caphill
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Marantz SR7011 vs Rotel RAP-1580
Rtem
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It's funny, I had the exact opposite experience between Marantz and Rotel.

Somewhat on a more level playing field, I compared a Rotel that was roughly the same price as the Marantz. I bought a Rotel RSX 1550 (which was about $2K) and compared it head to head against a Marantz 7011 (which was about $2K) and I thought the Marantz sounded better in every single way. Especially for movies. I couldn't stand the sounds coming out of the Rotel, as they sounded deficient to me. While it was very clear, the Rotel clearly favored the high end, and, to my ear, at the expense of the low end. There was a perceptible lack of bass coming out of the Rotel.

My Rotel also weighed almost 50 lbs and was very well reviewed on the internet. I hooked it up to some ELAC Unifi speakers, which also were very well reviewed. It was a clear, but favoring treble sound of the Rotel, coming along with the German signature of the ELACs. After reading all of these great things about Rotel, I could not believe my ears, so very dissappointing. I had also heard the Rotel on a pair of B&Ws that my friend brought over to make sure it wasn't just my speakers, but the sound was the same, very clear treble and (much better) midrange on the B&Ws, but the bass was noticeably light.

Finally, and most importantly, the Rotel failed when I needed it most. I then hooked up the 5 ELAC speakers (centers, bookshelf surrounds, etc.) all of which were 4 ohm. When I bought those speakers, I was assured (and believed, based on the Rotel name) that the "high quality" components and amps in the Rotel would power those speakers. Well, they didn't. The Rotel went into protect mode (which I didn't realize at the time), and I pressed the power button and the receiver made a sound and smoke came out of the top. I had a 30 year old vintage Harman Kardon that wouldn't fail like that out of protect mode, it would just not turn on until it was ready to do so. Couldn't Rotel have put a $1 switch like that in their $2K receiver? The Marantz is 4 ohm stable and handled the speakers with ease. Needless to say, the Rotel doesn't work any more. So much for "high quality."

I returned the ELACs (for reasons unrelated to the receiver), and I kept the Marantz 7011, which is not only rated stable for 4 ohm speakers on all channels, but also sounded much better to me, about as clear as the Rotel, but somehow also richer and fuller. I still have the burned out Rotel RSX 1550 if anyone is interested (by the way, I did call Rotel and they were not particularly helpful as the unit was out of warranty).

I'm happy you and your cousin like your Rotel and the sound that it produces. However, saying something is "better" when it comes to matters of personal opinion, is logically unsupportable, it just sounds like you are trying to justify your purchase in view of market shares of various products that indicate many people may feel to the contrary. It is akin to trying to prove vanilla ice cream is better than chocolate.

What really matters such is what sounds better to you, to me it was the Marantz, and it was not even close.

caphill
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Joined: Aug 18 2015 - 12:07am

First of all, the Rotel RSX-1550 was an old model receiver. Came out 10 years ago. Plus the RSX-1550 was their entry level line receiver. And the Marantz SR-7011 was last year model. You cannot compare 10 year old receiver with a current model. The digital processings, DAC etc in the newer models perform way better than a 10 year old receiver. It is a digital AV gears we're talking about here. Digital equipments evolve over time and simply keeps getting better each time. You will have to compare a current model Marantz receiver to a current model Rotel receiver. The latest offering receiver from Rotel will be the RAP-1580 and is also their flagship line, whereas the SR7011/7012 are Marantz's flagship line receiver.

If you compare the RAP-1580 vs the SR7011/7012 would be more valid comparison as the two models are somewhat current.
FYI, this was my cousin's receiver, not mine. I don't have any Rotel products in my home theater setup. I am using all Classe Delta series AV separate gears (Classe SSP 800 preamp processor with bunch of Classe Delta series monoblock amps and multi-channel amps combined).

However, my buddy, who is a reviewer for Soundstageaultra.com, had a Rotel RMB-1585 five-channel power amp in his home theater setup. He was using Rockport Atria speakers (front) with a power hungry Dynaudio center speaker with some B&W on-wall surround speakers. FYI, his Rockport Atria front speakers are $25k worth of speakers and demand high quality amplifications from a power amplifier and his Rotel RMB-1585 multi-channel power amp were up to the task and he said he could never get the amp to clip no matter how hard he drove it and punished it. He tried to max out of his amp but never got it to clip. He normally used the Rotel RMB-1585 amp to power his power hungry center speaker and surround speakers and he has a pair of Simaudio Evolution monoblock amps to power his front Rockport Atria speakers. But one time he hooked up his Rotel RMB-1585 amp to drive all speakers, including his front Rockport Atria speakers for about a week just to test it out and he said the Rotel RMB-1585 amp is a beast and was very musical and had a buttom end grunt that you would never expect from a $3k worth of a five-channel amp. Rated at 200 wpc into 8 ohms and around 375 wpc into 4 ohms and was stable down to 2 ohms. He said this amp can drive just about any power hungry speakers out there.

FYI, newer Rotel amps especially their higher end models like the RMB-1585, RB-1590, RB-1582 Mkii have very different sound profiles than older Rotel amps. Their newer amps have a fluid warm characteristics with solid heavy yet controlled buttom end grunt and the new Rotel amps are very quiet (quite noise floor) much quieter than Rotel older amps. Their newer amps perform way better than their older models. I think that might also applies to the built-in amplifiers in their new receiver like the one in the RAP-1580.

I know the RAP-1580 retails for almost double the Marantz SR-7011 so it is expected to perform and sound better. However, Rotel AV receivers and AV preamp processor have issues with their hdmi switching board and are very buggy and I always told people to avoid buying Rotel AV receivers and AV preamp processor because of that. Apparently Rotel still does not fix the issue with their new RAP-1580 receiver which is very unacceptable IMO. That's why Rotel AV gears don't sell well. Just avoid Rotel AV gears at all cost. NAD AV gears are the same way. They are buggy and have issues with their hdmi switching boards.
But Rotel stereo gears, stereo integrated amps, stereo preamps, power amps (stereo & multi-channel) are awesome. They sound very musical and perform excellent and never had issues. Especially their amps perform very good for the money and even other amps that cost twice as the Rotel amps aren't necessarily better.

So my cousin who bought the new Rotel RAP-1580 receiver last year in May he started noticing the glitch with the hdmi switching boards and he's thinking to sell it and get something else probably the Arcam AVR860.

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