Need amp help

[mike_l]

A Rotel 1095 question - I am scheduled to pick up a 1095 this weekend and I'm having second thoughts. I do feel Rotel makes a decent product with accecptable SQ, but I am concerned that 200 wpc may not be enough. I haven't made a final decision on speakers yet but lets assume they would be either Paradigm S6's or the Monitor Platinums. Use will be 60/40 music/ht. Room is 17'W X 19'L X 18'Ht. Acoustics are not good, i.e. wall of glass & hardwood floors. Have the Rotel users been switching to the Rotel class D amps? Thanks for your help. Mike

[Blktre]

Personally I think you will be fine power wise for the size of room using a 200wpc amp. I should of checked and didn't but assuming the speakers you choose are a 8ohm design. Regardless, I think working on room treatments (An 18' High ceiling can pose challenges too) and/or choosing a speaker with a tweeter that is known not to be real bright is way more important that second guessing the amp you have chosen. You can always piggy back another amp if you need to down the road.

[mike_l]

thanks for the response. the paradigms are 8 and the monitors are 4ohms. i totally agree on the room treatments. my thought was to get more than enough power up front, rather than need to deal with it again later.

[mjb]

Glass and hardwood will make 200w seem a lot, especially with reasonably efficient speakers - I'm sure you'll be happy with it, its still a very formidable amp.

Although, I think some Rotel users have been switching to class D amps. The 1077 is a quarter of the size and weight of the 1095 and is reckoned to be as loud or louder.

[mike_l]

thanks guys.

[PewterTA]

I use my 1095 to power my B&Ws and it does a great job. I will warn however, that it does tend to "home theater" music when listening to it. It does a unbelieveable job with soundstage and for listening to music it can have it's moments. For example, voices are placed directly in the middle of the soundstage, and while sometimes that sounds great, it can give a "target" like effect where you seem to think everything is coming from the center. I noticed this when I swapped between my 1080 and the 1095 on my Mains.

However, with that being said, I still picked my 1095 to push my Mains over the 1080, not exactly sure why, but there was something I liked about the whole soundstage of it and it's placement of instruments.

Of course HT use it's awesome with, so have no fears there. If you were driving more difficult speakers, I'd say you *might* want to find something else, but the 1095 has been a BEAST for me and driven some of the most difficult speakers I could find.

Just sit back and enjoy!

[mike_l]

Thanks Pewter. I think I will hold off for a bit on the 1095.

[WI Rotel]

Thanks Pewter. I think I will hold off for a bit on the 1095.

I use both a 1095 and a 1080. They both rock. The 1095 will drive 5 very inefficient speakers effortless at any power level. That said, every 5 channel amp even the most powerful ones, of which the 1095 is one, will make some compromises when driving 5 channels. I did notice a difference when I switched my mains to a stereo amp ( I went 7.1 thus the 1095 now drives only the surrounds). With the XT4's driven by the 1080 the bass did become slightly more dynamic and less watery my guess is that more than doubling the damping factor does make a difference, though slight. You must also take into account that the 1095 doesn't have more than twice the current reserves as the 1080. Therefore, the 1095 can't drive 5 speakers as well as the 1080 can drive 2. I have never compared them back to back in stereo but in that scenario I bet they are probably indistinguishable. Both are fantastic amplifiers and, for the money, probably still the best amps you can buy. You can't get anything that sounds as good for less than twice the price and you will need superlative speakers to tell them apart if you can. From my reading (since I haven't compared them side by side) The new class D's can be louder but they seem to be less sonically accurate, class D's are now very good but switching distortion, though greatly reduced, is still a bugaboo they must contend with. So in general they deliver the goods as far as power is concerned but the still lag the legacy amps (A and A/B) in ultimate sonic fidelity.