Recommended Rotel setup for Sonus Faber

[andrewinmelb]

Hi, any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

I'm considering buying the Sonus Faber Domus Concertino (bookshelf) and am trying to decide on the am set up to use. The two rotel options I've considered are:

- RC1070 and RB1070 (or even the RB1050, will I notice the difference between 50 & 70?), or the

- RA1070

The Sonus Faber's power specs are Nominal Impedance 4 Ohms, power 30-150W without clipping

Both of these options are approximately the same cost in Australia (selecting the 1050 would make it cheaper).

Any comments on the pros or cons of either setup would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,

Andrew

[apodaca]

Given the low impedance of 4 ohms nominal I would suggest you look at the 1080. With the smaller amps you will notice you are running out of headroom and possibly hear distortion and or hiss at higher SPLs depending if the speakers are also low in sensitivity. Perjhaps your dealer can let you either sample one of the amps at home or bring your speakers in. In my case my dealer is very unflexible so I had to buy an RB 1070 blind. The aamp works great but my speakers are 8 ohms nominal with 90dB sensitivity.

[Boombox]

Great speaker,

Quit honestly, the true quality of that speaker will not be revealed by any of your two amps...neither the 1050 nor the 1070...the 1050 is a no go, but I can recommend the 1070, which will do an outstanding job driving the Sonus....until such time that your budget allows you to improve on the amplification......

apodaca has it quite right that the 1070 will run out of steam.....to your benefit, this will not be audible at first (maybe it will take you more than a year to notice). I should be more specific......the 1070 is fantastic, and it will drive the Sonus quite comfortably; SPL will most likely be low, but not because the amp is weak, quite the contrary, but because of the sensitivity of the speaker, expect, low SPLs for speakers between 84 - 89dB....; with running out of steam, I mean that the 1070 will limit the soundstage, depth and resolution that the Sonus will be able to produce.....if the speaker calls for more current, then highs will tend to loose resolution and decay off quite quickly;.......having said that, the amp is less than likely to clip under practically any condition.....the Rotel amps CAN be driven till you say stop....great amps!!

[andrewinmelb]

Thanks for the information.

unfortunately the 1080 is out of my price range, so the 1070 is the preferred option then.

what about the integrated RA1070? any experience with this? does it compare with the RB/RC 1070 option?

[calmac]

Sonus Faber & Rotel

Sonus Faber make great speakers but they really require something better than lowish end Rotel to make them sing.If you can't afford an Rb 1080 and something better than the 1070 pre then I would look at alternative speakers as the SF's can sound bland and bloated if not fed a quality signal.Quality speakers are important but the rest of the system has to be at least as good in order for the speakers to shine.If you can't afford to buy electronics that will do the speakers justice you would be far better off choosing other speakers.At the end of the day it's all personal choice but as someone who has sold both SF and Rotel both in OZ and in the UK I don't think lowish end Rotel and SF are a great match when it comes to getting maximum musical 'bang for your buck'.
Gordon

[voxy]

well... for the Concertino, you should pair it with at least 80W of SS power. But I do not rule out for newer SF since they are design with SS in mind. Did you try them together?