rmb1075 question

[Adespota]

I have a Linn Unidisk SC (pre/pro and SACD/CD) and am about to buy either B&W 703 or 805 speakers and am looking for an HT amp to drive this system.

I have a budget of <=2kUS for the amp and wanted to know if you thought the 1075 would be sufficient. I am looking at the Halo A52 and Outlaw as well as the ATI 1807 as a comparison.

My main concern with the Rotel is what I am reading in this forum about problems with hum and quality problems. I already got burned with the fuse problems on the RMB1080 and don't want any hassle so wanted to see what others experiences had been and if you thought this amp was a good idea for me.

Thanks a heap in advance!!

[Blindamood]

While I cannot vouch for compatibility with the rest of your system, the RMB-1075 is a great amp. I have not read of any quality issues with this amp...but have read of ground loop concerns with its big brother, the RMB-1095.

I purchased the RMB-1075 earlier this year, and it is currently driving my 805S/HTM4S system quite nicely, thanks!

[H.Donald]

I use to own a 1075,traded it in for the 1095...nothing but good things to say about both.It took me a while to find the right hook-up for the 1095,as it is very sensitive to humms and the like.
The 1075 was trouble free for me...simply plug it in and go.I liked it so much....I just decided to add an amp to my family room system,and I just ordered another 1075.

I have owned an ATI 1505...it was nothing but trouble me.Perhaps it was just a lemon,but I would not buy another.

I don't know much about the Halo a52,except that it costs about twice the 1075.
I have owned other Parasound amps...and liked them a lot.

[Nick M]

I own an RMB-1075. It's clear and looks funky, but if I was buying new again I'd opt for an Outlaw Amp.

The 200Wx5 Model 7500 is $1600. You will also get a helluva lot better customer service should something go wrong. I use an older Outlaw 950 Pre/Pro for basic DD/DTS 5.1 and SACD/DVD-A Analog Bypass. Outlaw is pretty tough to beat. Through experience, I've developed a loyalty towards them, and recommend their products to friends/family who want the best bang for the buck along with great service. The new amps have also been spruced up and given a body-colored button with blue LED to replace the older green frisbee button... :lol:

[PewterTA]

No reliability on my 1095 nor my 1080, both are almost 2 years old now (with the dreaded TRIGGER feature on the 1080). ha ha ha.

Course I'll be selling them for my classe amps (possibly bryston).

[hockeypuck]

Nick,
Go to audioreview and see what a poster just had to say in their review of an Outlaw product and customer service,or lack thereof....Because they are internet based you have no personal or dealer relationships.
I have never owned any of there produts but after the review I know I never will..

[pbarata]

RMB-1075 is the only Rotel component I have that still working without a single glitch (I’m afraid to tell this as it may fail just to annoy me :roll: ). It drives 4 floor stands from Monitor Audio and it’s a great match. It’s a great amplifier, with clear and crispy sound with bags of power. I think I’ll keep for a while, :T

[Nick M]

On the whole, Outlaw has good reviews. Just remember that with Rotel you have to go through a middleman (the dealer) to get service. With Outlaw, you call the company, speak to them, and resolve the problem. eMail responses are also swift and thorough.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing Rotel. I enjoy my 1075 100%. Through building my HT, I've found that internet direct companies are often the best option. Outlaw Audio, SVS, Ascend Acoustics, Carada, etc.

Just my $0.02

[David L.]

[QUOTE=Nicholas Mosher]On the whole, Outlaw has good reviews. Just remember that with Rotel you have to go through a middleman (the dealer) to get service. With Outlaw, you call the company, speak to them, and resolve the problem. eMail responses are also swift and thorough.

That's interesting. Several days ago I emailed Rotel's Tech Service Dept. about a problem I was experiencing with my RSP-1068. I emailed them at 11:24 am and I had a response at 11:40 am. Swift indeed.

I then called on the phone and spoke directly with a tech. It was decided that the unit should be brought in to be tested so that the exact cause of the problem could be determined.

I brought the processor to Rotel myself with no dealer involved. Just carried it up the stairs and through the front door. Slightly more than two hours later, I received a phone call that the unit was fixed and could be picked up at any time.

In my opinion, it doesn't get any better than that.

