Rotel 1072: Deserving of product of the year?

Black sounds better, silver can be bright...

My attempt at humor if you will...

http://www.hifichoice.co.uk/review_read.asp?ID=2751
Read this over couple times the compare to;
http://www.hifichoice.co.uk/review_print.asp?ID=2093

My understanding is the new Rotel is an improvement on an established benchmark.Rotel mentions 60 parts changes and better testing ability further improving performance level mentioned in TAS review.Doesn't jive with HiFiChoice 1072 stuff?I know we are talking different places,players,people and points of view.But with wording like;Lift,bounce,real crack to percussion,energy to voice.They on one hand allude to Foward,bright?"brings the music to you rather than inviting you".Then rolled off?"All the ingredients but lack of imagination"or"Top orchestra with a dull conductor" Are they saying too clean? The close suggests preproduction samples proved superior. Are they saying they did a preproduction review on early unit? Why wouldn't the review offer more details then? I just found for me the TAS nailed it more.Unit is lively and extended,late at night our rural powergrid is clean and the sound emerges from blackness,instruments appears like fireworks blooming in a pitch black sky.1072 out of box was somewhat flat,foward,lean but after 40-60 hours(I don't stopwatch a break-in)about 2 dozen cd's played it just got really good in all areas. I have not run many HDCD's through it,but Ref Recordings Big Band Basie was ok.Playing James Taylor's"October Road"(not hdcd) gave me one of those, glad I got off the fence and bought this, just great.All the Patricia Barber discs starting with "Distortion of Love" sound atmospheric,I say that becuase HiFiC's review mentioned Lucinda Williams sounded foward,and spaciousness normally provoked by reverb(overdamped listening room?)For me the walls drop away when the recording has it. My set-up of Soliloquy 6.5's in 20x12(slight angled ceiling)errs to pushing image foward a tad.So far I would say for definite it is clean,quiet,musical,micro-dynamics real good,the big stuff may be held back some(stock cord still)I am getting great low-end but the Sol 6.5's show what the 1072's got down below,control is good but not overdamped.

My list of nits;
stock feet crud plastic(yank'em and use roller blocks~mine are diy but well made)BTW I only had it on stock feet 1st few hours.

No display dim or off~display in bright in darkened room.

Remote is very lightweight/cheap~works great though.

summing it up at $699 retail(actual $560plus tax regular audio store)you have to put this one on a audition list.

The Rotel 1072 that I heard (with Rotel receiver and Vandy 2Ce's) was very surprising for its price. I was struck by the amount of detail that it managed to present, as well as by the precise imaging. The most important thing about it, in my opinion, was the amount of emotion that it managed to convey with that amount of detail, something that I've rarely seen at the price point that I could actually afford. Definitely take a listen.

I thought that the silver looked pretty good, but I wonder why you say to "get the black"?

If you can look at both try to.If not,see if they have another Rotel~dvd or such player in black on display. Pictures of Silver finish caught my eye at first,in person I felt, black was nicer.