New RSX-1560 Tomorrow

[B&W_Group_Fan]

Hello Everyone,

My first post here.

I've been a "lurker" here since I guess around 2002 / 2003.

In 2003 I put together an awesome system around Rotel, Niles, Runco, B&W and Velodyne. Much of what I put together was due, in no small part, to the likes of all of you - thanks for the valuable posts over the years. :T

I sold the house I was in along with all of that gear and recently moved into my new permanent place. New equipment time!

In my new house there will be two "media" rooms - a Living / Multi-Purpose room on the main floor and, ultimately, what I hope to be a kick 'you know what' theater in the basement (it's already framed for it). With fond memories of those aforementioned brands, they certainally fell on the short list for the new house.

So, I purchased speakers and a sub for a 7.1 system for the main floor living room as follows:

Front L&R (wall), Side (wall) and Rear (ceiling) - B&W SIG-7NTs
Front Center - B&W FPM6
Subwoofer - Velodyne MiniVee

Also - B&W CMW650s for my kitchen.

And a Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ800U plasma (the THX certified one).

For the electronics... As a HUGE fan of the Rotel 10 series, I was headed in that direction until I heard about the 15 series. So I waited. And, like many here, had this sort of weird feeling about the whole Class D thing and the new look.

After spending some time doing research and contemplating things, I ultimately decided on the Rotel RSX-1560 and ordered one. It arrived today. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to my dealer before they closed, so I'll pick it up tomorrow. My weekend priorities just got changed! :lol:

I'll report back sometime over the weekend.

[Miguel]

Hey B&W_Group_Fan,

Same here... I'm very excited about the 1560. Stopping by my dealer to take a look at it, and I'm fearing I will leave with a big box and a slimmer savings account.

Please share your impressions - I'll do the same if I pull the trigger!

Miguel

[bnieman]

Post some pictures too please

[sikoniko]

Hello Everyone,

My first post here.

I've been a "lurker" here since I guess around 2002 / 2003.

In 2003 I put together an awesome system around Rotel, Niles, Runco, B&W and Velodyne. Much of what I put together was due, in no small part, to the likes of all of you - thanks for the valuable posts over the years. :T

I sold the house I was in along with all of that gear and recently moved into my new permanent place. New equipment time!

In my new house there will be two "media" rooms - a Living / Multi-Purpose room on the main floor and, ultimately, what I hope to be a kick 'you know what' theater in the basement (it's already framed for it). With fond memories of those aforementioned brands, they certainally fell on the short list for the new house.

So, I purchased speakers and a sub for a 7.1 system for the main floor living room as follows:

Front L&R (wall), Side (wall) and Rear (ceiling) - B&W SIG-7NTs
Front Center - B&W FPM6
Subwoofer - Velodyne MiniVee

Also - B&W CMW650s for my kitchen.

And a Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ800U plasma (the THX certified one).

For the electronics... As a HUGE fan of the Rotel 10 series, I was headed in that direction until I heard about the 15 series. So I waited. And, like many here, had this sort of weird feeling about the whole Class D thing and the new look.

After spending some time doing research and contemplating things, I ultimately decided on the Rotel RSX-1560 and ordered one. It arrived today. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to my dealer before they closed, so I'll pick it up tomorrow. My weekend priorities just got changed! :lol:

I'll report back sometime over the weekend.

I just helped my father-in-law buy the 58in version of your TV. Fantastic picture! I'm very impressed. absolutely beautiful. The bigger benefit to this TV is it doesn't have the 3:2 pull-down issues on 1080p24 that the non 8x0 series has. enjoy!

[Miguel]

Hey guys --- happy to report that I'm just back from the dealer with a brand new RSX-1560 still unpacked as of this writing. The dealer had it hooked up to a sweet pair of B&Ws 804 in a 2ch only setup. I brought some of my music and we had a nice listening session in the store. Boy the setup sounded sweet. Can't wait to unpack it and hook it up to my system. I'll report back

BTW the sales guy mentioned I was getting the very last one they had in stock. Apparently they sold their whole first batch in 3 or 4 days.

