Impressions Rotel Gear

[servo01]

Hello @ All,

as promised a few month ago here are my impressions after the break in period of my Rotel Gear ( RMB 1075 / RSP 1098 / RDV 1060 )

To start of with a positive note :

The RSP 1098 / RMB 1075 is fantasitic. I really love it so far and never would buy any other HT Receiver again ( In my opinion the combo does sound much better than my old Denon AVC A1 SR )

By the way; I have just spoken to the local Rotel guys here who told me that there will be no software based Dolby PLIIx upgrade.

If a PLIIx upgrade will be available it will be a hardware upgrade.

Now on a sad note :

Although the RDV 1060 is a DVD Player with a quite good picture and even better audio quality it has in my opinion two very big disadvantages :

01. The drive itself is way to loud.

02. The layer jump on this unit is horrible. ( i.e. watching "Donnie Darko" on saturday the player needed almost 7 seconds to playback the second layer of the disc. Same goes for "U-571" and "Saving Private Ryan".

I think that Rotel really should consider, using drives with at least 4 MB Buffer in order to avoid layerjumps like that.

However , the RSP/RMB combo really rocks and I am quite happy with it.
Almost everything needed to be better is covered in your great wish list already.

Cheers

Servo

[whmacs]

Hi Servo,
Greate to hear that you are enjoying your RSP-1098 / RMB-1075. What major differences do you notice over a receiver? I already have a RMB-1075 acting as the amp for my current Onkyo receiver. My new RSP-1098 will be getting installed this week.

Ok, I'll have to say it...
'No PLIIx software based upgrade? Noooooooooooo!'
This was one of the main reasons I purchased an RSP-1098, as I have a 7.1 system, I expected a PLIIx with the next software release.

Cheers,
Stephen




My Home Theatre

[servo01]

Hi Stephen,

it is very hard to describe but let me try :

IMHO the Rotel combo offers a sound right between the typical Marantz sound ( very pleasing, kind of soft and warm ) and Denon ( very accurate, crispy and clean ).

The channel separation is excellent. Especially with two channel music ( analog ) the Rotel is a Beauty..

The digital section is great for 5.1 material but also reveals any mistakes made at the mix.

I've choosen the RSP 1098 also because of its modular and easy to upgrade construction. It is much easier to upgrade a board or later switch to another multi channel amp instead of buying a new receiver every two years (or sending a 70 pound unit to the manufacturer for refitting ).

I'd say that the construction combines two worlds .: Very advanced High End HT and semi professional studio gear.


If Rotel does some of the changes outlined in the wishlist regarding the firmware I'll be very happy.

In a next step I also could imagine that Rotel would be very clever in positioning the RSP 1098 really as a affordable "heart" of a High End 5.1 setup under the condition that Digital sources could be also linked via an "i-link".

The RSP 1098 has this great TFT Display. Why not take full advantage of it ? i.e. seeing track info from CD or DVD on the TFT.

In this case Rotel could add a pure High End DVD/DVD Audio/SACD Drive to it's product line.

(Denon plans to introduce in Europe this year such a line ) I've seen the prototype at the International Broadcast Fair in Berlin in 2003.

Planned retail price for this chain will be around 30.000 Euro.

Greetings from Germany

[Aussie Geoff]

Steve (and others),

I wouldn't be too worried about the dealer’s comments about hardware upgrades for the RSP-1098. Rotel have advised a number of prestigious magazines who have reviewed the RSP-1098 of their intention to add Dolby ProLogic IIx to the RSP-1098 in the 1st quarter 2004. Many of these reviews and quotes are even published on the Rotel Web site. For example the February 2004 What Hi Fi review Rotel is promoting on their web site Here states:

”A software upgrade to deliver Dolby ProLogic IIx is due very soon”

Rotel would get lynched if they didn't provide it - especially with the IIx delivered on the 1068

Further - the code to support Dolby ProLogic IIx is already available from Cirrus for the processor in the RSP-1098. Dolby ProLogic IIx makes no special demands on DACs etc over Dolby II - it just requires a chunk of memory.

Now this leaves two possible "real" issues. Dolby ProLogic IIx needs licensing (i.e. money changing hands from Rotel to Dolby Labs). It may also need a firmware update to the DSP code on the RSP-1098. Now this firmware is stored in a removable EPROM chip and has different version numbers (like 3.1 and 3.2) to the main RSP-1098 firmware. It is not clear to me whether the DSP firmware gets upgraded via the soft link and normal RSP-1098 firmware process, or whether the EPROM chip needs replacing (an easy swap job as it's in a socket).

So we COULD (and I only say could) have a scenario where there is a small fee (say $50 to pick a figure) for the new DSP Code and replacement chip (i.e. a hardware upgrade and a contribution to the new Dolby ProLogic IIx Licence fee). That would explain the dealers "hardware" position. (Several other processor vendors did this with their Dolby II implementations). Equally Rotel may absorb the licensing cost and be able to soft upgrade the DSP firmware and we (as we all hope) find the upgrade is free (as with past Rotel upgrades for the RSP-1066)

But this is all just speculation - as Rotel have been spectacularly uninformative on their Web site over either the RSP-1068 or the upgraded software to the RSP-1098. We can't change that (I guess it's part of the Rotel corporate "Culture") so we just have to wait and see...

Not too long I hope

Geoff Costello

[whmacs]

Hi Servo,
Hello from Australia! Thanks for taking the time to post your impressions. As no one in my area had an RSP-1098 for me to listen too, I ordered one based on my impressions of the Rotel RMB-1075 & RB-1070 I own, the various reviews of the RSP-1098 I have read and of course all the great feedback from this forum! I was in Sydney on business yesterday and actually got to see one, but unfortunately it wasn't hooked up. While there, I did listen to an RSP-1066 which sounded great, so if the RSP-1098 sounds even better than this, I should be very happy.

cheers,
Stephen




My Home Theatre

[servo01]

Hi Geoff,

I spoke directly to a productmanager at Rotel germany and not to a retailer regarding the PLIIx update but let's hope for the best.....

Cheers

Torsten

[Martinf]

I am a lucky owner of a Rotel RMB-1075 / RSP-1066 / Denon DVD-5900 setup. I agree with comments above about the various RSP/RMB pre/power combos. You simply can’t get better sound for the money, and in silver & black they look awesome! The RMB-1075 certainly pushed my buttons even before I push its.

Soundwise: Clean, detailed, accurate, powerful, and an effortless ability to drive my big front floorstanders’ (twin bass drivers each). And unlike most receivers, two channel music quality is uncompromised, while multichannel DVD-A is awesome via the RSP-1066's true analog bypass external multichannel inputs.

B.T.W. I looked at the Rotel DVD-A players (it would have been nice to have an aesthetically matching deck to the amp), but the Denon DVD beats the Rotel machines in all areas. Hirez multichannel bass management was important for me, and the -5900 has the very best. All handled digitally by two onboard 32-bit SHARC DSPs. It’s got four subwoofer filter slopes, and I use the 60Hz one for my center & surrounds, while my fronts are full-range "large".