Got my new RSP-1098 - a question/problem

[sramsay]

Hi All,

Well I finally did it and upgraded my RSP-980 and RDA-975 to the RSP-1098 using a Rotel RB-985 AMP.

First of all, the new processor is a beast. The 2 channel music is great and the surround sound processing is magic in comparison to my old gear.

I am just having one small problem that I thought maybe some of you other RSP-1098 owners could check.

I seem to be getting a high-pitched whine/buzz from my center speaker when the analog inputs are selected. It is only audible for a couple of feet so it is very faint, but it is there and doesn't come from any of my other speakers. I'm not sure whether or not I should be concerned.

Does anyone else have this problem?

So basically after I turn the RSP-1098 on and I haven't switched on the DVD player I can hear the whine. I am not sure yet whether it is there when the RSP-1098 starts decoding a digital stream.

Currently my only input to the RSP-1098 is the coaxial connection from my DVD player (I have also tried optical). I am not currently driving any display with the RSP-1098.

I have tried to trouble-shoot the problem by moving the center interconnect to another channel on the amp and the noise moves to that speaker. I have also tried another channel to the center and there is no noise, just the very low level hiss. I have also tried running power extension cords to other outlets around the house but it is still there.

The whine does not get louder as I turn up the volume though.

I am running the latest version of the firmware 1.16 so I was wondering if you have any suggestions.

Thanks
Scott.

[mazuly]

Hi,
I have RSP-1098 and do not have the problem you are experiencing.

If you have connected the DVD to RSP with analog cables as well, change the center cable to see if the sound is still there. Apart from that, I am not sure what could be the problem. I think you may have to contact your dealer or Rotel on this.

Good luck,
Maziar

[skipm]

Scott-

Congrats on your purchase and welcome to the club! I haven't heard the same sound out of my center channel channel that you are experiencing nor have I heard others mention anything either. The first thing I would check is my center channel speaker cable, the connecters, and the routing. Make sure there are no power cords near it.

I'll give it some more thought and hopefully others will chime in as well. Congrats again on getting the 1098. It's a really wonderful sounding pre/pro.

-Skip

[DPA]

Well I have just the same noice as you have... :cry:
Have also tyed all kinds of differnt connections but no luck so far..

Dont know why but mabye the new firmware will cure it.. will try that this week. Oupsss just saw that ya already had the new one.. :?

But since I cant hear it from the lisiningpos I dont care to much about it... But still its there... and I dont like it..




http://www.prisjakt.nu/galleri.php?user=Demon

[Andrew Pratt]

Since it sounds like you've tried the obvious stuff already I'd be inclined to just return it and get another one from your dealer.

[DrBoom]

My guess is, this is another one of those "i put my head in the speaker and i hear some noise" things
Mine does it too, but i can only hear it when i'm 1/2 inch away from the speaker, and it's just as you describe a high pitched whine.
But from the listening position at 8 feet, it's inaudible.
That's like selecting no source (or one with nothing playing atm), turning the volume up to 75 and saying "i hear hiss coming from the rotel"
Unless ofcourse yours is doing it very audibly from 8 feet or further away, and even at low volume, then i'd get it checked out.
Just maybe (and i'm kinda hoping on this one) the noise will get less if you add shielded power cables, and perhaps a mains filter.
Anyone have experience with this btw ?

[sramsay]

Thanks for the responses.

I actually noticed the faint whine when I was sitting in front of the center speaker and I turned the DVD player off, so I guess I was about 2-3 feet away. That's when I thought I'd check the other speakers but they were fine only putting out a low-level hiss.

It doesn't bother me that much because I can't hear it when I'm in my normal listening position, but when you pay this much for a unit you want it to be as good as possible.


I think you're right Andrew, I'll see if my dealer can drop in with another unit and test it out.

Thanks
Scott.

[DPA]

Hiay

Any news on this topic??..




http://www.prisjakt.nu/galleri.php?user=Demon

[sramsay]

DPA,

At this stage I'll be trying a new unit after Christmas.

The unit I have seems to also create some inteference if I plug the component video from my DVD player through it. I get faint moving bands that aren't there immediately when I switch the RSP-1098 on, but start after it has been on for about 5-10 minutes. Strangely enough running my other DVD player throught it doesn't have this problem.

Both players are fine when they are connected straight to the projector though.

Apart from these small issues I'm loving the RSP-1098. I'm finding movies so much more involving then they were with the old setup. Now it's time to buy another amp and a couple more speakers to turn it into a 7.1 setup .