[watchnerd]

B&W Group Fan,

How have you found the remote?

Assuming it's the same as the one for the RSP-1570, I'm finding it a bit finicky, having to press buttons multiple times sometimes to get it to do what I want. And every once in a while, it seems not to want to go to the OSD at all unless I remove the batteries and then replace them.

Luckily, I expect to put it in the drawer soon, once I figure out how to configure my Harmony to control the Rotel.

[B&W_Group_Fan]

Miguel - Congratulations on your purchase, I'm sure you are going to enjoy it.

watchnerd - It came with the RR-1061 remote which seems to want to be aimed almost directly at the RSX in order to do anything. I, too, intend to replace the remote with something else. Not sure what yet, though.

Okay, on to my first impressions of the RSX-1560. I took it out of the box and set it up along with my sub and started with everything set at factory defaults. We watched Finding Nemo (DVD) and listened to some 2 ch. audio - a CD from Don Ross called Huron Street (guitar stuff). I liked what I heard. I spent some time last night with other audio that I am quite familiar with and have to say that this Rotel piece is really nice, very musical.

My last system was the RSP-1098 with RB-1080 and RMB-1095, which I was really happy with. I have to admit that I was afraid I was going to be disappointed with the 1560 after my last setup. At this point, I will tell you I am not disappointed at all. I'm not trying to draw any comparison of the setups, just that I'm really pleased with how the 1560 sounds and performs thus far.

The only potential problem to report is that the display sometimes seems to have this wavy flickering thing going on. Not sure if it's real or just me staring too long at it because I can't believe it is finally here! In any event, I'll see if I can correlate it to anything going on with the unit (program change, mode change, whatever).

I will definitely post some pics in the coming days and will report back after I've done some more movie stuff and some tweaking!

Oh, two more things:

- Like the comments posted elsewhere in this forum, the blue light around the front power / standby button is really bright - way brighter than I remember my 10 series being.

- Aesthetics... I like how the unit looks. Like almost everything with this hobby (obsession?), it is subjective. But for me, I'm liking it.

[Dmantis]

I'm eagerly awaiting the pic's. I have been in the market for a new preamp or this receiver. I have always liked the 1065 then 1067 and now this. With the new digital amps inside, I'm wondering if it would be a really good replacement for seperates to save room and clean up wire mess.
I'm also wondering how big of a room this receiver will do with 4ohm load 86db speakers running all 7.1. I want nothing more then a test piece to run it.

Good luck with it.

[watchnerd]

watchnerd - It came with the RR-1061 remote which seems to want to be aimed almost directly at the RSX in order to do anything. I, too, intend to replace the remote with something else. Not sure what yet, though.

I've partially programmed my Harmony remote with the day to day operational commonds (source, volume, mute, power) and so far it seems to do a better job at executing these than the Rotel remote with fewer resends and aiming that doesn't need to be so precise. I'll probably stick the Rotel remove in the drawer and only use it when I need to do a configuration task.

By the way, I also get the subtle wavy/flickering of the LED screen, but I only notice it if I'm up close. I can't see it from far away.

[B&W_Group_Fan]

Dmantis - My speaker load is 8 ohms Not sure how 4 would fare. If you buy what they tell you in the literature, 4 ohms shouldn't be a problem. FWIW, my room is around 21' long X 13' wide.

Hey watchnerd - Thanks for confirming the problem is with me :lol: ! I think I agree, at normal distance, the display isn't a problem.

[B&W_Group_Fan]

Hi everyone. Some “updates from the field” here.

As promised, some pics (finally!). Sorry for the long wait, we've been busy. There are a couple of unboxing photos and some front panel shots.

(first time with pictures here - so I hope I post them correctly )

I've done some tweaking and after watching Iron Man, WALL-E and The Dark Knight, I can tell you I really like the 1560. Also, the Velodyne MiniVee... I wasn't sure how this little guy would fare, but it does a darned good job.

