I recently got a B&K reference 50 in the house so I can make some nice comparisons between the two.
1. Sound fields: The B&K has THX 2 processing ... but guess what? Movies sound more natural WITHOUT THX. The Rotel 1098 doesn't have THX and simply doesn NOT need it.
2. Clicking sounds: The B&K makes all sorts of artifactual electronic sounds during playback which makes the pre-amp totally worthless in my eyes. I've seen low end receivers do better than this. The rotel has problems with the relays being annoying as hell if you can hear them occasionally when dvd chapter changes occur.
3. Remote: clearly the B&K's HTM 700 remote is far superior to the crap that comes with the rotel. But this is not a reason to buy the pre-amp.
4. Overall sound: I'm not going to make all sorts of annoying audiophile comparisons but I can say this much: Bass seems way over emphasized on the B&K. If you are into "bass boost" ... this pre-amp seems to have it on all the time. This didn't seem to get a lot better with messing with the crossovers. The bass that IS there does seem much better controlled by the B&K than the rotel. The rotel sounds much better overall but you can hear significant hiss when you turn the volume up high without a source playing.
In the end, I didn't give the B&K a huge chance because the artifacts and strange sounds that come through during playback made this unit a total loser. That being said, I have a B&K only because my Rotel is in the shop for reasons I described on this forum before.
I'm considering get rid of them both and consider a cheap used Lexicon MC-8... I can't imagine it has a fraction of the annoyances of the B&K or Rotel. I could be wrong but I'll let you guys know when I get an MC-8 to compare.
1. Sound fields: The B&K has THX 2 processing ... but guess what? Movies sound more natural WITHOUT THX. The Rotel 1098 doesn't have THX and simply doesn NOT need it.
2. Clicking sounds: The B&K makes all sorts of artifactual electronic sounds during playback which makes the pre-amp totally worthless in my eyes. I've seen low end receivers do better than this. The rotel has problems with the relays being annoying as hell if you can hear them occasionally when dvd chapter changes occur.
3. Remote: clearly the B&K's HTM 700 remote is far superior to the crap that comes with the rotel. But this is not a reason to buy the pre-amp.
4. Overall sound: I'm not going to make all sorts of annoying audiophile comparisons but I can say this much: Bass seems way over emphasized on the B&K. If you are into "bass boost" ... this pre-amp seems to have it on all the time. This didn't seem to get a lot better with messing with the crossovers. The bass that IS there does seem much better controlled by the B&K than the rotel. The rotel sounds much better overall but you can hear significant hiss when you turn the volume up high without a source playing.
In the end, I didn't give the B&K a huge chance because the artifacts and strange sounds that come through during playback made this unit a total loser. That being said, I have a B&K only because my Rotel is in the shop for reasons I described on this forum before.
I'm considering get rid of them both and consider a cheap used Lexicon MC-8... I can't imagine it has a fraction of the annoyances of the B&K or Rotel. I could be wrong but I'll let you guys know when I get an MC-8 to compare.
