Rotel 1056 Buyers remorse

[taaldridge]

Yesterday, I put money down on a Rotel 1056 to replace my broken Onkyo NR900, but i'm not convinced that's the way to go. I seems like a great unit, well made, good warranty, purchased through a local vendor for $1199, but is it that much better than the Marantz 8400, Yammy 1500/2500, or Denon 2805. I'm leaning toward cancelling my order and going with one of the above. Then I can use the remaining money for other goodies. What do you think?

 

[MacManNM]

I think the best deal between all of them is the Marantz. The Rotel is only 5.1 and 75w/ch. It seems expensive for what you are getting. Thats my $0.02.

 

[corysmith01]

Well, I've gotta tell you...I'm a HUGE fan of Rotel...I'd love to own a complete set up of theirs. With that said, if you can score one of those SR8400's from uBid or compusa, or something, it'd be hard to justify dropping $1200 on the Rotel vs. $475-$575 (depending) on the Marantz. I bought the Marantz myself after considering spending significantly more on the Rotel. I can't really say one is better than the other, but they're both $1000+ receivers...except you can get one of them for ~$500.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Is this more for HT or music?

Yesterday, I put money down on a Rotel 1056 to replace my broken Onkyo NR900, but i'm not convinced that's the way to go. I seems like a great unit, well made, good warranty, purchased through a local vendor for $1199, but is it that much better than the Marantz 8400, Yammy 1500/2500, or Denon 2805. I'm leaning toward cancelling my order and going with one of the above. Then I can use the remaining money for other goodies. What do you think?

What other goodies? Don't let the lower wattage on the Rotel fool you. It's as powerful as the Denon 3805 is driving 7 channels (IMO the 2805 is a step down). Problem is, it's only 5 channels. They tell you to buy an external two channel amp. You don't need that with the Marantz, Yamaha, or Denon.

Most people shopping for Rotel don't really shop the Japanese brands. Have you compared them side by side? Rotel cannot compete with the larger corporations in volume, and thus needs to price their equipment higher. Rotel does seem to have a sweeter sound out of the box, but if you have the time and patience to set up a Marantz SR8400, you won't be disappointed. If you are really into two channel music, you may prefer the Rotel. If you are more of an HT guy, then the Marantz would be the obvious winner - especially thinking economics and value.

Gene, the President here at Audioholics, reviewed a Rotel RA-1062 Integrated Amplifier last May. Here are some of his findings:

I can clearly remember the day I brought home a Rotel two-channel amplifier and CD player from a hi-end dealer I worked for during my college years. The amplifier was modestly rated at 150wpc (only 50 more wpc than my flagship Pioneer home theater receiver), yet when I preamped out my Pioneer to the Rotel, my jaw dropped in amazement at the increased fidelity of my then modest system. What I heard was much tighter control and deeper extension of bass, greater dynamics, and more effortless reproduction of music. My next step was to face off my Pioneer mega CD changer against the single tray Rotel. I was again startled by the higher clarity of detail and lack of sterility I was so accustomed to in my mass market equipment. It was then I experienced an epiphany as an Audioholic, realizing the existence of sonic differences in quality electronics. Despite the fact that my receiver had excellent paper specs, the published specs alone did not explain why I was experiencing sonic nirvana with equipment that didn't seem to measure as well on paper. In my course work as an Electrical Engineering student and with my continued experience working in a hi end home theater shop I learned some of the metrics that began explaining sonic differences. Metrics such as the importance of well-designed power supplies, filtering, quality of components used, amplifier topology & output impedance, Signal to Noise Ratio, etc. Upon comparing the guts of my mass-market gear to the Rotel, it soon became evident as to why I preferred the latter. In defense of my own gear at the time, however, the Rotel CD player alone cost as much as my receiver. I guess the saying " you get what you pay for " applied quite well in this instance.

