Finally got my RSP-1098 (Review as well)

[Orange Peel]

The FedEx guy JUST dropped off my RSP 1098 and my RT 1080, MAN I HATE being at work!!! I will go home at lunch and unbox them and try to get a quick listen in, I will try to snap a pic or two as well. I've been waiting for them for over 2 weeks, hopefully good things come to those who wait right?

FINALLY I can listen and watch movies again, 2 days without anything SUCKS!!!!!!

[Jraducha]

Wheres your shop located in AZ?

[Orange Peel]

Gilbert. I'm out of house right now, trying to keep costs down to pass on to my customers, more custom/retailer so to speak I believe I have seen your shop if I'm not mistaken.

[PewterTA]

Glad to hear you finally got it!!!!

Future question, So what do you think!?!?

Give us the nice review you did with the RMB-1095!!!

Take a picture of the missing Elite...tell us how sad it is to see that space empty! lol.

[Azeke]

Congrats Orange Peel, I believe it is worth the wait.

Your patience will be rewarded with acoustical pleasure.

Regards,

Azeke

[Orange Peel]

I went home for lunch, unboxed that beast and the RT-1080, put them in the rack, and MAN they look SEXY there!! I will post pics tonight. As for the sound, can't tell you, I hooked up the interconnects from the 1095, hooked up the optical cable from my DVD player, just wanted to hear a CD, and I got NO sound.

At first I didn't realize the 1095 wasn't on (I was overly excited), so I turned it on, still nothing. I went through the inputs, put it optical in 1, still nothing.

I ran out of time, had to go back to work. As SOON as I got in the car, I realized I still had the 1095 switched to ON for the 12 volt trigger, so I don't think it was getting turned on Stupid me!! I was rushing to get it up, and pulled a bone head move like that. Oh well, 2 more hrs till I go home and calibrate things correctly.

I'm worried though, I have the 1098 on the top shelf in the rack, and it seems to be a little heavier than my Elite was, so I HOPE it doesn't break that POS wood shelf it's on. If it does, it's crashing down on top of the nice RT 1080 and it's gonna F that thing up!

I need to see what the weight maximum is for that shelf, I'm scared though

[Azeke]

Indeed Orange Peel, I actually have my 1098 on the top rack, but checked the weight specs., before hand. I wouldn't worry too much, the rack can probably handle the weight, since you had the Pioneer on top, but check the specs. to be sure.

Don't forget to check your menu settings to ensure everything is correctly configured, including speaker delays, cable assignments, 12V trigger assignments, etc., Take your time and have fun.

Regards,

Azeke

[PewterTA]

Well doesn't that always suck when you are in a hurry and trying to get things done as quickly as possible because you are so excited!!! I feel for ya!

If you can, the 12volt trigger is great!!! I found 4 extra cables I had laying around and they turn on just what I need for what I want to listen to...really nice!

I'm watching Chronicles of Riddick right now (trying to catch up on my movie viewing)...and man, does the sound from this guy really start to get to you (in a complete drug addicting way!)

Let us know what your first night of listening brings!

Here's two pics I snapped real quick, I got to re-arrange stuff so I can fit the RT-1080 in there... Don't mind the mess!



And a close up of the Rotel RSP-1098. I think someone at Rotel messed up big time and should've made the blue around the Fuction and Volume knobs glow blue like the power lights!!! ha ha. That'd look SWEET.

[Orange Peel]

Well after setting it up correctly, got the distances in, levels set right, etc. I can say this thing ROCKS!! The sound it has is impossible to put into words, it's SOOOOOO detailed, HUGE soundstage, and clarity is insane!! I heard a song that I was used to and it never sounded like that EVER, there was seperation between the drum beats, it went from center to left then to right, I NEVER knew it did that!! I watched the intro to Titan AE and it sounded SWEET!!! So clear, easy to understand the dialoge, PUNCH to everything, the sound came from everywhere and was filling the room to no end! I just sat there with this HUGE grin on my face and couldn't stop.

