Rotel RA-12 Amp Anyone?

I dont find the B&W 685 Rotel RA 12 to be bass light, thin or too bright. The Rotel is brighter than the Marantz but I'd say that's because the Rotel is more open in the upper frequencies, not in an aggresive way though. I found the Marantz to be a good listen but a bit to smooth and after having the Rotel for a couple of months I would not go back to the Marantz.

The Rotel just has more muscle than the Marantz a bolder sound all round and much better for low level listening something the Marantz was poor at even with the loudness function.

Thanks for your reply.

Actually, yesterday I got a second hand Marantz PM 7004 (only 1 month old) for a very good price.

Its rated 70 w instead of the weaker pm 6004s 45 w.

I will, soon in the future take the rotel ra-12 home from the shop an test it against my new Marantz. But I have to tell you, that it sounds really great. It feels that my B&W 685 get enough of power with the pm 7004.

Its a very warm sound with alot of bass and the treble is soft and not tough on the ears at all, also very open and airy.

I could truly live with this amp. But Im too curious not to test the new rotel for comparison

Has anyone else bought this amp?  Nice to see that it's baby brother the RA-10 got a good review in WHF, I wonder if the RA-12 will get reviewed soon?  I'm waiting for my Christmas bonus to see whether or not I go to demo or buy it!

I auditioned it against Audiolab M-Dac and a power amp for use as a dac for my sonos system

Rotel Dac way better than the Sonos and its amp was very good too much more detail and better soundstage not too cold or too warm quite neutral but plenty of detail.

I then listened to the Audiolab M-Dac and seperate pwer amp and for me that was even better still but obviously more money. I went for the Audiolab and bought a power amp of Flea Bay ( Musical Fidelity) 

I wonder if anyone has thought the same thing as me. Here's the dilema;

I want to pair a new amp with a Sonos system which gives maximum output quality of16 bit 44.1 khz (ie CD quality) if fed lossless such as Apple Lossless from itunes - (sonos does not support FLAC). So I have been reading that the Rotel RA-12 has a 24bit/192khz DAC, so does this mean that if I feed it a sonos digital PCM signal via the optical or coaxial input, it will upscale the signal to produce a better quality sound akin to if I were feeding the Rotel 24/192 HD audio which you can download from the likes of HDTracks.com. Will this be similar to the actual 24/192?

This upscaling approach is professed by the Cambridge Audio DAC MAGIC  100 whose instructions say that a 44.1/16 signal can be upscaled to 24/192 to give an improved sound. 

Alternatively can the Rotel take 24/192 via an ipod or USB device connected to the front USB slot. The instructions say it can only take an ipod and I am guessing it is only really meant to detect apple converted music on the ipod as opposed to taking lossless 24/192 files on a usb hard drive, so an ipod wont be a solution to getting these higher quality files on the system locally without PC being near by. I doubt it can take a usb hard drive.

The DAC MAGIC can only be connected to a PC and not a hard drive so is there anyway around the problem to get this HD music into a Hi fi system locally (without PC near hi-fi) for future proofing without spending a fortune. Will a Rotel assuming it has this upscaling capability be a good enough solution for now or alternatively how about buying a good 'normal' amp with a the Cambridge Audo DAC. I am not sure if only really high end hi fi's like the Linn HD streaming systems can get this HD music, and then the sound is probably in a different price bracket anyway so perhaps not much point, but I suspect my Tannoy's DC-6T's are good enough to hear the difference between HD CD and CD quality sound!!??

Thanks for all the good info so far. Will the RA-11 be good enough to drive the Monitor Audio BX6's or should I go for the RA12. What would I lose if pairing with ra11 instead? 

Also any news yet if these amps will ever support flac over USB?

sorry my english is bad!

Rotel ra12 sound=Rotel ra 04 se sound?please help!Rotel ra12 have traditional Rotel sound?

anyone help me?! 

Can't advise as to "Rotel ra12 sound=Rotel ra 04 se sound?"  But can say that IMHO the new Rotelas (I have an RA-11) have the traditional Rotel sound (I had an BX-840 previously...and I loved it hence why I went for Rotel again).

Hope that helps?

Regards

Balders

yes!thank you Baldrick1!i love traditional Rotel sound 

It is as good as the Brio-R, but has more features, so it is a better value than the Rega. It does sound quite large and sound seems to spread across the room with great clarity and control. The only thing it is missing is the deepest bass. Other than that, great amp for the money. 

wtf?!traditional Rotel sound=sound  RA-12=Rega Brio-R sound?!

very bad!

Rega Brio-R have different sound vs traditional Rotel sound!(vs 04-05-06)

csq2 you failed joke?!

Hi guys,

FYI there is an RA-12 in the building and we'll be reviewing it in the March issue of the mag, out Feb 13th...

congratulation me!i have rotel ra-12 

its superb sound!Beatiful wonderful and traditional Rotel sound!im happy! Rotel the best!i love Rotel!

Hi Andy

Thanks for the heads up.  Although I have already bought an RA-11 (the little brother but oh so musically sweet in my humble opinion) I will read the review with interest.  I suspect that the -11 & -12 are somewhat similar in a number of areas, so that should be revealing..and also suspect that after testing the -10 & -12 there will be no test for the -11.

Also, congrats to you khas...enjoy...as I am sure that you will.

Regards

Balders