Friday, September 4, 2009

Rotel RC-870 Preamplifier




I'm usually an integrated amplifier and receiver kind of guy, but I just got this back from a long vacation (my fantastic tech guy was away for all of July, and I was lazy for most of August). This preamp (which I've used with the Nikko Alpha 130 and power amp section of The Sansui 8080 and Marantz 2252), along with last weekend's Marantz 3300 preamp (which I listened to with the same three amps), is opening my eyes to the (slightly?) higher end of this vintage stuff. I will edit this soon to say it better (I hope), but the Rotel, with it's minimalist signal path and high end quality components and construction (designed in Britain, made in Japan) and the Marantz, considered by many who know way better than me to be the second best transistor preamp the company ever made, give (add?) great musical joy. I have used it with the AR Turntable, which right now has a pretty average but acceptable Audio Technica cartridge, and it sounds very good. This preamp has a moving coil input as well as moving magnet, both with gold plated input jacks. It's heavy, but almost empty inside, what's there being of the highest quality. The the conrols on the front panel connect by long shafts to the back of the preamp, to keep signal paths as short as possible. My tech guy swooned when he opened it up.

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3 comments:

  1. don't spenceApril 5, 2012 at 3:44 PM

    I've got a Rotel control Amp RC-870BX and Rotel Power amp RB-890 that have been very good to me, but recently one of the channels blew...at least I think that's what's happened. Are these worth repairing? I say yes, but I'm getting a different point of view from several sources.

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  2. poprhetorMay 4, 2012 at 6:55 PM

    I have an RC-980 with two RB-980BX amps. I've been totally satisfied. I'd definitely get your amp checked out for repair. It might be a simple fix. It would be a shame to trash a perfectly serviceable piece of quality electronics. But if you're itching to upgrade anyway . . .

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  3. SmilerJune 12, 2017 at 11:41 AM

    I also have one of these. I use it to control 2x ITL MA100 power amps which in turn drive my IMF Transmission Line 'studio' monitors. Awesome sound but now due to unforseen circumstances I am trying to find a buyer for this system.

    Thanks in advance for any help or info.

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