My 3rd visit to Spearit Sound

[cfrizz]

I finally got to hear the Rotel RB 1092 2 channel 500 wpc digital amp.

NOW THEY ARE COOKING WITH GAS!

I listened to the the same pair of B&W that I listened to on my other 2 trips. I brought my Carly Simon, Hell Freezes Over & Heavy Organ cds with me.

I put in HFO & was blown away. Clear, clean & powerful was the response. It had good thump in the bass & the highs were crystal clear.

Then I put in my Carly Simon cd that the RB 1077 failed so miserably with.
It passed with flying colors this time around! It sounded like she was right in front of me & I could finally hear the backup singers, and plenty of bass.

I'm going to write to Rotel & also post on the Rotel forum my findings & ask them to consider making a 5-7 channel 250-500 wpc digital amp.

From what Leland told me though, they are concentrating on updating their DVD players. They are recommending salespeople to sell 2 RB 1092's & 1 RB 1091 to make up the 5 channels.

I want to consolidate down to 1 amp not go up to 3! While it would make Rotel a lot of money having people buy 3 amps to just one, I'm sure I'm not the only person who would bypass this route & wait for someone else to come out with a powerful enough 5-7 channel digital amp.

So if you are looking for a lightweight very powerful 2 channel amp the RB 1092 just might make you very happy!

[cfrizz]

Well I posted my reviews over at Rotel's board & they are telling me I heard it wrong because they were hooked up wrong.

Supposedly there isn't that big of a difference between the 100 wpc amp & the 500 wpc amp.

If that is the case why bother making a 500 wpc amp, when 100 will do?

[polkatese]

II want to consolidate down to 1 amp not go up to 3! While it would make Rotel a lot of money having people buy 3 amps to just one, I'm sure I'm not the only person who would bypass this route & wait for someone else to come out with a powerful enough 5-7 channel digital amp.

Cathy,
no reason to wait. I really like Rotel, but for the same reason as you mentioned, I sold my Rotel 1067, in favor of B&K AV125.7 (to keep it simple). Sound quality between Rotel and B&K is almost idential. In other words, if you like Rotel, you'll like B&K.

On to your second point/comment from Rotel forum crowd, 100 watts and 500 watts amps yield similiar results. Well, that what took me to the latest upgrade from B&K 125.7 to Gemstone Audio Blue Diamond (185 watts/ch to 400 watts/ch). Yes, it does make a major improvement.

So, the bottom line, depending of your budget (which is, at Rotel's budget, you have plenty of choices), to get to 7 channels.

B&K Reference 200.7
Gemstone BD

these two are the brands that I have personal experiences with, either one will make your system sings. B&K has less damping factor, hence dynamic control is noticeably less than GBD.