Scott.

[sramsay]

Some NEWS!!!

My dealer told me to contact our Australian Importer (International Dynamics) regarding this issue, so I did that this morning.

When I rang International Dynamics they already had a copy of an email that I had sent to Rotel Europe about this issue last week. This email had also been forwarded to Rotel Japan.

Rotel Japan emailed back to International Dynamics about a new part coming out for the RSP-1098 to fix this issue. The part basically sounds like an interference shield over the digital board. He wasn't sure when it would be ready but hopefully it's within the next month.

I'll let you know what happens.

Scott.

[DPA]

SRAMSAY..

Thats good news... I will take it with the Swedish Rotel importer and see what they say about it...

Keep me updated please..

Take care and have a Merry Chrismas!





http://www.prisjakt.nu/galleri.php?user=Demon

[cnaltaylor]

Hi,
I must say this site is MOST helpful.

I have also purchased an RSP 1098 and RMB 1075 recently, after much deliberation, 1066 or 1098. This site was most helpful in understanding the 2 pre-pros and helped in my final decision (cost was a stumbling block... isn't it always!?)

I also live in Australia and I have noticed the same noise on my centre channel from the DSP 1098.

I thank you for this post as I was wondering what to do, was it normal.
I had borrowed a 1098 from my supplier Vince Ross, whilst my unit was found, it was lost in transit from the distributor.
I thank my supplier Vince Ross for their wonderful service.

I have passed this on to my supplier, waiting for a reply regarding the modification.

Please let me know when the fix is available and how I can get hold of it.

[cnaltaylor]

Hi,
I must say this site is MOST helpful.

I have also purchased an RSP 1098 and RMB 1075 recently, after much deliberation, 1066 or 1098. This site was most helpful in understanding the 2 pre-pros and helped in my final decision (cost was a stumbling block... isn't it always!?)

I also live in Australia and I have noticed the same noise on my centre channel from the DSP 1098.

I thank you for this post as I was wondering what to do, was it normal.
I had borrowed a 1098 from my supplier Vince Ross, whilst my unit was found, it was lost in transit from the distributor.
I thank my supplier Vince Ross for their wonderful service.

I have passed this on to my supplier, waiting for a reply regarding the modification.

Please let me know when the fix is available and how I can get hold of it.

[RobertKozel]

Scott,

Thanks for the news on the potential parts fix for the center channel noise. I had reported this to Rotel in the US a few months ago. What I was hearing was a consistent high-pitched whine from the center channel. Rotel measured the output and agreed that this was an issue with the 1098 itself. I could hear the same problem at my dealer with their equipment. From the dealer perspective, they can't hear it in their noisy demo rooms, but they are willing to take it back in exchange for something else. However, I could hear it any time I was playing CD music and walked anywhere near the equipment to change media, etc. For me, it is totally unacceptable for a pricey flagship piece like the 1098 to have such an issue. There is no excuse for it and I'm glad to hear that they might be correcting it. Rotel would make no commitment to fixing it, and wouldn't even commit to getting me an answer from Japan. I was going to simply return it to my dealer and purchase something else, but at this point I was waiting for after CES to find out what was coming in the next few months. I will check with Rotel in the US on Monday to see what the latest status is. Thanks for the news.

Robert




Robert

[DrBoom]

Although i do have the same whining in the center channel, it doesn't really bother me when i'm playing CD's or anything else.
The only thing that's starting to bug me, is knowing it's there and it damn well shouldn't.
At these times I wonder why is it that mass market receivers don't come with all kinds of quircks like whiny center channels, audio dropouts, dead wrong test-tones and DON'T require dozens of software updates to get everything working the way it should ?
Are those japanese engineers at Yamaha, Denon and Marantz that much better at building something that works the first time 'round ?
I'm not saying the Rotel isn't 10x better in the sound department, that it is.
But I have to say that there are a lot of topics here about 1 thing, bugs and annoyances.

Oh by the way, i've reported that wrong test-tone thing to Rotel a few weeks ago, then after a couple days i got a reply in wich they were very thankful for bringing it up and they were going to try and duplicate the fault in their facilities and even asked what type of speakers I used.
Now it's been about 2 weeks, haven't heard from them since.
Maybe we should (for the ones that haven't already) just mail all our little annoyances to Rotel whenever we encounter them, I'm pretty sure they'll appreciate the feedback and maybe then they can solve several things in 1 update.
I remember seeing a software update for the RSP1066 once, which had also to do with a whining of some sort in one of the channels.
So perhaps it IS possible to solve it with a software update ?