On the downside, I have come across a situation where the audio & video seems to become out of sync or something. On the Iron Man disc, if I try to watch the deleted / extended scenes, no sound or picture. If I select another video source on the Rotel and then go back to Video 1 (where my Blu is plugged in) everything is good. I connected my Blu to my plasma directly and didn't have any issues. I ran into a similar situation where after unloading a Blu disc and loading a DVD (same player) the same thing happened. By selecting another video source and then going back to the Video 1, things worked as they should. I'll let my dealer know about it and see where we go.

Something interesting on the RR-1061 remote that came with my 1560. If you go through the Setup then Model menus, you will find the following (amongst models we already know about):

Under AUD: RSX-1570 and RSP-1580
Under CD: RCD-1520
Under DVD: DVD-1530

… perhaps other models on the horizon. Maybe stuff to be announced at January's CES?

Oh, and I picked up a Galaxy CM-140 SPL and just started checking out REW. Fun stuff!

[Kevin D]

What blu-ray are you using, and do you have the latest firmware in it?

Interesting find on the model numbers. No telling how much of that exists..

Kevin D.

[B&W_Group_Fan]

Hi Kevin,

My Blu-Ray is a Panasonic DMP-BD55 with the latest firmware. Connecting it directly to my Panasonic plasma, I don't experience the problem. I'm going to do some more testing using my cable box (HDMI) and a Wii (component) to see what happens.

Some more pictures here - the room itself. The blue tape on the front wall will be gone once I do some drywall repair. My plan is to do the repairs and paint the walls (and the in-wall speaker frames / grilles) this spring.

[Dmantis]

Nice pic's. I'm suprised you didn't go with In ceiling speakers by B&W over the In walls for In ceiling. It works I just perfer the other for looks reasons and aim able tweeters.

Why o why does everything Rotel make in a preamp or receiver have to have some kind of issues??? I don't get it. This very problem with HDMI is very close to what happens on the rsp1068. You lose the sound all together then you switch to another video input then back and get the sound back. I hate that. You don't get this issue with Denon, Pioneer ELite , Integra , Onkyo , etc. So why can't Rotel pull it off???
The Panasonic 55 Blu ray player is very very nice. I have Installed a few and was very impressed. For the price I love it. Good score there.

I hope Rotel fixes these Issues quickly and sends out a firmware upgrade.

Dan

[B&W_Group_Fan]

Hi Dan,

I went with as many matching speakers as I could for sonics (if that's a word). In my last house, I had all SIG-7NTs and really liked the sound. My goal was to have all the speakers sound as similar as possible. Because this house was a retrofit, I had to go a different route for my center, otherwise it too would have been a SIG-7NT.

Sitting here listening to Pink Floyd's Delicate Sound of Thunder in 7 ch. stereo, I can tell you I'm a happy guy

I'm hoping my issue is something Rotel can (will) fix with a firmware update. I'm willing to put up with a bit of quirky behavior (as an early adopter of the 15 series) for good sound, but have faith they'll address things. I hope I'm not disappointed.

[Dmantis]

Cool man,
I dig in wall speakers myself. Some of my best sounding theater Installs have been all in the wall. B&W makes fantastic speakers. I really like your setup.

Rotel has a great price point and is hard to beat. But I get alittle tired of products in general lately not working correctly. I see it a lot with HDMI products. I lived in the DVI times and man what a mess that was. Early HDMI was also a nightmare. I just want it all behind me. I want a system to work the way it is suppose to. Plug it in, set it up and enjoy it. Not trouble shoot it all the time. I'm so beat on that.

Good luck and post back what Rotel does for you. I'm sure they will fix it.

Dan

[mjb]

Rotel has a great price point and is hard to beat. But I get alittle tired of products in general lately not working correctly. I see it a lot with HDMI products. I lived in the DVI times and man what a mess that was. Early HDMI was also a nightmare. I just want it all behind me. I want a system to work the way it is suppose to. Plug it in, set it up and enjoy it. Not trouble shoot it all the time. I'm so beat on that.

