CES 2015

New Amps from Rotel

Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jan 16, 2015

Rotel previewed three new "best ever" models at CES. Although the passive display allowed for little more than photo and note taking, I learned that the brand new RC-1590 DAC/preamplifier ($1749), which ships in March, promises to be "the best stereo preamplifier Rotel has ever made." Features include a front USB port for iOS devices; rear USB for computers; a Bluetooth dongle; isolated transformers for both digital and analog boards; balanced input and outputs, albeit not a fully balanced design; digital, coax, and Toslink inputs; and the ability to set inputs to fixed and set maximum volume level.

The RB-1590 stereo amplifier ($2999) outputs 380Wpc into 8 ohms, and is their new flagship. Signal path is symmetrical for left and right channels, and inputs are single-ended and balanced. Also due in March, it was touted by B&W Group regional sales manager Marc Schnoll as "the best bang for the buck that our customer can possibly get."

I didn't spend much time with the RSP-1582 pre-pro ($3499), given that it's really not my area, and won't be out until May. Then again, even if I had spent time gathering info, I couldn't report on the sound. To be continued . . .

COMMENTS
Helder Rodrigues's picture
Submitted by Helder Rodrigues on April 14, 2016 - 4:56pm

I'm profoundly displeased and unsatisfied I am with certain features I have observed when attempting to connect a USB pen to the front panel of the Rotel RC-1590.
Imagine my surprise when I realised that the former could not be read!
Rather indignant at this fact, I went to get other USB pens with music files in their root directory, and once again, they could not be read, let alone played!
I then connected other storage devices, namely two iPod nanos, first an older model, then a second one, with a touch panel.
Once again a profound disapointnent, as I found that the remote control for the Rotel RC-1590 could not control the ipods (neither play, pause, forward nor back).

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