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Jim Milton
Rotel has been producing fine audiophile equipment since 1961 and is known for using some premium capacitors, transistors, diode bridges, and custom toroidal power supplies to get the best sound for music and movies.
The RB 1590 is an A/B stereo power amplifier that uses twin custom-designed toroidal transformers, regulated by high-quality, British-made capacitors. On the back, there are balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA inputs, plus two pairs of 5-way speaker binding posts. You can use this amp to power the mains in a home theater system or enjoy its sound for a killer stereo system. Each channel is stable into 4 ohms and delivers 350 watts/channel into 8 Ohms at 0.03% THD. I am impressed with the uncluttered industrial silver look and build of this amp and struggled to carry it up my flight of stairs as it weighs in at 84 lbs. This thing is built!
The RC 1590MKII is the new version of their well-received stereo preamp that was designed with plenty of digital and analog inputs. There are 4 unbalanced RCA stereo inputs, with a dedicated input for turntables, balanced XLR inputs/outputs, 3 optical and 3 coaxial inputs, both USB A and B inputs (PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz resolution and DSD up to 5.6MHz). Included is a well-laid-out remote. My initial listening session with this pairing is quite favorable. Dr. John Johnson has already performed some bench tests on the RC 1590MKII, and his input will be included in my upcoming full review. Look for it here soon.