So true! HDMI is a PITA, probably because of the HDCP rubbish, and the chatting it does before opening the video path. I wish Rotel could get their software right though.

[mjb]

Something interesting on the RR-1061 remote that came with my 1560. If you go through the Setup then Model menus, you will find the following (amongst models we already know about):

Under AUD: RSX-1570 and RSP-1580
Under CD: RCD-1520
Under DVD: DVD-1530

Mmmm, a RSP-1580? Great! Now I can't order a RSP-1570 until I know what thats all about!!

[urlawyer]

On second RSX 1560

As a birthday present, I bought my self a Yamaha RX-Z7 to replace my aging, 10 year old Yamaha DSP A1. However, the RX-Z7 was no DSP A1. I returned it and bought a Rolel RSX 1560 in black.

My dealer did not have a black one so he lent me a silver one until my black one came in which it did just this week.

I will say that I was impressed with the RSX 1560 silver. It did everything the DSP A1 did but better (yes I note that the DSP A1 is more than 10 years old but for its time it was Yamaha's best).

I am now enjoying the black 1560 and have noted some differences between it and the silver one. For one the Rotel RSX-1500 logo followed with the menu is flashed on the screen on turn on, the input assignments are not as easily assigned, pause times when changing inputs etc seem to be faster, and black goes with the rest of my black system.

I find that the remote works just fine if I wait for the bip but I use the Rotel remote only to program the 1560 for the rest I use my Harmony 890.

another thing, the 1560 does such a great job of uploading my DVDs and my VCR tapes to 1080i that I have decided not to get a Blu-ray player anytime soon.

So it appears the Rotel is making upgrades as the units are manufactured.

One other thing, I read someplace the Rotel in the US is checking each unit before it goes out to the US dealers. Who knows but I for one really like my 1560.

[Claw]

I'm glad you like your 1560!

[B&W_Group_Fan]

urlawyer,

I've been pretty happy with my 1560 overall. I have observed a few quirks as I've reported in this thread.

Would you mind reporting what your two firmware versions are? (hold the Mute button and you'll see the main version displayed, followed in a few seconds by the Video version).

Enjoy!

[tpirovol]

v1.1.1 v1.0 I have tried for like a week to get ahold of someone at rotel to get an upgrade but no luck. Anyone have it that they could share with me? I know there is a V.1.1.2 v.1.1 because I has it on my 1550.

And it makes a difference sounds much better.

I had one question do you have hiss even a very minut amount from your speakers with the 1560? I ask because my 1560 does very very little but the 1550 was silent. I think the v1.1.2 fixed that but figured I would ask.

Thanks Terry

[urlawyer]

My Black 1560 is version V 1.1.2-081218 and video V 1.10. Never checked the version on the Silver one which I had for about 2 months but I do note some differences.

[B&W_Group_Fan]

For what it's worth, mine are v1.1.2-081218 / Video v1.01.

My original 1560 had v1.1.1-080925 (not sure about the video).

To answer your question, Terry - yes I do have a slight hiss. I hadn't ever noticed it myself, but put my ear next to the speaker just now and can hear it when the system is muted. It is very slight though.

[urlawyer]

Sorry my Black 1560 is a video v1.01.

However, I have no hiss at at all on any of the 7 speakers or the powered Sub. I ran all the speakers from the 1560 for a few days to make sure that everything worked but now I am running pre outs on both fronts and center to my Parasound HCA-2003 and the rest from the 1560. No hiss at all.
Normally, I'd be running the center and the surrounds from the Parasound but I lost a channel on the SAE amp which I normally use for the fronts. Need to get it fixed.