[Andrew M Ward]

On the whole, Outlaw has good reviews. Just remember that with Rotel you have to go through a middleman (the dealer) to get service. With Outlaw, you call the company, speak to them, and resolve the problem. eMail responses are also swift and thorough.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing Rotel. I enjoy my 1075 100%. Through building my HT, I've found that internet direct companies are often the best option. Outlaw Audio, SVS, Ascend Acoustics, Carada, etc.

Just my $0.02

Uhhh... the "Middle man" can hand you a new one on exchange if you have an out of box failure...

that does not happen over the internet...

I love my Escient Fireball, but when i bought it - it was DOA - out of box failure, boxing stuff up and shipping it all over the place does not always feel like good service ...

I'm sure Outlaw is just a wonderfull bunch of happy go lucky sales specialists but some people want the "Middle man" who on occasion can be considered an audio expert with advice and valuable information, not just the "mouth of the company"

Just an observation

[RebelMan]

The RMB-1075 is the most solid amplifier in Rotel's lineup and it has the best price performance too.

[Nick M]

It depends on the middleman, and if they offer temporary amplifiers.
-----
You do get a better price/performance level with the Outlaw gear. As far as the looks go, I guess thats up to each individual person.

Over the past few years I've read alot of complaints on various A/V webforums regarding the 1068 and 1095. I don't think I've read any on the 1075 though.

The original poster was asking about the 1075, and also mentioned they were interested in products from Outlaw. I own and use products from both, so I was just putting in my two cents. I've eMailed Rotel twice. The first time I got no reply, the second time I was told to "Contact my local dealership". I guess I'm looking for a greater connection to my manufacturer than that. Combined with the better price/performance, you understand why my opinion leans towards Outlaw despite the fact that I also own a 1075.
-----
Anyhoo, just chalk a vote up for Outlaw on your list from me Adespota. :T

[Andrew M Ward]

I guess I'm looking for a greater connection to my manufacturer than that.

Outlaw is not a manufacturer...

Outlaw does not actually make anything, they have no factory and thay have no design team... they buy stuff (just like you and me) and then they re-sell it...

(frankly) They are the definition of "Middle man"

BTW: With a good phone service department 8)

(Just my 2 cents)

[Nick M]

I guess I worded that wrong... you know what I meant... :lol:

[revelman]

Nick,
Go to audioreview and see what a poster just had to say in their review of an Outlaw product and customer service,or lack thereof....Because they are internet based you have no personal or dealer relationships.
I have never owned any of there produts but after the review I know I never will..

I doubt rotel is perfect. Go to any audio forums and you are likely to read about problems regarding customer service or product complaints about a specific brand. I wont dismiss a specific brand based on what someone posts on an an internet forum. I love rotel but outlaw cant be ignored for their price/performance.

[hockeypuck]

Rotel is not perfect but you will be hard pressed to find a company with better customer service. The reviewer had horrible customer service from the only party he could deal with. He was stuck as he had no dealer to assist him. Pruducts will fail. Its what happens next that makes or breaks your reputation. What good is a warrany from a company,with poor service?
Outlaw may makew a great pruduct as do many companies. But what I want is the performance and customer service. Without the customer service the value of the product may be zero if you cannot get it fixed.
Some internet companies are better than others. But it is in these forums where they have a chance to shine or fail. For me his remarks about how he was treated sealed the deal that I will not buy from them.

[Nick M]

I actually got an eMail back from Rotel today on a question I sent them regarding a 2-Channel project I'm going to start here pretty soon. For Home Theater Price/Performance my vote goes out to Outlaw, but Rotel still has great products. From my experience Outlaw would also get the nod on superior customer service - from my experience that is. YMMV.

Either way I don't think you can go wrong.

[pbarata]

I live in remote small country called Portugal, somewhere in Europe, and from my experience I can say that Rotel assistant is top notch. Local representative for Portugal ArtAudio works fine. Only when spares are needed to came from abroad they take a while, otherwise they are quite fast fixing problems.


As for RMB-1075 I’ve no doubts, its difficult to find a better amplifier at its price level. Whenever I’ve a change I like to listen to different brands and most of the time I’ll have to spend more than double to get any real audible improvement.

