.
Not everybody needs 200 w/ch. In fact, with most of
our speakers being pretty efficient these days (about 90dB), 60 w/ch handles almost
everything we sell pretty well! Certainly the B&W 600 Series, CM Series, 700 Series
and all our Paradigms are very comfortable with this amount of power. That’s a very
wide array of great speakers!
Enter the Rotel RA-1062 integrated amp. For a mere $700 you get a preamp/amp on one chassis with 60 w/ch. You can run it all the way from bookshelf speakers up to the B&W 703 ($3300pr) which pretty much covers "crayons to perfume!" Rather than making a dozen different units with a myriad of options, Rotel has chosen to make just two integrated amps above its Eurostyle units. RA-1062 won’t appeal to everybody, just 99% of us who have speakers from the 703 on down!
Next, Rotel has already achieved cult status with its RCD-1072 CD player, also at $700. RCD-1072 has set new standards of audiophile nirvana for the price point. Rather than have a $1500 player and a $1000 player, Rotel decided to make one killer player that incorporates virtually everything important (I guess we can live without adjustable dither filters!)- so they can make a lot of them- efficiently. The result is a grand player for only $700.
With the RA-1062 integrated amp and RCD-1072 CD player, you’ve only spent $1400 for the heart of your system. The matching tuner, RT-1080 runs $500. With any luck you’ll have a few bucks left over for a great pair of speakers.
Stop in to hear this great duo with whatever speakers fits your budget. We can tantalize you with B&W 685s for only $650pr. Or, go upstream to the B&W 705 for a great mini, or 704 or 703 to achieve stunning sound for the money. Consider the Rotel "stack" with the B&W 703s for about $5k. You’ll be delighted with the performance and the price!
By the way, we’re not the only ones that feel this way. Check out the reviews! Click to download " The Absolute Sound's" Rotel RCD-1072 review, and from August/Sept 2004 Rotel RA-1062 .
Also from "The Perfect Vision"
| Review : B&W 700 Series Home -Theater Loudspeaker
System One advantage larger companies almost invariably have over smaller ones is their ability to bring top-end technology down into lower price ranges. B&W has been doing this for years, first with its woven Kevlar drivers, more recently with its Nautilus tweeters, and now, in the 700 Series, with refinements to the drive units and cabinetry that had previously only been available in the company's flagship Nautilus line. The result (based on the models I've heard) is the best value package ever from this stalwart British firm. The sound from the 700 Series system we assembled for review is both musical and dynamically explosive. It has many of the qualitites audiophiles expect from high-end two-channel systems - balanced frequency response, open midrange, high low-level resolution, wide dynamic range, tight focus, and dimensional soundstaging - plus the ability in multi-channel mode to conjure a very impressive surround soundfield, from the confines of an intimate drawing room to the vast terrain of a sprawling battlefield. At the heart of each B&W 700 lies a freshly conceived 6.5" bass/midrange driver that is fine-tuned from model to model. Made of B&W's familiar yellow woven Kevlar - a material so strong it can literally deflect bullets - this new transducer uses B&W's "Balanced Driver" motor technology, featuring a copper sheath and aluminimum cap at the magnet's pole piece, as well as a newly designed bullet dust-cap, for what are said to be quite long and linear excursions. In the three-way 703, this driver, slightly reduced to 6", is devoted solely to the midband, and is further enhanced by B&W's fixed suspension - an extremely lightweight yet rigid open-basket design. The most obvious of B&W's newly shared technologies starts with the "Nautilus-inspired" tweeter, a 1" alloy dome that feeds its rear energy wave back into an absorbent tapered tube-shaped housing. B&W's years of experience with the Nautilus line show that this "tube-loading" results in a high-frequency driver that's able to retain its inherent clarity, detail and low distortion at even the loudests playback levels. These qualities are important for music playback, allowing triangles, cymbals, brass, electric guitar, and the high registers of a violin to be played back at realistic levels convincingly and without strain, and are absolutely critical for high-energy surround movies.The tweeter, too, incorporates "Balanced Drive" technology, resulting in extra stiffness, lower mass, and a smooth response that B&W specs out (albeit 6dB down) to 50kHz. The enclosures' sloped tops aren't just cosmetic pleasantries, though they do give the speakers a friendly high-tech sort of look; they are part of the sonic blueprint. The sloping top and front baffle are in fact a single-piece, multiple-ply design borrowed directly from the Nautilus series. In combination with tapered side panels, this cabinet construction yields low vibration and freedom from internal resonance. All models are vented via B&W's patented "Flowport," bi-wireable, and available in five wood veneers (black ash, rosenut, walnut, cherry and maple). With Dolby Digital and DTS-encoded DVDs, as well 5.1-channel SACDs the entire sytem comes together with impressive cohesiveness. In a film soundtrack such as that of the submarine drama U-571, the B&Ws give you all the little details - the scraping of metal curtain rings and rod, a pen nib on paper - as well as the huge moments - waves tossing to and fro, and actually breaking back and forth from front to surround channels - quite seamlessly, with a fine sense of connectedness from speaker to speaker, and the ability to seemingly suspend sounds between the speakers. Like B&W's earlier subwoofers, the ASW 750 is fast and tuneful, integrating very well with the main system. Unlike earlier models, which were a bit too buttoned-down, this baby can get rough. I couldn't resist plugging it in with the Nine Inch Nails disc, which definitely gained weight, power, dynamics, and visceral excitement with the added bass extension and the one-thousand watts of amplification. Overall, I'd describe each of these 700 speakers as very naturally balanced from top-to-bottom within its respective frequency range, which means that, no matter how you may mix and match within the series, you're going to get consistent tonality and cohesiveness. All of these models are quite fast, with essentially no slop or over-hang in the bass ...... a clean, uncolored midrange, and a treble that, in addition to being very extended, is crystalline and detailed. On the other hand, don't expect any forgiveness with aggressive recordings or sound-tracks with this rig, which leans slightly toward the dry-and-lean camp. B&W has a reputatiion for refining its models with top-down technology and providing owners with a lot of sound for the money. By incorporating so much of its high-end technology into the 700 Series, B&W has insured that its reputation will grow stronger than ever. |