Are Rotel amps and preamps any good?

Cdc, a local stereo shop called Advanced Audio carried the Rotel line for a while. This means very little unless you understand that they normally carry the very best and the most expensive gear. Anyway I will repeat what someone said one time in the forums & I agree with it. "One mans bright sounding amplifier is another mans extended amplifier". I personally do not use a Rotel amp as my main amp but I'm looking to buy one soon again as an alternative. Keep in mind that all we are really trying to do is match up the amp to our particular speakers. It is good that people do have differences of opinions otherwise if we all liked the same things, the forums would be boring or non exsistant at all. Your opinion is appreciated.

I agree with CDC...I have never been that impressed with midfi Rotel gear...I heard a recent all ROtel setup and found the sound bright,thin,hard,fatiguing, with very little bass extension..I find comparably priced NAD gear to be far more musical albeit maybe less "accurate"...at any rate...this is just my .02...they also...like NAD...had some horrible past reliabilty issues...although these seemed to have been addressed...

Phasecorrect you could be right on some Rotel gear but like any other Mfgr, all given models manufactured at different times are not always equal in sonic performance. You shouldn't condem the whole Rotel line over one system you heard. The type of front end & speakers you have, will have a major impact on the final results. I built my system around my speakers as I think putting most of the money here is three quarters the battle.

I prefer NADs to Rotels. Like Phasecorrect said, I found Rotel's sound to be a little too thin and less musical. The NADs I have heard seemed a little more dynamic. NADS are cheaper. Additionally, I don't know if you need to spend 50% more to do better than Rotel. I went to a tube integrated that, for me, far outdid either a NAD or a Rotel setup. I've heard most of the NADs and Rotels because the shops where I live only carry these two products. Bummer!

PS. Don't get me wrong. Rotel products are great and if I didn't have what I have, I'd be happy to own a Rotel. I thought the RCD-1072 was a good fit with my tube integrated when I tried it (I know, this is the Amp forum). Who knows, maybe my speakers (axiom M60s) shape my opinions. I've only ever heard people describe Axioms as, at best, "neutral" and at worst, "bright".

My friend owns Northwest Audio Labs in Corvallis Oregon. He sold Rotel for many years. I owned Rotel power amps, pre amps, and CD players. He recently switched to NAD (many years back he switched from NAD to Rotel but that's another story) and I currently own an NAD C162 pre amp and C542 CD player. I have heard their integrated and power amps with many different speakers much as I have Rotel. They are both great products and great values. Rotel is built like a tank. Much heavier build quality than NAD. But whatever money is not going into heavy build quality for NAD must be going into sound. In my opinion the NAD pre amp sounds better than the Rotel, and I should know as I replaced my Rotel with my current NAD. Both are very musical and mate well with different equipment. The best way I can describe the difference is that I now enjoy all of my music regardless of the genre where before I was not satisfied with my Rotels ability to communicate every genre equally well. Another thing I noticed, and please don't laugh, is that the NAD had a different rhythm. My old funk cd's got my feets a movin'. So not only was my classical and jazz records making more sense so was my popular music given back the rhythm that made me like it to begin with. Anyway 'nuff said.