[RobertKozel]

I checked with Rotel in the US regarding the center channel noise problem. They had heard about this new part with the different shielding, but their understanding is that it was simply a heat related change and did nothing for the center channel noise. They told me they would raise the issue to support and marketing since more than one customer had complained, and get back to me if they hear something.




Robert

[mk]

What wrong test tone ??

[DrBoom]

What wrong test tone ??

I was referring to my thread here mk, it's about the subwoofer test tone level.

[Aussie Geoff]

Hi,

Just for people's interest - I checked today with my 1098 and I too have the high pitched sound in the centre channel when in 2 channel Stereo mode. I can't hear it sitting down and to hear it clearly I need to turn off the left and right chanels - so It's not a make or break for me. In fact I would live with it for ever in return for the glorious sound the 1098 makes for music and HT. But it's clearly a problem that needs fixing (now that I know that it is there....)

The sound seems to be volume dependent (i.e. lthe loundess varies with the pre-pro volume setting). So far I can't hear in in any mode other than Stereo - so I suspect it is some kind of pocessing artifact which hopefully a firmware upgrade can fix.

Cheers

Geoff Costello

[DrBoom]

hm, over here i can hear it in any mode, but it's NOT volume dependent.
It stays very low, and when you turn the volume up it vanishes beneath the normal noise (at volumes >80).
Are you sure you can't hear it in any other modes like PL II ?
The weirdest thing is, i checked it at my dealer with a Nautilus HTM1 centerspeaker, no whine what so ever ?
Don't know if it matters but he's using v1.1.5 as software.
I'm going over there again tomorrow, will be checking it again to see if it's actually absent there (and to buy new speakers )

[DPA]

I got it all the time also.. :cry:

But it makes no differnce with the other firmware... Ive had both and the whining is just the same..




http://www.prisjakt.nu/galleri.php?user=Demon

[sramsay]

The shield plate for my RSP-1098 has arrived and I will be taking the processor in, in the next few days to get it put in. I also got the guy at International Dynamics to send me the relevant information from Rotel's email to him.

We have improved the whistle (3K to 6KHz pulse) noise level -10db from
Center channel by added shield plate between Digital PCB to Audio
preout
PCB. Please see attached picture. We will send the shield plate when we
prepared to send.

He also sent me a picture of the pre-production version of the shield.

I am wondering whether this shield has already made it into some of the newer RSP-1098s. Mine was firmware v1.1.2 when I bought it (upgraded to v1.1.6) where as the dealers version that DrBoom referred to was v1.1.5.

Cheers
Scott.

[DrBoom]

I wonder what Rotel's next move is going to be now that they've acknowledged to you that there is a problem with it, and it can be solved with extra shielding.
The normal course of action would be that they inform ALL distributors in ALL countries where the RSP1098 is sold, so they in turn can inform customers who bought the machine to bring it in for upgrade.
Or they can just contact the customers themselves, but that might be a tad difficult to do.
That's what I would expect from a company if they had a (minor) problem with a $3500 product.
And I would also expect a replacement pre/pro during the time it takes to upgrade it.
If they won't grant me that, i doubt i will be getting it updated the first few weeks/months.
If i was CEO of Rotel, I wouldn't settle for anything less to insure customer satisfaction.
Well, only time will tell i guess.

Also, my RSP1098 was v1.1.6 out of the box, but i'm not 100% sure if they upgraded it at Rotel Europe (in my case B&W Netherlands who imports Rotel), or if it was manufactured as a v1.1.6.
The box did have a sticker on it with the version number, so it could've been an updated version or not, can't tell.
And the one at my dealer is certainly not a recent model, because it used to be a 1.0 or something, but he had it upgraded to 1.1.5 some time ago.
I'm picking up my speakers on thursday, so i'll have another listen once again if i don't forget it this time :roll:
And i'll inform him about the center-channel thing too.

Oh, and i've received another mail from Rotel regarding the test-tone level.
My contactperson there took an RSP1098 home over the holiday period to try it, but couldn't find the same error (10 dB loss in bass).
But they were still going to try it again in the demo room, and he was going to contact Rotel Japan about it too.
Should hear from him in a couple days or so, i'll let you know how it turns out.
Well it actually doesn't matter if they acknowledge it or not, it's just there, like it or not.
Calibration with an external DVD has proven that already so i'm quite sure i'm right.