Quality Audio for my Rotel

[jpossum]

I have decided to take the plunge and order my Rotel 1066 with the 1075 and 1080 amps. These will drive my B&W speakers.

I have ordered the Panasonic RP82 based on reading all whole bunch of post on many different forums (I'm now a certified forum junkie)

My question revolves around the audio qualtiy of my system. As the RP82 is definitley the "weakest link", am I shortchanging my system by purchasing a relatively cheap DVD. Should I be thinking of the Rotel CD player (1070) to make sure that I don't miss out?

[Danbry39]

The Denon DVD players are supposed to have the picture quality of the Panasonics with significantly improved audio. You might want to check them out. By the way, the Panny you have has achieved almost legendary status at its price point. I'd definitely try to see if that works first. Then, if you decide you want something more audio wise, you could sell it and probably get a pretty nice price as a lot of people are searching for the unit you now have.




Keith

[Andrew Pratt]

The RP82 will be an excellent DVD player but not that great at CD so I would look at adding a dedicated CD player. There are very few DVD players that make good CD players so in most cases its adviseable to get two seperate units anyway. In my case I'm using the Sony DVP7700 which is one of the few that does very well in CD and was top of the line for video when it was released...its now been surpased by the progressive models out today though. Anyway there's tons of CD players out there that are worth looking at. For what its worth I find the DAC's in my 7700 to be better then those in the Rotel so better sound with an external CD player is possible

[Doc_stereo]

I'm using a Rotel 1055 to drive my B&W speakers in my HT system. In answer to your question about the audio side of things, I would recommend going with a Denon DVD player. In particular, the 1600 which uses many of the same great video components as the Pansasonic, but has a much improved audio section. In a head-to-head comparison between my Rotel CD player and my Denon 1600 with regular CDs, it's often hard to tell the difference. Just my opinion.

Michael

[DJLackey5]

You are right about the forum crowd loving the picture the Panny puts out. For best CD sound, however, you should get a separate unit (if you can fit another piece in your rack/cabinet/whatever). Go listen to a bunch of players in your price range. I love my CAL Audio cd player.

[Ricky]

I believe the Panasonic RP82 has two digital outs, so you can get a dac and use the 2nd digital out into the dac, the dac into the prepro (via analog).

About 12 months ago, over a 2 month span, I had the following gear in my system for redbook performance: Onkyo 989, Lexicon DC1 and MC1, Sony 333es sacd changer, parasound cdc1500 changer, and three dacs: adcom gda700, msb link dac2, and parasound dac1600.

The Lexicons seem to lag the others. The Onkyo, sony sacd changer, adcom dac, msb dac, and parasound changer were all pretty close, with the Onkyo perhaps a little ahead. The parasound dac ($350 used) IMO was the best and made a noticeable difference over the others.

To this end, you should consider a dac for your system. Besides what I mentioned, there are many more to choose from under $500 if you go used: EAD, Theta, Aragon, Classe, Bel Canto, etc. Buying new under $500, the MSB and Perpetual Technology P-1A dacs are great choices.

[jpossum]

For all you Canucks in the crowd, west of Toronto, it seems that the RP82 is not available. I was told that the new model will be announced next week, with availability by end of Sept.

Anyone else heard this? If this pricing is bumped up too much, it might make sense to buy the new Rotel DVD player.