I have a Rotel 1055 CDP that was made in 2002. Yesterday I had a chance to do a shootout with it and the new ERC-1 by Emotiva.
We had The Rotel 1090 preamp (Which btw, my buddy who has Conrad-Johnson mono tube amps, the matching preamp, Dynaudio speakers, very expensive cables, Krell, T+A, ADCOM, Rega, and Audio Note all in his audio system, not including the Marantz new Pre/pro and the Linn 5 channel amp in his HT thought the Rotel 1090 was a very good performing preamp) connected to the ADCOM amp and the Audio Note Tube DAC, with transparent Speaker Cables, and Audio Note cables between the DAC and amp, and Transparent cables between the amp and preamp and preamp and CDP's. We played The 1055 first and it had a very good engaging sound. The Rotel sounded better than what my friend thought. He said if he remembered correctly the Rotel was dark and slow and not good at all. But when we fired up the 1055 he recanted and gave the 1055 it due. When then hooked up the ERC-1 from emotiva at $399. After the first 10 seconds the shootout was over. My friend and I both knew it. The Emotiva was neutral with a deep bottom end...a sound that had more depth than the 1055, a very good midrange and very pleasant highs. It out classed the 1055 in every way. But to be fair, the 1055 was 7 years old. I hope the new Rotel player sound much better than the 1055. The Emotiva is much better than its price point.
Rantzmar.
We had The Rotel 1090 preamp (Which btw, my buddy who has Conrad-Johnson mono tube amps, the matching preamp, Dynaudio speakers, very expensive cables, Krell, T+A, ADCOM, Rega, and Audio Note all in his audio system, not including the Marantz new Pre/pro and the Linn 5 channel amp in his HT thought the Rotel 1090 was a very good performing preamp) connected to the ADCOM amp and the Audio Note Tube DAC, with transparent Speaker Cables, and Audio Note cables between the DAC and amp, and Transparent cables between the amp and preamp and preamp and CDP's. We played The 1055 first and it had a very good engaging sound. The Rotel sounded better than what my friend thought. He said if he remembered correctly the Rotel was dark and slow and not good at all. But when we fired up the 1055 he recanted and gave the 1055 it due. When then hooked up the ERC-1 from emotiva at $399. After the first 10 seconds the shootout was over. My friend and I both knew it. The Emotiva was neutral with a deep bottom end...a sound that had more depth than the 1055, a very good midrange and very pleasant highs. It out classed the 1055 in every way. But to be fair, the 1055 was 7 years old. I hope the new Rotel player sound much better than the 1055. The Emotiva is much better than its price point.
Rantzmar.
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