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Rotel RB + BX series amps

P

pierre

pfm Member
I know there are a lot of enthusiasts on this forum with a great culture of vintage equipment from the golden age of British hifi.

I listened to the Rotel RB 870 BX in a reference system, just for fun. That amplifier probably costed less than the three spikes under the preamp power supply! To the surprise of all the people present, it sounded great. A sound that today one would say coloured, but I would say musical and enjoyable. Not the last word in terms of transparency, but we are certainly talking about a performance not even remotely comparable to some sterile dead and boring amplifiers of modern production.

I tried to trace the timeline of Rotel's production but I didn't understand much about it. For example I noticed that there is the RB 870 but also the BX version. I understand that a lot of equipment produced without the "BX" then has a version with the "BX". Can anyone tell me what the real differences are?

Also, has anyone compared this amplifier with other equipment from the same period? Is there something even better in the production of this brand that I honestly know little about?
 
Rotel tended to use the "BX" to distinguish more capable models from the "AX" budget range IIRC, or to denote an upgrade during a production timeline

Models with an 8 are usually older (late eighties, early nineties?) compared to 9s (more mid nineties, like the RCD965BX, or the RA930AX - my first serious system).
 
The BX is usually a later souped up version. I had a Rotel 965BX4 CD player, it had a "Discrete Output Stage" that separated it from the earlier Rotel 965. Was it actually better? I don't know.
 
thanks a lot.... The 870 circuit seems so simple... I wonder if it would make sense to take one of those old cheap amp and put some serious components
 
pierre said:
thanks a lot.... The 870 circuit seems so simple... I wonder if it would make sense to take one of those old cheap amp and put some serious components
Click to expand...
If you can DIY, for sure. Localised voltage regulation, bigger reservoir capacitors, Schottky diodes on rectifiers, as examples.

They aren't so cheap though, most are £800+ as far as I can see.
 
I owned a Rotel RA935BX in the early 90's and to be honest I couldn't really say anything negative about it, given a decent source it performed well and no issues driving any speakers I tried, I would've listened to music at quite a loud volume back then.
In the early 00's I had a borrowed Rotel RCD965BX CD player for about 6 months, it was a great machine imho, once again hard to find any fault.
During this period and perhaps fore and aft I would say that Rotel is a pretty solid purchase performing well above their price range, I haven't listened to any of the older or more modern components but I see no reason why they shouldn't be competitive with other equipment.
 
Do a search for Rotel in the title and you’ll get a lot of reading material. I run a RB-981 and have no desire to change it
 
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