Rotel ra-1062 upgrade

[denontillidie]

 

[denontillidie]

Hi,

I currently have a RA-1062 amp running a pair of B&W 683 speakers with a denon 2012 universal player as my deck.

I have recently come into some money and am looking to upgrade my amp to something nicer.

I have looked at the marantz pm15se amp and the roksan caspian m2 amp.

I am open to suggestions and some good advice, as i have plently of good shops round here, but short of time due to a young family.

Cheers,

Rob Owen

 

[Frank Harvey]

The RA1062 is a capable amplifier - I'd be looking to upgrade the speakers. You could look at the B&W CM series, ProAc, KEF's R series, Monitor Audio's GX series, or PMC's Twenty series.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hi,

I currently have a RA-1062 amp running a pair of B&W 683 speakers with a denon 2012 universal player as my deck.

I have recently come into some money and am looking to upgrade my amp to something nicer.

I have looked at the marantz pm15se amp and the roksan caspian m2 amp.

I am open to suggestions and some good advice, as i have plently of good shops round here, but short of time due to a young family.

Cheers,

Rob Owen

Hi Rob

I know Marantz produced a PM15 however i am not aware of a PM15SE. Is/was the PM15SE an amplifier for the UK or other markets?

How would you describe the performance of your current system?

What genre of music would you say that you generally listen to?

Is your preference for an integrated amplifier, pre/power or either?

Is there anything in particular you would like the new amplifier to have (such as remote, tone controls, mp3 input, headphone socket, phono input etc.)?

The size of your room?

Your listening distance?

Your general listening level?

Interconnects and speakers cables?

Your maximum budget for an upgrade?

Any specific areas of performance you are looking to improve upon?

Btw, are you also happy to consider used/discontinued components?

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[plastic penguin]

Hi,

I currently have a RA-1062 amp running a pair of B&W 683 speakers with a denon 2012 universal player as my deck.

I have recently come into some money and am looking to upgrade my amp to something nicer.

I have looked at the marantz pm15se amp and the roksan caspian m2 amp.

I am open to suggestions and some good advice, as i have plently of good shops round here, but short of time due to a young family.

Cheers,

Rob Owen

Could you expand on looking for something "nicer". The Rotel is a capable amp, and just maybe some PMC GB1is would do the trick.

I would definitely audition a few amps and speakers and see whether they 'hit the spot', or, perhaps, look elsewhere to gain the boost.

Few suggestions: Creek Evo2, Rotel RA-1520, Arcam A38, Leema Pulse or Naim Nait. Speakers, I'd look at Epos, MAs, Focal, Rega and perhaps Totem Arros.

 

[denontillidie]

some nice ideas here. I mainly listen to classical and jazz, some electronica and prog rock. I have a medium to large front room and the speakers are 3m away from me and 2.5 m apart, also well away from the walls.

I am looking to do something, as the system overall sounds a little forced at times and a bit rough around the edges, plenty of power but not a lot of refinement (a bit like a 6ohm system).

If you think that my amp is tasty (cheers lol), then maybe the speakers could do with a upgrade. I heard some CM9's in yodobashi in tokyo recently, and they were gorguous. But they did not have any rotel amps, and had them running through the afore mentioned marantz. but i have no idea if the cm9's would work well with my amp.

I also have chord silverscreen cable running in biwire, if that is any help

Cheers

 

[plastic penguin]

Rotel and B&W is usually a great match, but if room acoustics are less than ideal i.e reflective room they could become a little harsh, given they have hard domed tweeters. This is why I mentioned PMCs: Fabulous speakers and have a soft tweeter which can result in a crisper, refined sound.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

some nice ideas here. I mainly listen to classical and jazz, some electronica and prog rock. I have a medium to large front room and the speakers are 3m away from me and 2.5 m apart, also well away from the walls.

I am looking to do something, as the system overall sounds a little forced at times and a bit rough around the edges, plenty of power but not a lot of refinement (a bit like a 6ohm system).

If you think that my amp is tasty (cheers lol), then maybe the speakers could do with a upgrade. I heard some CM9's in yodobashi in tokyo recently, and they were gorguous. But they did not have any rotel amps, and had them running through the afore mentioned marantz. but i have no idea if the cm9's would work well with my amp.

I also have chord silverscreen cable running in biwire, if that is any help

Cheers

Hi Rob

Thanks for your reply.

Replacing the RA-1062 with the M2 will give you a more refined presentation however i also believe that you'll miss the RA-1062's punchy, dynamic and powerful sound particaularly with electronica and rock music. I think that you should also consider Naim's Nait XS amplifier as the Nait XS is likely to offer a more balanced presentation for the genre of music that you listen to.

Btw, the RA-1062 is a superb amplifier and one which i feel is Rotel's finest overall performing amplifier of the last decade. CM9's should also work well with the RA-1062 (part of the same family) and certainly offer a worthwhile upgrade in practically every area over the 683's. As an alternative Proac's D18's are also worth a look. D18's don't have quite have the depth or the attack of the CM9's however D18's are more subtle, faster, tighter and with even greater coherence. Ultimately though CM9's and D18's will benefit from even higher quality of amplification however in the meantime with the RA-1062 you got an excellent starting point.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[denontillidie]

I am off to audition a set of spendor a6's and some pmc twenty 23's tommorow. Dont ask how i found them, but I did.

lets see how they deal with the end of ommadawn part 1 :rockout:

 

[denontillidie]

Well, the pmc twenty 23's buried the spendor a6's.

now i have the dilemma of weather £2100 is excessive

 

[Thompsonuxb]

£2100!....£2100!!..... by this time next year they'll be half that price, wait till they're due to be replaced then go hunting....£2100!!!....madness.

 

[denontillidie]

wise words.

after coming to my senses and eliminating cost over benefit. I would agree. tis a lot of money.

 

[denontillidie]

i have had a think, and have made a couple of phone calls to rotel tech support.

The conclusion is that I A) get a bigger amp to match my speakers, or B) get some smaller speakers to match my amp.

I have looked at the smaller speaker option before, and it was not good. The 684's are nice but they are not a patch on the 683's. MA's etc did not interest me.

Having heard the PMC twenty 23 speakers, I have now heard the full potential of my source and amp combo, and I am happy with the sound of rotel.

The options I have are to either go out and splash out £1200 on a rotel pre/power amp combo OR get a suitable power amp to run from the pre-outs on my ra-1062 amp.

Does anybody here have any experience with using the pre-outs of integrated amps to run power amps? and would a RB 1070 power amp be a good match?

BTW, i am not a troll, I am a tight fisted engineer

Cheers

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hi denontillide

Yes, i've also used the RA-1062 as a pre amplifier with the RB-1070 power amplifier. No compatibility issues and a good match.

Btw, if your budget allows then Rotel's Michi RHB-10 :twisted: is also worth considering.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[denontillidie]

rotel rb 1070 purchased and waiting delivery.

Thanks all, should sound nice

 

[Anonymous]

Where are you cos Fanthorpe's have an ex demo pair of twenty 23s going for a great price (£1400)