Are Rotel amps and preamps any good?

they are great for an affordabe system. I Started with some nice rotel stuff. good value and sound. You get what you pay for. A bit better than most of the stuff in the price point, not as good as some of the other.

Rotel have kept costs down with Chinese manufacture, some of their Power Amps are ok mid-fi products at reasonable cost. The Michi Power Amps were quite good. They generally have a tendency towards being bright. They lack the transparency, spaciousness, air and overall resolution, musicality and dynamics of higher end Power Amps. They have a pretty good rep. for reliability.

The Pre-Amps are best avoided IMO.

Initforthemusic, what did you find negative about Rotel preamps? I've read for years to avoid their Pre's. But I have never found out a reason why.

Is it sonics? Poor reliability?

I've generally found Rotel pre's to lack transparency and musical involvement.

I have a Rotel 971 pre, matched with Hafler 9180 and Thiel CS2's. No complaints. I am sure there are superior pre's out there but likely cost more than the $400 I paid many years ago.

I do a lot of research "drilling down" to find what I believe to the best ratio of value to performance. I hear plenty of transparency and musical involvement.