Are Rotel amps and preamps any good?

I have owned Rotel equipment myself, and after much research and listening, I thought it was the best bang for the buck. You can get into multi-channel for about 1 grand, or 2 channel stereo for approx 600 bucks, for what you are paying you get some nice goods. It is also of my opinion that Rotel will out perform other companies mentioned in this chain, and they are superior to Outlaw (got in a huge fight with a buddy as to what sounded better)

In the instances where I called Rotel service, they were very accomodating and friendly.

I am still using these rotel components and I would put them up against 95% of the current high end gear!
Joseph Chow feels the RHA10 tuner is in the top 10 ever built, top 5 with his mods. I also use 2 1080 200 WPC amps for my surround speakers. For the $$ they are hard to beat.

RHB10 200W 1993-1995 $2700 amplifier
RHT10 16 pre-sets 1993-1995 $1499 preamp
RHA10 1993-1995 $1800 tuner Modified by;
Joseph Chow
c/o Component Plus, USA
11713 New Albion Dr.
Gold River, CA 95670

In the RIGHT application they can make beautiful music. In particular, I'm familiar with two systems that feature Rotel integrated amplifiers feeding Vandersteen 1C and and 2Ce speakers that serve all recorded music extremely well. However, I've also heard a less than satisfactory pairing of Rotel separates of the same vintage with a pair of
Thiel CS2.2s. I don't think there is anything wrong with either component, but the combination was not very pleasing. The lesson for me was that blanket statements regarding the performance of any brand or model of equipment should be regarded with healthy skepticism. Try before you buy!

I still own a mac mc252 which is beautiful to behold but pales in comparison to my RB1090, and previously auditioned RB 1080. The preamp I use is also the 1090(forgot the letters). The 1090's offer excellent sonic performance and in my mind give up only to the vacum tube equipment as far as sonics go, of course and obviously there is a sacrifice as far as power is concerned. So the match up is not a fair one. It clearly eclipses the NAD and lower powered Macs. I think for the money and sonically they stand up on their own to many comparisons and are nothing to be ashamed of. Terrific stuff...good luck and enjoy.

funny you bring up the thiels 2.2
i originally powered the thiels 2.2s with the mc252 and was terribly disappointed...but when i tried the 1080 and subsequently upgraded to the 1090 things were considerably different. the rotel handled the very difficult speaker considerably better and brought them to life. since then i use the rotel to power a set of usher dancers which makes wonderful music