Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Rotel Amps

Anyone have a good source with a good price on the 5 channel, 200 Watt/ channel, Rotel 1095 amp?

Starting to look rather seriously, but probably won't buy for another couple of months.

Rotel only offers their products in B and M stores. There is no online place I know of to by new Rotel products. You could try Audiogon for used amps.

Thanks Wid. I wasn't sure that was the case.

I was lokking at the 1095 on Audiogen but they are all listed between 1300.00 and 1795.00. Blue book lists avg. used cost at 1370.00 with a low of 1010.00

Audiogon is still your best bet. The 1095 shows up quite often. You can also cut deals. Just because $1300 is the asking price, doesn't mean they won't sell it for less. Check everyday. You never know when someone will post one for a really good price. When that happens, it'll be gone the same day.

Thanks!

I am a little reluctant to buy used/ refurbished gear of any sort. The "last straw" was a refurb Toshiba laptop that I had all sorts of trouble with. I made up my mind that I'm getting too old and life is too short to fool with that!

Of course, there are others who have had great experiences and have saved all sorts of money.

There is a Rotel dealer here in town and I may drop by and see what sort of deal he can make.

I'm still leaning toward the new Outlaw 750, but I would like to see a reveiew or two before I finally make up my mind.

Of course, that is just me.

Rat, You are probably better off looking for reviews of the AT2000 series, since it is the same amp.

Bug: yes, I have read some of the ATI reviews and the reviews have been very good.

One thing that I have been wondering is if the Outlaw is really the EXACT same as the ATI 200 watt/ channel amp? Has Outlaw made any changes that would alter the performance when compared to ATI? Don't know the answer.

Don't know if you have checked the Outlaw board lately, but, one fellow has taken the covers off of his new 750 and take some excellent pictures. WOW!!! One thing that impressed me was that each channel appears to have its own transformer tap for its power supply. That's the next best thing beside having one transformer for each channel. I was surprised that they designed the amp that way.

I believe the same thread has photos of the ATI amp. On close examination I find it hard to find anything different. There must be some change for the amp to be so much cheaper than ATI.

One transformer per channel! I agree! I still think that the MPS-1 still merits your consideration. It is now available in 2-7 channel configurations.

If you're looking at Outlaw, you migt as well look at NAD too.

Anybody heard anything about the Aragon amps, I'm looking at the 2005 or 2007, you can still get them new at very reasonable prices.

Bug and md: yes, I should consider and have looked at those amps. They all look nice and, from the specs, they all should be more than sufficient.

At this point, I'm not sure that I want an amp that operates in class H, I, J, K, L, M or any of the other alphabet soup class of efficiencies. However, I'm not totally adverse to them and I need to read more about the so called "digital" amps or maybe I should say switching power supplies.

Most good amps are really rock solid. There are no moving parts, and typically have 10-20 year warantees because of this solid build quality. They are likely the safest electronic equipment to buy used. I honestly wouldn't worry too much about that.

Actually, I disagee with Craig on this one.

The life of an amp is hugely dependant upon it not running hot, and I would never want to trust that the previous owner didn't stack the equipment....

Of course, I'm somewhat paranoid about most things being purchased used....

I personally like the idea of a warranty. With Rotel I don't believe it is transferable.

Most of the major brands of amp warranties are non-transferable it seems. Some have a 20 year warranty, but at the cost, I could understand why.

Outlaw and ATI amps are NOT the exact same amp’s, outlaw sends ATI the specs, and the diagrams of the circuit cards that they want ATI to build them, ATI evidently does a lot of outsourcing for many different amplifyer companies, each company sends ATI the intructions as it were, ATI uese the specified components that the company wants used, and follows the companys diagram to build the unit, then ships it to what ever company is paying for ATI’s service as a manufacturing compnay..


From what I have read ATI amps are about the most solid of amps that you can buy…




On a side note, stacking components is not nessiarly bad for them, stacking them while under high eletrical load with poor cooling to them however is bad.. but will not destroy them, you have to keep in mind eletronics is kind of black and white, they either work, or don’t work.. for the heat issue to come into affect, is if your amp is going in to thermal overload, and shutting it’s self down.. mearly running warm will not damage it in anyway.. actualy transistors run better/faster the hotter they get, its just that the resistance of the surrounding wires goes up, and materials start to break down… anyhow not the time or place for eletrical theory…..

I'm probably particularly sensitive to the heat issue as i've lost about $20,000 worth of equiment to dried out caps over the years.....

you can replace capacitors very easly.. and they are pretty damn cheep to... just need some soldering skills...most capacitors dont "dry out" so i dont know why you say they were dryed out..the only capacitors that use liquid are oil based capacitors and those are high current capacitors, like hundereds of amps, much more current than any speaker amplifyer will ever see… most of the capacitors in home eletronics are made of aluminum foil and paper….