I have the RT-1080 hooked up too and it's SOOO clear, so much better than my built in tuner that the Elite had, there's no static what so ever, it's like it's a CD or something. I love that thing!!

It took me a while to set up the sound levels, I had to use the test tones from the 1098 to get a rough idea, then played my VE disk, measured, then went back and added a db here and there, rechecked, etc etc. Not sure how to adjust on the fly with it yet, if you can. I noticed the volume level is in normal numbers, not -10, etc, which I really don't like, I liked having 0 as reference. I used 76 as reference for the 1098, just seemed a good spot since any volume level higher than that tended to give off a hiss from the Klipsch, around 80+ I can hear the speaker hissing, so 76 was the spot, and calibrated the levels to 75db via the VE pink noise.

I wish the TFT screen was in component though, it's just black/grey, and from where I sit I can't see the screen lettering when I'm adjusting, thank god I have it hooked up via the monitor to my TV.

Question, when you adjust say the DVD input for the levels, you will have to go adjust the levels for the other inputs like Tuner, Cable, etc right?

There's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much to this thing it's sickning, I can't even begin to think about dipping into the other options of it right now, it's pretty overwhelming right now, I'm VERY pleased with the 1098, it's gorgeous, sounds incredible, more than I could ever imagined, definitley puts the Elite to shame as a pre/pro, not saying the Elite as bad, but this 1098 is in a TOTALLY different league and will be around my place for a while

I tested the pausing thing with my DVD player, I had Titan AE in DTS mode, paused the Denon and it didn't even switch out of DTS mode, I pushed play and it went right back to the movie, no clicking, etc. I had it paused for a min or so. Works for me

It's just amazing how the sound hits you from everywhere, very crisp and tight, not sloppy, just perfect. I can't wait to get into some DVD-audio disks and see what it sounds like. I like the sound of the analog tuner connection I have right now, can't tell it's worse than Digital connections, and I have some basic crappy Monster cable RCA's for the connection. I plan to pick up some better cables and see what it sounds like.

So in short, it's the bomb and worth every penny I paid for it, and can't wait to get used to it and learn more about it. Here's a few pics, sorry they suck

[DrJRapp]

Scott,

Congratulations! I predicted you'd love it, as I do mine! I AM surprised at the hiss you get at only 80. I have the same front speakers with an RB1080 and and don't really hear much audible hiss till near max setting on the 1098. You may want to investigate double shielded balance design interconnects.

The screen on the 1098 is somewhat useless. Oh by the way, I understand one of the priorities for future software upgrades to the 1098 is the ability to substitute larger screen fonts. Most of us have that problem seeing the screen fonts from anything more than about 5 feet.

I saw a Marantz RC9500 today. One of my local Klipsch/Rotel dealers is also a Marantz dealer. I watched it feeding to a $20k Runco PJ with a 130" screen. The RC9500 is far and away the best upscaling DVD player I have ever seen for PQ. My dealer says they have been flying out the door. At $1800 street price it will have to wait a bit. I just invested $600 in a pair of Klipsch Chorus IIs and another grand in a Cambridge Audio Azure A640 amp & C640 CD for my study, sort of a Hanukah present to myself....so...my 4th quarter electronics budget is shot for the moment.

[PewterTA]

Ha ha, glad you like it Scott, you pretty much voiced everything I'm now hearing with the Rotel...though it took me a little bit longer to hear it. I figured out the only thing I need to do with the pioneer DVD player is before I unpause a movie with a DTS track is cycle through the audio selections on the DVD player, simple solution and is quick...as soon as you do that, it must (of course) resend the DTS flag and everything works when I hit play. I knew it was my DVD player considering my Sony PS2 didn't do it...lol.

I agree with you I wish they would have shown DBs in the volume control...that'd be MUCH more useful...and I like it that way...so I know how loud I'm really listening too...I mean what is 60 on there!?!?! I'd rather know I'm listening -10 from Reference or something. hee hee.

