Rotel A14 MkII Integrated Amplifier Preview

Up until now, one product line has always captured my imagination while escaping my reach – Rotel.

I’ve seen their amps online and talked about in publications and forums. But I’ve never gotten a chance to get my hands on one much less listen to it. That all changes now.

I’m over the moon happy to give the new Rotel A14 MkII Integrated Amplifier a thorough listening to. Recently, Rotel announced acoustic and performance upgrades to three of their award-winning integrated amplifier models: the A14 MkII, RA-1572 MkII, and RA-1592 MkII. They include circuit design innovations and component-level changes in key circuit locations, leveraging the design elements from the acclaimed Michi Series.

The A14 MkII is the flagship integrated amplifier model in Rotel’s 14 Series. It also builds upon the successful and award-winning A14. The upgrades include a new Texas Instruments DAC supporting 32-bit, 384kHz audio complemented by 25 component changes in the DAC output filters. Power supply component changes were also implemented leveraging design strategies from Rotel’s Tribute models. Additional circuit changes in the signal path circuits provide a richer and fuller audio performance with an even more lifelike reproduction of the audio.

The A14 MkII boasts 80 watts per channel of Class AB amplification into 8 ohms and 150 watts into 4 ohms. It has connections galore: five analog, four digital, USB with MQA decoding and rendering, aptX, AAC Bluetooth for wireless streaming, a network input, a front panel headphone socket, USB charging, and a moving-magnet phono stage! It also features Ethernet and RS-232 connections for control system integration, IR remote, dimmable front panel status display, intelligent power control, Audio-Direct Tone Bypass mode, and dual A/B five-way speaker binding posts which allow for zone 2 installations. Oh, and it’s Roon certified if that wasn’t somehow enough. All of this is stuffed into a rather slim body.

And it’s available in silver or black. I prefer silver and fortunately, that’s what mine arrived in. Do all the upgrades and features add up to an amazing product? Man, I sure hope so. I’ve been waiting forever to get a listen to anything Rotel and I’m super excited to listen to the A14 MkII Integrated Amplifier!

Taps Das

Hailing from Toronto, Canada, Taps Das is an art director and designer with over 15 years of experience. He has way too many hobbies: Illustration, Music Production, cooking, DJ-ing, and Hifi. His adolescence was spent immersed in DJ culture in Toronto’s then-burgeoning club scene. He still buys vinyl to this day preferring it as his medium of choice when listening to music. He is happiest when he’s tucked inside his studio spinning vinyl on his turntables, sitting at his desk drawing or in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Taps shares his home with his wife, two hooligan kids, and lovable fat dog Homie.