Is a bi-amped Rb1080 as good Rb1090

[carlsen]

I currently have a Rotel Rb1090 driving two Aussie mainspeakers ( Vaf I-93 Signatures ) and a Rotel RMB1095 driving the centre and 4 surrounds ( Vaf I-91's ).

I am awaiting delivery of a singular horizontal version of the mainspeakers ( I-93) to replace my current centre channel. Now, I am having a great deal of problems locating another Rb1090 so I was wondering would sourcing a Rb1080 and bi-amping it give me roughly the same happiness my two Mainspeakers currently enjoy?

Still learning and know lots more about what I enjoy hearing rather than how its occurring!

[zmanbands]

Try emailing Rotels tech support?

[carlsen]

Real world experience

No I havent tried emailing tech support, I was hoping someone has had some real world experience with this, but failing that, I certainly will look at sending off an email to Rotel.

[metallo]

I think it depends... (i know, great answer)...

From my experince a large single amp is always better then a bi-amp, even if you bi-amp 2 pcs 200watts amps you will still only have maximum 200 watts effect BUT with the double current capabilities.

Scenario 1, RB1080 can give your new center all the effect and current it needs. Then both getting a RB1090 or bi-amp with RB1080 doesnt add that much (but i do think RB1090 have a better soundstage then RB1080)

Scenario 2, RB1080 can NOT give your new center all the effect and current it needs, Then a new RB1080 will give you a better control and probably a more pure sound in the upper domains, BUT you will only have 200watts when a real punch or boom is needed. A RB1090 will have the double effect to give your speaker and will generate a much more powerfull punch.

If you already have a RB1080, then i think it can be an option to bi-amp but if you are thinking about "2 RB1080 vs 1 RB1090" and 1 RB1080 isnt enough, I would say 1 RB1090 winns easy!

This is just the effect/current arguments for NOT bi-amping, we also have the impedance problem, double speaker wire cost, double signal wire cost and you problably need to split the low level signal etc...

This is my opinion...
/Daniel

[Aussie Geoff]

Carsen,

Nice choice of speakers (I nearly did the same). Anyway... I have had both the RB-1080 and RB-1090 in my system at the same time. The RB-1090 sounds very similar to the RB-1080, but has better control over difficult bass / mid bass loads (probably because of the much greater current) which means when playing music the midrange and treble is often also cleaner as it can drive them while dealing with the bass at the same time.

Equally the Vaf-I-93 benefit greatly from bi-amping... Cleaning up the midrange a lot when bass is playing (as the amp is not tyring to drive both.

So I think you will do very well with the RB-1080 bi-amping the centre. You may wish to set it to small and put a cross over of 40 or 5oHz on the centres. That way it will not get any very deep bass and not strain the RB-1080 compared to the Left and Right.

If you are doing a lot of stereo listening without the sub this will be a 'best of both worlds' combination. However if it is more 5.1 and 7.1 I would suggest you also experiment one day with the RB-1080 bi-amping (say) the let VAF against the RB-1090 on the right.. You may end up with all RB-1080s... on the front...

Not to scare you - but I moved on from the exceptional RB-1080 and 1090s to the Rotel ICEPower amps, which I like even more... But thats a whole different story!

So go for it!

[carlsen]

Ice-modules

Thankyou for the replies.

Aussie Geoff, was very interested in your response, particularly in regards to the ICE modules. I believe they run very cool in comparison? This is a consideration as living in Darwin humidity and heat is a big issue and despite air-conditioning can dictate when I can run the system.

I gather you strongly recommend auditioning the ICE modules.

[zmanbands]

If your speakers are high efficiency the 1090 will run luke warm and not be a heat factor.