Rotel

[Driller]

Hi folks,

Gonna upgrade my hifi equipment now,

thinking of an Rotel RA 10 and Q acoustics 2010i, and connect an Apple AirPort Express so i can stream the music from my iPad.

what do you think about this set up? Any other sugestions?

 

[davedotco]

Will work absolutely fine, though as always it is very worthwhile auditioning the pairing to check that it suits you.

If you have a little more to spend, repace the AEX with the more versitile ATV, you will need a dac though, so maybe get an amp with one built in, a Yamaha AS501 for example or a Rn500 with even greater functionality, including Airplay built right in.

There are literally millions of options, if you can try a few, it really helps.

 

[Driller]

Why would you use the ATV instead of the AEX?

 

[davedotco]

Two reasons, the digital output is better than the output on the AEX which is jitter prone and will not lock to some external dacs and in it is a more spphisticated device running a version of iOS8. It is expected that the ATV will have native support for the Apple/Beats streaming service expected on the next few months.

Of course if yo have no plans to use an external dac or use the streaming service, it matters not. Which really brings us to the point, there are hundreds of ways you can stream from your iThing and depending on what your priorities are, some methods will be better than others.

In this case you have gone for a fairly purist hi-fi approach, stripped down amplifier fed by the AEX and good small speakers. You are therefore totally commited to Airplay which is fine as far as it goes, if that is all you need and want then that setup will be excellent.

You may wish to do other things though, access streaming solutions, set up your own music library or upgrade in terms of sound quality other solutions may be more flexible.

For an ultra high performance in an even more stripped down package you can run the AEX directly into high performance active speakers, Yamahas HS8s have fantastic room filling capability for their £400 price tag, whilst the smaller Equator D5 offer outstanding perfoemance for relatively near field use, both outstanding performers.

At the other end of the scale, the Yamaha Rn500 offers all the functionality you might need, built in dac, Airplay, network streaming, Spotify Connect, digital radio and the rest, still within budget too.

As I said it really depends on what you think your requirements and priorities are, it is all up to you.

 

[Driller]

Thanks for the answers.

You have a good point there.

Have been looking at several amplifers, NAD 326, NAD D3020, denon, marantz etc, but must say that i love the Rotel sound. When it comes to streaming, i am also considering either sonos, heos, or bluesound instead of APX. That will give an opertunity to stream from Apple and android devices.

well, there are many opertunitys out there, not really sure what i should choose...

 

[davedotco]

Thanks for the answers.

You have a good point there.

Have been looking at several amplifers, NAD 326, NAD D3020, denon, marantz etc, but must say that i love the Rotel sound. When it comes to streaming, i am also considering either sonos, heos, or bluesound instead of APX. That will give an opertunity to stream from Apple and android devices.

well, there are many opertunitys out there, not really sure what i should choose...

Well, this is the trick......*unknw*

Working out what is important to you is difficult but ia what you need to do, you like Rotel electronics which is fair enough but their budget models are more expensive than most. The RA11, more or less a RA10 with digital inputs is £499, roughly twice as much as the similarly equiped PM6005.

If you want to stream via a network then none of these models are network capable, neither do they have built in Airplay, which is available on similar models elsewhere. Once you sort out the functionality you can look at sound quality issues, if you can I would suggest going up from the 2010i to the 2020i or Zenzor 1, better speakers for not a lot more money.