Scott to make the TFT a little more "cooler," just run a Composite from your DVD Player, or the Monitor out from your TV and set the 1098 to use that input exclusively...then it'll display either the DVD or TV... That's what I did, then adjusted the brightness an contrast on it so it's a lot darker, but more bright so you can see it but it's not annoying. I want to say +8 on the top setting and -7 on the bottom (don't remember which is which).

...but I'm glad you can already notice the difference in it over the Elite, that's really cool!!! Looks really good on your rack as well!

[Orange Peel]

Thanks Jerry!! It's an amazing piece of equipment, really complicated right now, not as simple as the Elite I'm still trying to figure out how to pick PLIIx for a CD in my DVD player and then be able to pick PLII Movie again for the movies, etc. Is there an easier way to select an input without going into the menu then cycling through the inputs to get to the one you want? With my Elite I can just select DVD on the remote, or TV, or Tuner, etc. The remote for the 1098 is a mess I want to use my Pronto but I don't think it's capable of all that needs to be done with the 1098 like the remote that the 1098 comes with can do. I will look into new interconnects, I have more time now to go get some, I needed some on the fly last time As for the Marantz, is that the new player you were talking about? Man I need to get my hands on some of that I wonder how hard it is to carry Marantz? I never tried to get them, maybe I will look into them, I would like to get a better deal than a retail sale.

Thanks Dan! I really like it, just have to get used to all the crap it can do So far it's amazing, I watched "I, Robot" last night, stayed up till 12am watching it That movie sounded GREAT, the effects were all over the place, the rear effects were crazy, I never heard so much rear effect before, like you said, the 1098 seems to know how to put things where they are supposed to be Even at LOW volumes it's just as detailed as the higher volumes, I love that, I was sitting there with the volume low and couldn't believe I can still hear them talk, here things flying by me back there, etc, plain kick ass!!!!

As for the TFT screen, if you run a composite from the DVD player to the 1098, and I run Components out of it too to the TV, it will still send the signal to the 1098 on that composite cable? I will give it a shot, I want to see something other than black on that screen, that was one major reason I got it. I want to see SOMETHING, I like seeing DTS, or DD, or the volume, something

Thanks again for all the support and help, this thing is a beast and the tuner is also amazing, I really like it, just got to get used to that as well, ANOTHER remote to add to the collection

[PewterTA]

Scott, okay so you are Wanting to switch between PLIIx-Music and Cinema modes right? If you slide the 1050's bottom half of the remote down, it will expose all the buttons inside... There should be two buttons on it, "PL C" and "PL M," and that's how you switch between the two settings with a single source...as well as 2ch, 5ch and 7ch. Make sure you hit the AUD button on the remote before you try switching or otherwise the button won't work (will default to whatever is set up for whatever input you are using... Since you are running the CDs through your DVD player, there's no real way for it to pick up PLIIx-Cinema when a DVD is put in and PLIIx-Music when a CD is put in... IF you run two seperate lines from your DVD player to two different inputs on the 1098 then you could. Like the digital coax for movies and Optical for music, then you would just have to switch to whatever input you assigned the optical spot for (which can be the CD function). That's the simplist way to do it since you are using a single source. I just have the default now for my DVD player as 2ch Pcm since I think I'm going to sell the 25 disc as it just doesn't sound as good as my DVD player. The Rotel really shows where it's lacking.

What can do if you want is run all the Component signals into the Rotel and have only one run from that to your monitor. Then run the composite connection from the DVD player/whatever else) to the Rotel 1098 as well. You can set the Display to a perminent pull from any of the composite inputs...or have it set to source (pulling whatever selection you are on). for me, I ran everything into the 1098 and out to the TV through component. Then I put a composite lead from my TV monitor to Video 5 on the 1098...that way whatever is displayed on the TV shows up on the screen on the 1098. I also ran the composite from the DVD player to the 1098 as well, so I can play CDs and Mp3s through the DVD player without having to turn on the TV to see the menu. Works out good!