[andyisc00l]

I'd go to www.audiogon.com or www.videogon.com and buy a used amp..for $2k you can probably find an amp that retails for around $5k used and in perfect condition if you look hard enough...thats my 2 cents..especially if I'm driving b&w speakers those things rock

personally I'd lurk the video/audiogon websites and wait til i found a good deal on a krell amp :-p

[calmac]

I find myself some what suprised that you would place Outlaw ahead of Rotel in the price/performance stakes as it is my understanding that Outlaw don't manufacture or infact design anything ,they simply buy in premanufactured items from Chinese manufacturers and have their own face plates put on, as opposed to Rotel who have a large investment internal R&D.
I also find it somewhat strange that you post on a Rotel forum and continually champion another manufacturers products.I have never heard Outlaw gear however I have experienced other manufacturers product sourced in a similar manner in over 20 yrs in high-end retail and generally found them uncompetitive with more mainstream product , not bad just not front-rank.
A bemused ,
Gordon

[Nick M]

Please read all the posts (including the original). The person who started the thread was interested in the RMB-1075 (which I own) as well as Outlaw products (which I also own). I was giving him my opinion on my experience with the products.

Outlaw does design some of it's products from scratch. Most companies don't design all the technologies used in their products from scratch, nor do they have start-to-finish manufacture/assembly plants for every individual component.

I enjoy both my Rotel and Outlaw gear, but through personal experience I would give the nod to Outlaw on both price/performance and customer service. To even further prove the honesty of my opinion, I'm currently in the process of getting ready to part out my home theater and build a 2ch system using Rotel products exclusively. In my case, it's simply because Outlaw doesn't offer amps with single channel outputs over 200W, analog preamps, or a solid CD player.

I think both companies are great, but if money is an issue (and when isn't it?), for home theater - Outlaw gets my vote. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and bring their own experiences to the table. It's what makes this site so informative.

[Nick M]

Well, to anyone that is interested in a mint-shape 1yr old Rotel RMB-1075 (Silver), I have one up for sale right now (along with a bunch of other stuff) in the Pawn Shop section of the forum.

[apodaca]

I recently build a home theater set up and having a lot of free time sampled many amps and pre amps even some digital ones. My speakers are a full 7.1 Focal Cobalts based around a pair of their 816 towers which are good enough to reveal differences or shortcoming in any source. In the end it came to Outlaw vs Rotel specifically the Outlaw 970 pre + 7125 amp vs Rotel 1056 rec + 1070 amp (yes the 'lowly' 1070 that is treated like a second hand citizen on this forum).

Build quality is a close call with Outlaw having a more robust frame with thicker metal but Rotel having better internals (higher quality caps etc) though the transformer in the Outlaw looked as capable as that in the Rotel. Features I rate the Outlaw gear as being ahead of Rotel namely due to their multichannel options like 80hz analog filter, Digital bass management and time delay, and even overlay of Dolby Prologic IIx for 7.1 sound (very cool on SACD but also useful on HD-DVD). Rotel does have a universal remote and cinema EQ however. Finally, the sound on two channel direct was no contest Rotel simply sounded both clearer and cleaner at higher volumes. As a matter of fact, I felt I was running at the limit of the Outlaw 7125 at only reference levels. There was an article over at Audioholics about the true power output of amps and how it is often not correctly measured in reviews etc. and some comments about the power delivery thru skinny AC cords THX certification etc. The performance of the Outlaw made me re-read that article. I did find the Outlaw better than mainstream receivers except perhaps Harman Kardon and certainly better than any digitals like HK AVR2005 and Sony 7100ES but not better than Rotel which to me had more detail, air and was cleaner at reference levels. Nine out of Ten people would not disagree with my findings. The 1075 vs 7125 might be a closer call but I seriously doubt it - I was so impressed with the Rotel 1070 beating out all others that I just got a second one to go with my RSX 1056 for multichannel bliss. If things go well in the future I just might pick up a third Rotel amp and switch to a Rotel pre pro.......Evil Evil Evil...................

Oh I almost forgot! a recently aquired Rotel 1062 also beat out the Outlaw 7125 in my system. I couldnt resist the temptation of trying one out and replacing the 806 Focal monitors with cheaper surrounds (5.1 is still all Focal Cobalts) and setting up a smooth 2 channel rig for the BD. Evil... Evil...Evil....