RTC 965/RB 985 Should I Upgrade?

[epiney]

I just found this forum and think that it's great! I have a question(s) that I need some help on. I currently have three year old Rotel separates RTC 965 pre and RB 985 MkII amp powering 5 B&W CDM SE1 speakers for my TV. My sub is a B&W ASW2000. I'm currently building a dedicated home theater in my house and will purchase an HD2 DLP front projector (possibly a Marantz or Sharp) with 106" screen. I've just upgraded my old Rotel RDV 985 DVD player to a Denon 3800 and notice a fairly good improvement in sound and video quality.

My question(s) is/are would I gain a noticeable increase in sound quality if I upgrade my pre and amp? Can I get away with just upgrading the pre? What components would you recommend? Would a top end reciever be just about as good? I'm also think of upgrading my sub as well and any thoughts on that are appreciated.

Like many of you, I just love the sound of Rotel gear. Paired up to B&Ws suits my personal preferences just fine!

Thanks so much for your help.

[epiney]

Well, I went to my local Rotel dealer and he recommended keeping the 985 mkII amp and upgrading to the 1098 or 1066. He said that I would definitely notice an improvement. This was a high end shop, lots of Linn, Mark Levinson, Thiel stuff. Rotel seemed to be his budget line.

The 1098 looked great, but I don't think I have the speakers to do it justice. I don't mind spending the $1500 US or so on the 1066 if there will be an improvement. Any thoughts?

BTW, what's a reasonable discount on the Rotel 1066 (10-15%)? Last time I bought Rotel gear was when I was living in Canada. It seemed like a better buy considering exchange rate.

Would there be any market for a used RTC 965?

Thanks

[Andrew Pratt]

Welcome to the forum! The 10 to 15 percent seems to hold true for most people on the board with the odd exception here and there. I'd agree that your amp is probably fine but that you'd do well to upgrade the pre amp to something more current. I've owned both the 1066 and 1098 and the 1098's sonically a better unit but then at twice the price it better be What I'd suggest is that you pick up the 1066 and a 2 channel power amp like the 1070 or 1080 and use that to power the fronts while leaving your old 5 channel amps to power the centre, sides and surrounds in a 7.1 system. You could always use that as an excuss to buy some new main speakers as well when you move up to 7.1 As for the sub your B&W is actually a pretty good sub but if you do feel you need more punch there's a host of strong models to choose from with the top recomendations coming from SVS and Adire which are both online vendors.

[Danbry39]

There's a market for for the 965, but I wouldn't expect too much.

The usual discount for Rotel is about 10%, perhaps more for the 1098. However, it's all across the board. Some dealers even try to sell at above msrp.

As for the improvements, I'm going to have to make some assumptions as I'm not all that familiar with that model, but you might have added flexibility, better DAC's, 6 channel pass through for DVDA or SACD, higher Mhz video switching, and newer processing capabilities such as Dolby Prologic II (which I really like by the way), EX, Neo, and perhaps even DTS.


I agree with the dealer that, in your case, upgrading the pre-pro section of your setup makes the most sense.




Keith

[epiney]

Thanks very much,

I'm coming to the same conclusion myself. Another question(s). Sorry for all the questions, but I haven't kept myself up to date with the gear.

It seems that B&K are available at greater discount. Is a B&K Ref 50 worth about $700 more than the Rotel 1066? What are balanced inputs and outputs for?

If I go with the 1098, can anybody recommend a speaker upgrade, say less than $5K?

Andrew: I uderstand the sub comment now. What I was unhappy with was the way the 965 handled bass management with the different sources and formats. I mistook it as sub performance. If these questions are O/T please let me know and I will start other threads.

Thanks again