Before closing their retail outlet on Central Avenue, to go exclusively for home theater installs, The Listening Room in Scarsdale was the lone dealer that sold Rotel. All the salespeople liked their gear, and where constantly comparing their stuff to other more expensive gear in their show room. I found their metallic silver finish to be quite striking. Rotel stood out.

I listened to a few of their older amp/preamp combos that were reviewed well, and they sounded great. Its good to hear from them, because, they do offer good value for the money.

Rotel is much like NAD....

Once you get into it - you end up getting in to the REALLY high end which is VERY GOOD for the AV industry.

I personally love Rotel stuff as it has audiophile soul and real-world features without breaking the bank....

What power amp for my B&W 800D speakers? Power Amps are not made to match any set of speakers. They are simply built to perform. ROTEL RMB 1575 effortlessly drives the B&W800D & the ROTEL RMB 1575 is a slam dunk for killer dollar value, it's worth it's weight in gold. It's quiet or 'low distortion' sound is awesome (Deafeningly loud if you want..ha.ha). If you can afford a B&W 800D you shouldent be worried about the dollar value should you? In that case THETA DREADNAUGHT II's 225 watts, drives the Titanic real smooth on still waters without any ripples. Theta + B&W = 'colorless' - the combination is truly alluring! Nevertheless the ROTEL is a buck winner for a class 'D' digital 5 channel amp. Even if i had the money to burn, I would rather do the RMB 1575 than a KRELL or THETA. Again..if you think the Rotel lacks heft on the low end..then you will have to burn some money. Personally the Rotel's low end delivery is hefty enough for me. You listen to the combos and decide.

Couldn't help noticing that signal to noise ratio (IHF-A weighted) is listed at 109 db in the specs, as opposed to 116 db for the five channel amp it's supposed to replace, the rmb-1095. Damping factor for both amps is quoted at 400.

Now I'm perfectly willing to believe this power amp in itself is quite good, but with a suggested retail price here in The Netherlands of 2400 euros, I had my suspicions from the outset as to whether this could be a huge improvement over the 1095, which was introduced at 3000 euros (in 2001 I believe).

I also fail to encounter ANY article on the internet comparing both amps side-by-side, or even mentioning such-and-such improvements.

Seems to me ROTEL selected a pricepoint first (lowered, as compared to the 1095, probably because of economic woes), and then decided to produce an amplifier to match.

Any side by side comparison would be best at a dealer...