Now that I developed a good understanding of how the RA-1062 could drive reasonably efficient small speakers, I was curious to see how it would handle my 4 ohm, less efficient, floorstanding RBH Sound 1266-LSE towers. I usually frown upon driving these speakers with less than 150wpc given their 87dB sensitivity and 4 ohm impedance, but since the RA-1062 seemed to be built to drive harder than speced, I figured I would give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the Rotel drive these speakers without incident. This was a good indication to me that the robust power supply and multiple output devices to source high current and maintain a low output impedance was paying off. Never would I have imagined a $600 amplifier would deliver power with such poise and conviction as the Rotel RA-1062 seemed to do effortlessly.

 

[taaldridge]

Thanks for the input

Thanks to all for your input.

I'm going to try to get one of the Marantz 8400s. If that doesn't workout, I still have options.

Actually, BuckEyeFan, the other goodies would be put toward finishing my basement. Right now I really need a place for the kids, so I can remain sane.

 

[mwheelerk]

Be Happy Don't Worry

Yesterday, I put money down on a Rotel 1056 to replace my broken Onkyo NR900, but i'm not convinced that's the way to go. I seems like a great unit, well made, good warranty, purchased through a local vendor for $1199, but is it that much better than the Marantz 8400, Yammy 1500/2500, or Denon 2805. I'm leaning toward cancelling my order and going with one of the above. Then I can use the remaining money for other goodies. What do you think?

The Rotel is one that I struggled with in my decision. I ended up with the Denon 3805 at more than $100 less than you paid for the Rotel. From a pure sound standpoint I think the Rotel might be better. From a feature standpoint the Denon wins handsdown. The Rotel is well built. Although it is rated at only 75 wpc it will produce that with all channels driven. The Denon 3805 is rated at 120 wpc but with all channels driven delivers 93 wpc. That is one thing I like about Rotel and NAD, their power ratings are always based on all channels not just two channels driven as so many of the "major" brands tend to do.

Don't overlook that the Denon is 7.1 and if you don't use the back surrounds you can re-direct those channels (amps) to another zone and listen to an entirely different source in another part of your house driven by the Denon. I drive speakers on the back patio. Great feature.

The Denon 2805 comes standard with the microphone for auto-set up another great feature. With the 3805 you must purchase the microphone at about $70. You should be able to purchase the 2805 for under $899.

 

[bmac]

follow your heart!

I have no real room to talk, I wanted Rotel just because of a few reviews(scratch that alot of reviews).I thought that many people can't be wrong.So I just bought the RSX-1067,it's setting in my basement waiting to be setup.I feel no buyers remorse because I went with what I wanted.I won't have the what if issues.Rotel makes a great product from all that I've heard.I don't think you can go wrong.

The thing I hate most is buying something, reading the instructions and find some cool feature.Then you find out you didn't buy the model does that (usually a higher model).This group is a great place to get help.The best advise they gave me was to follow my heart.

 

[taaldridge]

I'm satisfied

Saturday, I went to the dealer and got a refund of my deposit. Of course, it was an ordeal, until I spoke to the manager. The first salesman declared it to be a special order and wouldn't refund my money and directed me to talk to my salesman, who ignored me the entire time I was there. Overall, I spent about 30 minutes trying to return, and about 10 minutes buying. Rotel is a new line for them so my box would have come out of their initial order, therefore not special.

They sell Marantz and I was able to look and listen to the 8400. It is a very nice piece of equipment, and I hopefully get one soon. They were asking $1399 for it versus $1199 for the Rotel.

Thanks for the input

TA

 

[corysmith01]

That's pretty wild that they were selling the Marantz for $1399. The msrp on marantz.com says it's $1299, so they're $100 over what Marantz is saying it should cost. Pretty weird. But, at any rate, you won't pay that much if you get it from ubid. They're starting to show up on ebay now as unopened box, brand new purchases for $525 - $625, so that's not a bad way to go either:

http://search.ebay.com/marantz-sr8400_W0QQfromZR40QQsojsZ1