[NewRotelGuy]

Lacking bass from Rotel 1560

I just set up my Rotel 1560. 7x100watts. I have Infinity Alpha 50's Bi-amped. It seems this Rotel is weak in the bass dept. The LF and HF are at max.
I have the volume at 50 (out of 100) CD's are JUST ok. My 15 yr old rcvr is a Yamaha RX-V480 at 65 watts. My Infinity's were NOT bi-amped and they had much more bass with the Yamaha.
I too have experienced the other issues with the remote and set-up is a bit convoluted.
I would like to read from other 1560 owners. So far I am not impressed and I may be returning it. All the reviews I've read were outstanding!
Ideas anyone?

[mjb]

Have you got all the phases correct on the speaker connections?

[kmcheng]

I just set up my Rotel 1560. 7x100watts. I have Infinity Alpha 50's Bi-amped. It seems this Rotel is weak in the bass dept. The LF and HF are at max.
I have the volume at 50 (out of 100) CD's are JUST ok. My 15 yr old rcvr is a Yamaha RX-V480 at 65 watts. My Infinity's were NOT bi-amped and they had much more bass with the Yamaha.
I too have experienced the other issues with the remote and set-up is a bit convoluted.
I would like to read from other 1560 owners. So far I am not impressed and I may be returning it. All the reviews I've read were outstanding!
Ideas anyone?

That is strange. Even my "antique" 1069 has no problem with bass. What speaker size did you specify for the speakers? That should all be small so that the subwoofer would handle frequencies lower than 80 Hz. Alternatively, play with the subwoofer crossover currency setup.

The one thing I definitely do not like about Rotel is the convoluted setup menus and the unhelpful manual instructions.

[NewRotelGuy]

Thank you for the quick replies, MJB and KMCheng. All speaker wire (12awg Monster OFC) is correctly phased (I checked about 8 times in frustration). The Infinity Alpha 50's have 2 6.5" woofers, 4" Mid and 1" dome tweeter, 39.5" tall w/bass port. On top are AV123 Onyx (ribbon plate) super tweeter's.

No sub (yet) because . . Neil Peart, Nicko McBrain, Phil Collins etc. kick drum hammers with my old Yamaha rx-v480. 65 watt x 3 amp! (Not boomy, just thumpin'.)

Currently 100 watts are going into just one each of the front L-R 6.5" woofers. Rolled off @ 80hz.

Very disappointed that a $2,800+ Rotel is so weak. . . ."1069 has no problem with bass"? Then I think something is wrong with my 1560.

Could I route an EQ through this 1560?

[kmcheng]

Currently 100 watts are going into just one each of the front L-R 6.5" woofers. Rolled off @ 80hz.

Very disappointed that a $2,800+ Rotel is so weak. . . ."1069 has no problem with bass"? Then I think something is wrong with my 1560.

If you have no sub then your LF and RF speakers should be set to large, rolling off @ 80hz might be the result of having speaker size set to small.

To be fair, the 1069 is just a processor and I am using an external amp, but I still think your issues is most likely a problem with settings. When you auditioned the 1560 at the dealer, did you notice a similar problem?

Does your Yamaha have direct pre-in? If so, one way to check is to connect the pre-outs from the 1560 to the pre-in of your Yamaha. That way you will be using the processor section of the Rotel and the amp section of the Yamaha. If you are still missing the low frequencies, then you can isolate the problem to the processor section of the Rotel.

[NewRotelGuy]

Not a Rotel guy anymore

Hi Gentlemen,
After two days on the phone with a very cool and helpful Mark from Rotel I made a decision.
I returned the Rotel 1560 and got the Pioneer Elite SC-07. 140w X7. Just out of the box NO calibration done and I heard what I was expecting from the Rotel.
My Speakers came alive! Hours later I wanted to try the calibration feature. The colorful GUI is easier to follow and explains what the function highlighted will do.
I have a calibration Cd with test tones. Using my RTA the lower 6.5" bi-amped is putting out 50 hz and below only!
The new Thin Lizzy CD sounded like I was on the stage. Frank Sinatra was in my living room!
This is sound scheme I expected from the Rotel. I always wanted a Rotel, McIntosh, B&O line of sound gear. Very disappointed.
I paid about a grand less and got the rich FULL sound I was expecting (demanding) from my new Rotel 1560.
The SC-07 has a lot of features I do not need or want (XM, HD radio). Who listens to radio anymore? But the clean sound is amazing.
I want to say Thank You to the Rotel owners who replied with advice.

