Rotel 1055 receiver

[Andrew Pratt]

I have been given a chance to audition the new Rotel 1055 receiver for you guys from the kind folks at Rotel! It arrived the other day but with other commitments I haven't been able to spend any time with it yet but I will so stay tuned I want to run it through its paces and see just how good it is...esp compared to my 1066 which it's closely related to.

[RogueAngel]

I thought you had said earlier that you were getting to review the RSX-1055. Did you really get the 1065 or the 1055?

[Lex]

Very 8)

Lex

[Andrew Pratt]

oops slight typo yes its the 1055 ops:

[Eduardo]

You lucky :twisted:




http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

[Andrew Pratt]

Took the Rotel 1055 receiver out of the box this afternoon for a look see...in a word its a beautiful machine 8O Feature wise its VERY similar to the 1066 with the only difference being its got 5 on board amps (75 watts 20-20 8 ohms 0.09%) and its got a tuner built in. The amps can be reconfigured to power the back centre channels if you later add a seperate power amp which is a great feature. I hope to hosit all of its 34lbs onto my rack later this weekend and give it a listen vs my 1066. One thing I see right off the top is that the S/N is a little noiser for the receiver (92dB vs 95dB) which shuold mean the 1066 will have a lower noise floor but we'll see how audible it is in the real world.

I ordered a new digital camera yesterday so I'll get some pics posted when it arrives...I'm very fond of its looks though.

here's the pic that's on Rotel's web site


Spec's available here

[RogueAngel]

Andrew,

Looking forward to comparing your impressions with mine.

[Andrew Pratt]

Alrighty then I've have now swapped out the 1066 with the 1055 in my system and spent last night playing with it. To sum up my feelings all I'll say is its exactly the same thing as the 1066 only with internal amps and a tuner. Although the specs show that the receiver is slightly more noisey I didn't hear any difference between the 1055 or the 1066 when used as a pre pro in my system so IMO if the 1066 isn't available see if the 1055 is since its actually priced a little lower then the 1066 due to market demand. There's really not much else to say since at this time I haven't tried its internal amps and the rest of the review is exactly the same as the numerous threads posted on the 1066.

[Eduardo]

Have you tested the internal amps vs your external amps?




http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

[Andrew Pratt]

Eduardo no I haven't check the internal amps yet to see how they stack up against the HK's...really since I have ten channels available in the HK's I don't need the internal amps but you never know when they might come in handy

[Eduardo]

Andrew, Maybe for review purposes you can give them a try. As I stated on a other post, I would like to get a reciever with pre out so I can grow into a good set of amps.




http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

[Greg_W]

Andrew,

I'm pleased to read your review of the 1055 compared to the 1066. Over the summer I had been trying to decide whether to get the 1066 and use my old sony reciever for the rears (I have a 2-channel Bryston for the mains) or repace the sony with another reciever. Just prior to the release of Lord of the Rings I finally picked up the 1055 and have been very pleased. The 2-channel performance is both laid back yet more detailed (using the 1055 DACs) than the sony. I haven't tried the inernal amps for 2-channel music other than at the store, but they seemed to have enough power to drive B&W 603s very well, with tight bass and smooth treble. Bass Management is not an issue for me as I don't run my sub with music. The 5.1 processing seems very good, with no dropouts or pops when locking on to signals.
The only complaint I have is that it takes a second to lock on to HDCD, cutting offthe begining of songs. My source is a Toshiba DVD player. Otherwise this reciever is great.

[Eduardo]

Hi Greg - Welcome to the forum.

Is delay at the beginning of every song or just the CD?




http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

[Andrew Pratt]

Hey another Winnipeg 1055 user I haven't tried a HDCD yet so I can't comment on the speed issue there. I'll try and remember to do it this weekend and see what mine does. Which firmware are you running?

[Greg_W]

The pause happens at the begining of the HDCD and sometime when I jump to tracks. I'm not sure what firmware my reciever has (whatever was installed at the factory). How do I check the version?




Greg

[Andrew Pratt]

Greg you can't check the firmware unfortunalty. The latest version is 1.45 and its apparently improved the sound noticably as well so you might want to think about upgrading it anyway. If you'd like I'd be willing to help you out (drop me an email)

[John Holmes]

Welcome to the Guide RougeAngel and Greg-W.


The 1055 sure is beautiful. It almost makes me want to part with my Elite! I may have to look at a way to give it a serious listen. :B

Glad you two are happy with them. And nice review Andrew.




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[RogueAngel]

Yup, yup, yup, I am happy with the 1055. I will be making my firmware cable tomorrow and making a first attempt at uploading to it. Simply amazing that we can update these things. I am oh so glad that I didn't go with the Denon (or anything else I listened to).

I'm a happy woman.

[RogueAngel]

:? I think the firmware didn't update properly. It took only about 10 seconds for it to transfer and after the three lines about checksum at the end it had a line about an error. This happened running it in XP, 98 and 95. I think next time I'll try another computer. I know the display is supposed to be blank, but is the power light off too? I heard it click on but the light wouldn't come on until I took it out of the upload mode.

[Andrew Pratt]

When you first run hyperterminal it erases the old firmware so if your unit boots up after running hyperterminal it must have worked. If it won't turn on then you know you have a problem in which case you'll have to reflash the memory. In your case since you got an error something didn't work properly. Did you send the bin file as a text file? On my 98 laptop it takes about a minute or two to transfer the file.

[RogueAngel]

Yes, I ran it as a text file and the unit does boot up. If it wasn't connected properly (like the cable not properly constructed), would hyperterminal still appear to be transferring the file?

[Andrew Pratt]

RA it might appear to send the file but didn't you get a reponse from the Rotel...It should prompt you to press "1" then it will erase the old firmware and start sending the new one. Finally you should get a checksum and at that point you'll be able to power off the Rotel and flip the dip switches back.

[RogueAngel]

Success last night, V1.45 is loaded. I ended up running hyperterminal in 2000 through the XP OS. Everything went fine but it took nearly 45 minutes. Andrew, thanks for the help and I really appreciate the info you have on your website. But you do need to update it to reflect your current set-up.

[Andrew Pratt]

Rogue...that's always been a problem for my web site in that as soon as I take the picture they're quickly outdated ops: Case in point, since that pic I no longer have the Energy speakers, IB sub, 1066 and have added some movie posters etc to the room!

[wanderso]

Greg,

What remote are you using?

Wilson

[Greg_W]

Wilson,

I'm using the RR-969 remote that came with the reciever. It works well for me, except having to open the cover to change input is kind of a pain. I haven't ever used a pronto or anything like that and since I live alone I don't worry about the complexity of the sytem.

BTW, in regards to the earlier question about switching audio and video inputs seperately, I have not found a way. Anyone else have any luck?




Greg

[Andrew Pratt]

Greg i think the answer lies in the rec out function of the rotels.

When I get my speakers all build we'll have to have a Winnipeg Rotel fan club meeting...I know of at least four of us now