Thekman76 Posted November 20, 2018 Author Share Posted November 20, 2018 Update: I went with the Rotel RA-1592 in the end. From a sound quality stand point I simply couldn't fault it and it has everything I could conceive I'll need and more. I can certainly see why many people describe the Rotel sound as 'thin', but what I hear is 'crispness' without being fatiguing. I can now listen to all of my music at levels I would have found painful in the past, without even the slightest temptation to wind it back... On the contrary, I find myself reaching for the big dial to make it more engaging, not less. The bass is interesting, actually. It's not at all boomy or resonant, it's distinctly well controlled, but the near-field response feels really big and involving, which brings me back to the same conclusion regarding the Yamaha's. Faults? Rotel amps of years past had mechanical relays to engage the outputs after the amp had settled into steady-state operation, the RA-1592 does not. There's a distinct pop on powering on and off, typical of class A/B units. I have to assume that such a mechanism is no longer considered reasonable in a hi-fi amp of this capability, however, I don't see why a soft-start circuit couldn't have been implemented on the power rails, or similar. Same is true of the DAC stage; each time the connected device activates and deactivates the DAC there's another pop. None of this is anywhere near severe enough to damage a driver, regardless, I'm wary of such noises having worked with kW power stages in the (admittedly now distant) past. Finally, beyond the sound, the controls and remote feel a little flimsy. I'd certainly rather the development dollars where spent on the sound rather than the buttons, after all it's not a keyboard, but I still have fond memories of Rotel amps with heavy spring loaded switches which could be disassembled and serviced. Welcome to the digital age! I thank you all for your input on this topic, I'd certainly have gone down a different path except for you advise. Very pleased with my outcome. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunno77 Posted November 20, 2018 Share Posted November 20, 2018 Good choice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts