RMB-1095 am I hearing things?

[PewterTA]

Okay, well yesterday I got myself a RMB-1095, I couldn't pass up the price on it and it fit into my budget.

I really had wanted the CineNova Grande 5, but I just couldn't justify the extra money for it, nor could I have lifted that thing by myself to get it into place! HOLY CRAP. I think down the road, that will be my future amp (or a version of it).

But anyways, for the money I landed a RMB-1095.

Now the first thing I noticed, unlike so many people on here... The amp is DEAD silent. There's not so much as a peep from this thing. Now either I got a new model, or the Ground Loop issue just does not exist for me at all. I can put my ear right to the amp and not hear a thing (I actually hear my hair hitting the heatsinks over anything else) and I can put my ear directly to the tweaters and I hear LESS "hiss" or air from it than when they were hooked up to my Yamaha RX-v1400.

So anyways, this amp is HEAVY (though not as heavy as when I lifted the CG 5), I would like to put into Rotel for a suggestion to put HANDLES on the D$&M box...that would've make it a lot easier for me to carry instead of almost dropping it while pulling it out of the car!

So I got it set up and re-arranged all the gear to fit it, and listened to a couple tunes with the left speaker bi-amped (well using two channels, not truly bi-amped with an active crossover) and the right speaker just on one channel. The difference is definitely there, you can't help but really be drawn toward the speaker that is using two channels off this amp. So after I listened to a couple track, I swapped the RCAs from the CD player and listened to them again (changing the channels that played). Again you were still drawn to the left side that was "bi-amped." I would highly suggest anyone that has this amp, do the same test, it's a definite, noticeable difference. Not a night and day, you'll soil your pants difference, but a nice difference. Enough for me to skip my plans of running all 5 speakers with the amp and just running the front three.

So anyways, sound quality...well it's tough for me to say... I have to say if the Yamaha had the power to it, it's definitely got a GREAT sound to it. The 1095 has opened up the sound stage and it's now huge (too big for where the home theater resides right now)...so it's actually taking me some time to get used to it. Not bad, just really different! It definitely has made me already hear things in songs that I never heard before (same thing happened when I got my B&Ws...so this is again, another step up... I can't wait to give it some time to really "break-in" and get used to. The amp runs warm, nothing even close to not being able to touch it, but as warm as my Yamaha runs when it was pushing the speakers. So no problems there. IT would run even cooler if I had more room for it to breathe. I've given it about 1 1/2"s - 2"s of space above it. I also helped out by angling the shelve above it forward facing down (you can't really tell because the TV stand blocks the back viewing of the shelf). This has cooled the amp really really well. All the heat travels backwards and pulls the cool air through the front of it. If you can attempt something like this, I would do it!

Well anyways, it's still to early in the game to really decide what I think about it...but I'm definitely happy with it until lots of money rolls my way. :W

I did compare the amp to a Bryston 9B SST with a pair of Martin Logans and let me tell you...and some might disagree hardly...but there wasn't as much difference between the two as I thought there would be. The Bryston is still in another league, but the Rotel isn't far behind. I would say that the Rotel is on the same track as Bryston, but the bryston is a milestone or two ahead (and for the price difference between the two, it should be).

So if you would want a Bryston amp and can't afford it, I would look towards the Rotel amp to give you a close resemblance of the sound.

Let me clarify (to avoid flaming and complaining), the bryston is better, there's no doubt, but the Rotel is not as far behind it as some might suggest...and I think that's a fair assumption...that's all I'm saying.

Anyways, I'm going to listen to some more of the Rotel!!!

Here's some pics of it sitting in the rack for ya (don't mind the mess I had just gotten it into place and was listening to some music...




This last one is to show I got the completely clear connectors. There is not even a color lable on the amp itself (like I've seen a lot of the "newer" models that people show off. There's no color other than red and black on the connectors themsevles...everything is written in white lettering). So I don't know if this is a New, New model or what. I know the older models had colored connectors, and the "new" models hand clear connectors with colored marking on the amp itself. This one has none of that...?

All cables are Belden Cables with Canare Ends, Belden 12g Speaker wire (haven't gotten the banana plugs yet), and the Y splitters for the RCAs are Cobalt Cable Ys.

[Azeke]

Nice synopsis, and welcome to the Club :T .

I will definitely try the shelf tilting forward, my RB-1080 runs a little warmer than I wish to be, thanks for the hint.

When "break-in" is complete, you will really enjoy this beautiful Kilowatt beast :wink: .

Enjoy you new toy,

Azeke

[Orange Peel]

Congrats dude, I'm very happy for you! Nice pics too! I replied to your PM.

As for the heat, mine runs COOL, I ran it for an entire movie at -7 under reference, and when the movie was done, I put my hand on top, barely warm, maybe it's the 102db sensitivity of my Klipsch I though it would run hot, but it doesn't, and I have maybe 1" or so of room above it.

Again congrats, now it's 1098 time for the both of us!!

[Raphie]

i've just looked, mine is the same transparent red/black with white letters on the back of the amp. mine is now 3 weeks old

[NMG]

Is there anything better than seeing a big ole power amp sitting in an AV rack? I love it

[jfinneru]

congrats! I am sellling all my rotel power amps. not because they are bad or anything, but digital monoblocks are getting so cheap and outperform my previous rotel poweramps by far, so I thought it was time to get rid of the old technology before the price dived to much. sold the 1090 for 14000 nkr and bought 2 mono amp 600w 8ohm/1100w 4ohm for 9500nkr(special price) nect to get leave me is the 1095. want's seven digital mono blocks instead.

[PewterTA]

Thanks for the complements guys! Good to finally be a Rotel member. ha ha.

Scott you are right, my B&Ws are only 90dbs sensitive, so they want a lot of power to them! That and the fact when I am two channel listening even, I am using for channels off of it...

I definitely can't wait for it to break in...course if I (like Scott said) get the 1098, then I have to add another 1095 or 1080 to my setup... hee hee. Course that will require a 20amp circuit which I'm not too fond of doing (probably can't), so if I get some of the stuff (like the 1080 or 1095(2)) they will have to wait till I can set the HT up in a better spot.

[Blazar]

I agree that I felt a difference with bi-amping my 802's using the 1095 just as you did.

The actual reason it sounds better biamped through the speakers passive crossover however... is more likely due to the overall wattage you are feeding the speaker and not the fact that it is bi-amped.

The extra wattage may change the colume level ever so slightly and we all know that subjectively the slightly louder speaker will always "sound better".

The better comparison would have been 200 watt x2 bi-amped in one speaker and a 400 watt amplifier to the other speaker using the routine bridging wires.

I have been debating buying a Behringer active crossover and using this between my pre-amp source and amplifier. The potential advantage would be that each amp can be dedicated to a specific frequency range and more power could be dedicated to that range. As long as there is enough overlap with the passive crossovers in the speakers... I think it will sound ok.

The behringer gear is inexpensive so not hard to try. I'm just not entirely sure it will provide a clear improvement. I'm also not sure that I would not get more improvement with my existing speakers if I simply used more powerful amps instead.

[KathyMason]

I have the RB-1090 and I'm very happy with it. I compared it to Bryston and
I actually still liked the Rotel RB-1090 better, especially for the price.
It's ok not to go with Bryston, we all have different ears and what we like.
The Bryston sounded good, I just liked how the Rotel RB-1090 sounded slightly
warmer with smooth across entire frequency spectrum and I've always been more
budget wise, value for my $$$ that is.

I listen to the Jeff Roland's new digital 500wpc mono blocks and I can't say
that I was very impressed. I hear much praise about them but when I checked
them out, it feels so feather light....where is all the $$$ in the product,
feels like it's very low cost to make it, computer chips are cheap to get too,
and the sound, sounded too laid back as if a blanket was over the speaker.
I didn't like it, I'll keep my Rotel RB-1090 any day over that. I still
think digital amps still have more technology needed into them to get where
we are today with very good analog amps, or so I keep reading over and over
in the audio mags, but hopefully as the digital amps improve, it will help
to get the ridiculously over-priced amp companies to stop charging so much
when the cost of parts and labor don't even equal those rip-off prices.

Ooops, did I say that! :E

but it's true! :W

Just my 2¢ worth :rofl:

[lylmik]

clear speaker connection "housings"

As far as i could gather from other posts (still a newbie!!) and photos of amps they are selling in Australia, i think you got 2nd generation, the ones i saw actually do have black/red ones.
Am i mistaken? :blink:

[Stevebez]

Thing about digital amps is they run alot cooler and therfore can run at much higher power output .. switching is either on or off rather then the Class A/B design keeping the system "on" more often.

Probelm with the digital is since it is either on/off this switching causes high end noise and has to be filtered. The filtering has improved to the point where they pass as full signal amps ... . This is also the reason digitals have been used so effectively in subs as the signal path is really only in the low end the high end signal where the noise exists is completely filtered out.

For me analogue is still the way to go and have to agree with Kathy here ...

The problem with analogue is the the inefficiency of the transformer and energy loss due to heat ... best amp in my view is a dual type amp where you have a digital section driving low end and an analogue section driving high end ... seems like best of both worlds .... mmm how about it Rotel ?

Rgds Steve.

[PewterTA]

Lylmik,

The new amps all have the clear binding posts to them. Supposed to "technically" fix a ground loop issue that can occur...but people still have problems.

When I called rotel my amp was only made roughly a month and a half before I got it. So I think that's pretty new!

The analog/digital amps sounds good, but now you've got a lot more electronics in the case, a lot more chances of interference, still have the heat from the analog side (though not as much), and you now have to design a really nice crossover to seperate the signal and then put it back together (unless you make it truly a bi-amped connection)...sounds interesting though I don't know how "cost effect" it would really be.