[Opus007]

Hi Gentlemen,
After two days on the phone with a very cool and helpful Mark from Rotel I made a decision.
I returned the Rotel 1560 and got the Pioneer Elite SC-07. 140w X7. Just out of the box NO calibration done and I heard what I was expecting from the Rotel.
My Speakers came alive! Hours later I wanted to try the calibration feature. The colorful GUI is easier to follow and explains what the function highlighted will do.
I have a calibration Cd with test tones. Using my RTA the lower 6.5" bi-amped is putting out 50 hz and below only!
The new Thin Lizzy CD sounded like I was on the stage. Frank Sinatra was in my living room!
This is sound scheme I expected from the Rotel. I always wanted a Rotel, McIntosh, B&O line of sound gear. Very disappointed.
I paid about a grand less and got the rich FULL sound I was expecting (demanding) from my new Rotel 1560.
The SC-07 has a lot of features I do not need or want (XM, HD radio). Who listens to radio anymore? But the clean sound is amazing.
I want to say Thank You to the Rotel owners who replied with advice.

Sorry to hear you had problems with the 1560.I demoed this unit at my dealer and found it to be very nice,and very musical and did not notice any lack of bass.It was demoed with B&W 703's.I think you may of had a bad unit.Did you demo it at your dealer first?The main thing is that you found what sounds good to you so congrats on your purchase of the SC-07.

[Leef DaLucky]

I demo'd these 2, as well.
It was a close race.
I thought, at the time, that the Rotel would absolutely punish the pioneer.
(I've listened to some pioneers in my day, the older ones.)
This B&O ICE stuff is sweeeeeet though.
I don't think pioneer could've went wrong even if they tried.
The detail and soundstage is great on both. I thought that the Rotel was slightly ahead of the Pio.
It was when I heard the Pioneer on B&W's that threw me for a loop.
It was fantastic. Quite amazing.
I did end up liking the 250w Rotel on Paradigms though.
And plan on buying ASAP once I find a suitable processor.
Guy's findings don't surprise me too much.
I'd wonder if he feels the same way once he auditions that 250watter though.
I hope Rotel can list the 1560 for a bit less.
They have some serious competition.
They used to be the "bang for the buck" company so it should be very interesting to see how they handle things.
my $0.02, anyways.

[NewRotelGuy]

Sorry to hear you had problems with the 1560.I demoed this unit at my dealer and found it to be very nice,and very musical and did not notice any lack of bass.It was demoed with B&W 703's.I think you may of had a bad unit.Did you demo it at your dealer first?The main thing is that you found what sounds good to you so congrats on your purchase of the SC-07.

Hi Leef, The Pioneer SC-07 has the B&O ICE circuitry! One slight fact about the SC-07 is the input/output connectors are not gold plated. Even if it really is just a marketing gimmick. The gold plating LOOKS way better. At $2200+ they could and should have done this.

What do you gentlemen say about gold plated connectors, cables and such? Does it really sound better?

Not a New Rotel Guy

[NewRotelGuy]

Ooops I quoted Opus007 but my reply is to both gentlemen.

[gd]

Gold plated connectors do not sound better, but are helpful in resisting oxidation and maintaining clean contact points.

Yes, any receiver upward of $1500 should have them.

[Leef DaLucky]

I agree.
it's not going to make any diff.
gold/silver/tititanium/adamantium/Unobtanium..

I refuse to enter the cable/metal debate, but trust me yer good.
P.S> silver is still a better conductor than gold. Draw yer own conclusions.
this could go on for months...
hopefully. no.