Tips for warming up Rotel + B&W system?

The Rotel 1072 is a hard/coarse/very-digital sounding CD Player. This Player has no warmth whatsoever. The Rotel Pre-Amps & Amps aren't quite so bad. I could not get Rotel electronics to sound good with either my N804s or N803s in a room with good acoustics. I did have good success with the top-of-the-line Marantz Players with the Rotel Pre-Amp & Amp. I finally spent the $$$ and bought the Krell SACD Standard + KAV-400xi and it was a hugh difference, completely transformed the B&W Speakers (detail/warmth/natural-sounding/bigger-deeper-soundstage, etc.).
The bottom-line is that regardless of what the Dealers tell you, B&W Speakers need good electronics, more so than most of their competitors. Krell, Classe, Mark Levinson, Musical Fidelity all work very-very-well with your Speakers and as you will see are worth the imvestment.

I've heard Rotel + B&W combos many times as they always seem to be on display together. I'd say they are a good match since the aggressive tweeter is tempered somewhat by Rotel's laid back approach. It's not your gear! The thing is the room where you audtioned was sound treated and probably didn't have any large reflective surfaces like windows or hard wood floors. You need to absorb some of those high frequency reflections which give B&W's a bit too much sizzle. Rugs are a must as are drapes which can be used to cover an entire window. If the room is solely dedicated to audio and not esthetic I'd go with actual sound proofing gear. This is usually not an option though given the price and look of some of these items. The easier/cheaper approch might be to swap out the B&W's for something with a soft dome tweeter.

I tried upgrading power cords and speaker wire. Sound is now somewhat warmer and fuller but still emotionally uninvolving. Dr. Lou, I haven't heard anyone describe the 1072 as you have. It was the first piece of upgraded gear I added to my old Nakamichi RE-1 and B&W P5 setup, and it was definitely a very musical addition to my ears-- certainly not hard or coarse. So, I tend to believe, that for my ears, at least, that's not where the problem likely resides. I'm going to try some different, more powerful amps. When I listen to the Rotel amp and cd player through Grados, the sound is still on the chilly side for me, which would seem to suggest the amp is contributing the coolness. Thanks for all the suggestions!

What you have described "sounds cold, dry, sterile, with harsh highs" in most systems can usually be traced back to the Digital Source Component. Most buyers of $700 CD Players have never heard a state-of-the-art Digital Source Component in their system and therefore look to blame other components that they are more familier with.

Most good Amplifiers sound more-or-less the same, if their power is rated the same and their cost is comparable, then they will sound within a shade-of-gray to one another. Now I'm not saying that 200wpc of Rotel will sound like 200wpc of Krell, but you get the point.

There is nothing wrong with your Speakers. The B&W 703 is widely accepted as being a very neutral, easy to place and nice sounding Speaker that performs quite a bit ahead of its price.

The 703s driven by 200wpc Rotel, Parasound, B&K, etc. (good Mid-Fi Amps) with a very good, smooth, easy on the ears but still detailed front end (not just good-for-the- money) from say Krell, Classe, Musical Fidelity, Mark Levinson, Ref. Marantz, Ref. Sony, etc. partner with some good inexpensive (generic cooper/silver blend) Cables and you will hear what I'm taking about.

What your listening to when you play your system is the Source Component PERIOD. This is the only component in your system that is tasked with making music. Your Source IS your System.

A truly reference quaility Source Component will maximize the performance of all other components that come after it.

This is the only golden rule to Hi-Fi, learn it, live it and all the frustation that you are feeling will melt away...

So there you have it - it's probably your room, interconnects, amp, source, and speakers. If you replace those, you are on your way to audio heaven. Of course, that's what most of us are doing, it is just a matter of optizing order and priority around a budget constraint. Although I agree with Dr. Lou, I believe based on my observations that your situation would dictate starting at the other end of the audio delivery chain.