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  2 out of 2 members found this review helpful

  Christos_Black

  2024-11-23
  This review is about a variation of the product

  Purchased from a well-known HiFi store in Athens. Combined with Wharfedale Diamond 8.2 speakers (admittedly of moderate performance). After 5 months, I upgraded the speakers to Magnat Signature 503. Around that time, I started to hear an annoying hiss on all the analog outputs. It turned out that it wasn't a power, connection, or source issue. It was sent to the representative for inspection and it was found to be functioning normally. I decided to email Rotel and received the following response:

  Also note the Rotel products are engineered with hardware gain in the preamp stage to reduce the need for positive gain in the analog volume encoder. We find this solution provides reduced noise introduced when the audio is playing without having to 'boost' the level in the volume chipset and instead lift the level fully in the analog circuits. Most, if any noise, would also be found at higher volume levels especially with unused connections as a slight 'hiss' through the mid and HF drivers in the speakers when there is no audio.

  You may find this different with other brands that do not use pre-amp hardware gain and instead put all of the volume lift in only the volume circuit IC (analog or digital). But for Rotel our design for recent generations and history models find the gain better for performance before the volume controller.

  In short, this is their design. It is a mediocre device in this price category (which is not small!).

  I also found that for the Rotel A14 MKII, some changes have been made that explain some things...

  In addition to the new circuitry required to support the new DAC, Rotel also took the opportunity to revisit the output filters and the design of the power supply, whose circuitry now resembles the topology used in Rotel’s ‘Tribute’ amplifiers.

  Finally, it is important to know that the manufacturing plant is located in China... with all that this implies regarding quality.

  Translated from Greek · Show original

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