I'm still hoping that Jerry is right and they will fix the font sizes and make them a little bit on the screen (not when displayed on the monitor out though)...that would be great. That and the other "little, slight, and minute" annoyance is the display on the remote being on all the time... To me if I shut the unit off, turn the display off on the remote as well...I don't need it killing my batteries (though I know it's not killing them THAT fast), but just seems like a waste... :lol:

That, and they should've made the color a nice LED blue lighting the remote up, not the cheesy light greenish/yellow... ha ha. I need to be on Rotel's design team and tell them what's up! :roflmao: :P

[egaither]

Scott congrats on the new piece! At first the controls seemed really complicated to me too, but once I used it awhile Iwill found it fairly straight forward. The sound is amazing and truly worth every penny IMHO.

[markmaple]

I could be wrong here, but I don't think you would need two different connections from the DVD player to the 1098. I think you could just setup one input (ex Video 1) to get audio from DVD player with default mode DPLIIx Movie and then setup a second input (ex CD) to get audio from the DVD player with default mode DPLIIx Music or PCM Stereo. I know that I have hooked up it the way PewterTA has described when comparing my new CatCable digital coax with my previous optical cable, but I think the assignable inputs will allow what I described above also.

[PewterTA]

You're right Mark, I forgot all about that...

Yeah just assign the same input to both VideoX and CD, set one to PLIIx-Cinema and PLIIx-Music.

Good Call! :T

[egaither]

I actually use 4 different modes and have them mapped so I can enjoy listening to 2ch bypass for CD's but can toggle using the bottom controls to utilize my subs in 2 ch stereo. Sometimes certain music sounds good with all speakers on so I switch to 5 channel. I really like the flexibility. A couple things I wish the 1098 did have that I have already seen on the Geoff's punchlist are:

The ability to set all speaker crossovers independently for each mode.
The ability to make level adjustments for each mode.

Here's how I have mine set up.
DVD ext remote button-->using multi analog outs for DVD-A discs
DVD remote button -->using coax defaults to PLIIx cinema
CD remote button -->using analog cables defaults to Bypass
V5 remote button -->using coax and defaults to 5channel for CD listening...got this one double mapped, so I long press the button to switch input then I short press select CD button to control the CD player or leave selected and I have mapped TV controls to this profile. Handy for using Macros.

Have fun.

[DrJRapp]

To me if I shut the unit off, turn the display off on the remote as well...I don't need it killing my batteries (though I know it's not killing them THAT fast), but just seems like a waste... :lol:

When I got my 1098 a couple of months ago, I gave the 1050 remote that came with it to the guy who bought my 1066, and kept the 1050 remote that came with the 1066. It's been nearly 2 years on the same set of batteries that came with it. Of course I don't use the 1050 remote much since I prefer my ($93) Sony AV3000 touch screen remote...which by the way has blue backlighting!

[Orange Peel]

Thanks again guys! I tried the composite cable thing, and it works as long as my DVD player isn't in progressive scan mode, the 1098 manual mentions that some DVD players won't output anything other than the Progressive image. When I switch to interlaced mode it shows the movie on the 1098, so what I might try, if it's possible, is to run a cable from the tv to the 1098 and set the 1098 to that default and pick up the signal from the TV and that should hopefully play it on the TFT screen, we'll see.

I will be doing a lot of reading over the weekend on the manuals, this way I can get a good grasp on how it all works, the little tricks, etc. So far I do love this thing, I have no regrets and can't wait to listen to it some more!

Thanks again guys!

[Kevin D]

Scott,

Didn't see it mentioned yet, all you have to do is hold the source button down on the remote for 1-2 seconds and the 1098 will then switch to that input.

Kevin D.

[Orange Peel]

Good to know! Thanks Kevin!!