This is why you should NEVER read reviews on gear you have bought.

Hi,

What got me into hifi was a nice pair of donor Rotel RB-970s. Needing a preamp I bought the matching one presuming that they would be designed to match (RC-970bx). A year or two later I have upgraded the amps to the massively improved RB-991. Liking the 991 one so much i thought i would see how it reviewed; I was hapily suprised to see people liking it as much as I did.

That is when i made the mistake. I read a few reviews on the RC-970 which i happened to like. How can people hate one piece of equipment so much! Do a search for a few online reviews, I would not be surprised if they have opened a few hate website to the unit by now!

So of course as other people dislike the unit it has gone down in my favour...dam reviews.

Rotel reccomends I buy the RC-995 to partner with the 991. My problem with this is the price. The power amp and preamp come in at a very similar price (about £600). This struck me as strange is the power amp is 4-5 times the size and full to the brim with electronics wheras the preamp is a volumepot with a few circuits thrown in for fun.

Surely to get the same perfomance from a power than a pre you should have to spend much more money!. Its like if you buy a kit car you expect the engine to cost ALOT more than the steering column.

So my questions are as follows:

1: Has anyone had a play with the Rotel RC-970bx, whatdya think?
2: Has anyone had a play with the Rotel RC-995?

as this is part of a HT setup does anyone know how processors fare as preamps? I like the look of Tag Mclarens AV-30? does anyone know how that would perform as a preamp compared to either of the Rotel preamps?

Does anyone know of a 5.1 preamp at that price range? I have yet to see a SACD preamp at less than silly money prices.

(My definition for silly money is "ok its better but for that price nah"...an example of this would be my dads wilison benesch speakers, ok fair point they sound better than my Acoustic Energy 309s but as I could have bought 50 pairs of my speakers for the same price they are not worth it!)

Does anyone have any ideas or advice? (that does not involve me selling all my kit and buying NAIM cos I ain't gonna do it)

 

Stop reading reviews?

 

Read reviews by all means, but take them all with a pinch of salt. Some of my kit has been applauded by some reviewers but rubbished by others. They inevitably reviewed with different components to mine and have different listening tastes....so I don't really care what they say....as long as I like my kit, that's all that matters

 

I expect some variations in reviews. The problem was the variation was from being "poorly designed cheaply made and overpriced" too, well much much worse. EVERYONE HATED IT!

does anyone want the preamp? £300 new, open to any offers.

 

Peter - if you want a good preamp that has very little s/h value, get a used NAD S100. All class A, built superbly and so on, it was a great piece of work. It seems that it was let down somewhat by the S200 poweramp (which was a development of the old 208THX/218THX design).

 

www.sounds-of-music.co.uk have got a nice old Audio Innovations 300 with Border Patrol power supply for £495...
Lovely valve pre for the money.

 

I gave up reading all hi-fi magazines long ago, because they talk such utter rot. If you like the noise it makes, it's for you, so ignore the cretins who say otherwise.

 

If you enjoyed your music before reading the reviews then you should not be concerned with what the reviewers say. Nobody makes awful hifi equipment thesedays IMO. Differences that these reviewers cite are often suble if they even exist. It may be true that your gear is not class leading but it will not be far behind. Reviewers have a job to do and will talk up any slight difference. When they can't find anything wrong, the product is classed as boring (read neutral). But if you are unhappy with the sound then be my guest

 

It gets some decent reviews here:

http://www.audioreview.com/cat/amplification/amplifiers/ROTEL/PRD_116338_1583crx.aspx

 

Listen to what your ears tell you - certain magazine reviews seem to be heavily influenced by adversting space - case in point being What HiFi. When the NAD BEE series first arrived, they had rave reviews. As soon as Cambridge Audio released products at the same price point, very little is mentioned of the BEE series (a pity, as it's excellent gear for the money). I wonder if it has anything to do with the Richer Sounds ads in WHF? In fact, at one point the mag almost became "What Cambridge Audio". I let my subscription die around that time. Picked up a copy last week when I was going on a long train journey - nothing's changed!

 

Is wadia miester still selling his upgraded Eastern Electric Minimax? That would be a good place to start Peter - if you want a valve pre.

I think he was asking £500 notes for it.

DT

 

I think I am going to start saving up for a RC-995, about £150-200 second hand, low risk low expence option.

as an unrelated point disabled my 5.1 setup a few months when i sold my processor (needed rent). It only just clicked in my brain that that left me with a spare RB-993.
I just biamped earlier today...WOW is all I can say. I wasnt expecting much of a difference, i got one though.

still saving up for the AAA5+ though, that and the 995 and my setup is complete.

 

Your ears have far better judgement than someone writing an article for a magazine. As others have said, all reviews should be taken with a pinch (or two) of salt. What Hifi? can barely be called that anymore, don't see much hifi gear reviewed these days, and they are tending to favour the Richers catalogue range... why don't the Richers group just buy them out, probably be cheaper in the long run!

 

my current Densen B200 pre simply ate my old Adiolab 8000C for breakfast. So much better

Very clean and transparent. Makes lovely music. You could do worse than check one out. Probabaly a bit closer to 400 notes though.