Stuartk, First, let me make clear of one thing :I am not into bashing any products. I am looking for a product or products that produce sound as human as it can be. Now, some listeners do like bright ( transpatent term use by reviewers), some will like warm and little syrupy sound. Take it to another step, let talk about the soundstage. Some products will produce a huge and wide open but up-front soundtage. Some others will produce a deep per image ( again the term holographic often used by reviewers). The Rotel sound is like it or not, bright and harsh at the top end. It is engineered that way to produce the dymanic and a sense of having plenty of headroom. I have played with Rotel gears some 20 years ago and sold it to pawn shop since it did not know about Audiogon web-site to replace by Parasound pre/amp. Keeping the same pairs of speakers and the bright, offensive high disapeared. Is Parasound better than Rotel? I cannot answer that question without open a can of worms. All I can tell you is that, I re-visit the Rotel gears recently with the RDC 1072 and RA1060 but I have listed them for sale after a few weeks. My advise to you is to savage what you can and move on. Don't spend too much money on IC, PCs or Speaker cables with the Rotels,the sound will alter only at minimum. Remember, every hifi company has their own signature sound : Classe is warm but laid back, Krell is tight and punchy, Parasound is warm but a little grainy in the mid-range, Brighton is clean and bright....been there, done that for some 30 years, from mid-fi to ultra hi-end...none of them sound the same. I was trying to set up a small system with the Rotel for my bedroom and move my Krell gears to the den. I tried to going cheap route and I made the same mistake again by trying to cut the corner. Please read the reviews from Soundstage equipment reviews and Soundgood archive reviews and read carefully when you find the words : bright/ harsh/ sounstage forwarding...It is what it is . Cut your loss and learn a lesson that : when audition the gears bring your worst CDs and your best CDs. I myself find the brightness/ harshness is offensive and irritated. Do you ?
