Rotel RA-1062 v RA-1070

[kirkh]

Current system is arcam alpha5 cdp and amp, b&w dm630i speakers, listen primarily to are rock and metal.. Am going to replace the amp as it does not have enough energy for that genre of music + the speakers are relatively difficult to drive so could do with more power.. have auditioned ra1062 amp and really liked attack and detail of guitars etc but found bass a bit understated.. would ra1070 amp improve this substantially ? has anyone compared the two amps ? do 2-channel rotel pre\power combos such as RC03\RB03 or RC1070\RB1070 offer better performance\value ?

KirkH

[Aussie Geoff]

KirkH,

I have heard the RA-1062 and the RB-1070 driving Sonus Fabers (we started with the RA-02 and worked up). The Sound you describe for the bass is a fairly exact description of the effect of having a demanding speaker and an amplifier that is not able drive the current levels with rapidly changing bass impedance. Essentially for the Sonus Fabers (which are challenging to drive) the RB-1070 had significantly better bas control - cleaning up the sound even in the mid bass. For less demanding speakers (B&W602s) the RA-1062 was more capable and the difference (while audible) wasn't (for my friend) worth the money.

Bottom line - I'd definitely try the RB-1070 and see if it cleans up (for your ears) the sound characteristic you describe to a suffcient level. (There remains the possibility that it is the speakers…)

Geoff