Where did you get the notion that transistors run better the hotter they get? That is just not true. Heat is their enemy, not their friend!

Ever hear of super conductors? Need to get close to 0 degrees K.

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most of the capacitors in home eletronics are made of aluminum foil and paper….

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This was mostly in professional video gear...where replacement parts were not available.

Thanks for the info, I did not think that part of the post was accurate, or else there is a lot of wasted money going into keeping puter room cooled.

on the notion of transferrable warranties i believe Bryston has a transferrable 20 year warranty. They make some nice equipment and might be worth checking out used.

Yes they do, its actully one of the best warranites I have seen. The owner only pays for shipping the unit in for any repairs, they pay return shipping. So buying a used Bryston would be rather a safe purchase for sure, could be a big savings over the cost of a new unit from them.

I am going to continue to look, listen and learn. I am in no big hurry. It took me about a year to decide on a receiver to use as a pre/pro, so I guess I can take a while to decide on an amp. LOL!!!

My two cents, warranties and guarantees are way overrated. Buy from good companies that have good build quality and you should expect a solid item either new or used. In the least, a repair should be quick, local and relatively inexpensive. Certainly the odd thing will go wrong (my Panny dvd needed a new part last year), but track records count.
Mass user reviews reporting the same issue should tip you off (note how many times someone had problems even getting a company to recognize, take and properly fix a unit under warranty).
Read the feedback from online buyers and call them before you buy.
Have lots of communication if you have questions and contact some of their other buyers.
Do the research and you should have the answers and confidence you need to buy something used or refurbished. So far every one of my Audiogon or Ebay purchases has been fantastic. No broken items, all in excellent condition, all still working fine or if they died, it was not unexpected from something like a $10 mp3 player. I have easily saved myself over $4k in the past 4 years compared to buying any of these items new. That money could go towards a future repair if necessary, and that is alot of cash for most repair jobs!

I have a friend who won't buy ANYTHING unless it has a warranty AND an extended warranty option. He is beyond a doubt, the model Future Shop customer! In the past 3 years i estimate he spent over $2k on warranties from his electronics purchases (forgetting about his car warranty extras) and he will buy extended warranties if they are available after the old ones expire.

Just to note, there was only one occasion where he used a warranty to return an item that he figured was broken. He was a little miffed by the limitations of some speakers he bought some time ago and was convinced they were broken when in fact he was just pushing them beyond their abilities. A couple of trips to the seller, a 'tweak' that really did nothing and now he believes the sound problems are no longer there. The sound issues remain. We did some critical listening after the 'repair' job and the sound quirk was still there. However I think he chooses not to hear it. His exact words a year ago, "i don't seem to hear it as much anymore".
As much?!
Heck, something had to change since my friend liked the sound of these speakers so much that he didn't want anything else. The power of the brain at work.

People often complain they cannot afford this part or that part b/c they were out of money, yet they bought all new items in part for the warranties. If they had bought good used components and saved the cash, had a little confidence that other people take care of their stuff, they could all afford new chairs for the media room.
Warranties that cost extra are simply not worth it IMO. Buying new solely for the idea that your item will be so much more hassle free b/c it has a warranty coverage is so highly dependant on other factors that the warranty itself my be worthless or near useless.
Some people just need to feel comforted i guess, even if the blanket is thin and full of holes.

I have to agree with you 100%. In many years of buying electronics and othe gear, I've never had a product go bad (cross my fingers). The money I have saved buying B-stock or used has been substantial. The savings I've gained could in fact replace half my equipment.
There is also the theory in buying B-stock that you are getting a product that has been repaired or checked for whatever reason, where alot of new products go straight into the box for shipping with no testing done.

I for one was glad that I had bought new when it was time for me to buy a new amp. When I was looking at what amp to buy I did look into what amps out there had a reliable reputation and high customer satisfaction. It came down to two amps Parasound and Rotel; I went with the Rotel solely because the dealer was 40 miles closer to my home.

When I did buy a Rotel RB 1070 I had brought it home had it all hooked an then...................nothing, it was dead. I took it back to the dealer and instead of going with the same model I figured I would go with the bigger RB 1080. From what I had read it was suppose to be a good reliable amp. I then brought this amp home got it all hooked up, it powered up fine and played fine for 4 hours when it then had the left channel go out. By this time I was pretty disappointed with my luck and the Rotel amps. I told the dealer I would give them one more chance and luckily this amp has been flawless for over two years now. I was told by the Rotel rep, not the dealer that I was the only one he knew of that had ever received two bad amps, call that luck...........bad luck I guess.

Anyhow I was certainly glad these were new products or I would have been sol twice.

You have my luck Rick. The wine cooler had some fingerprints behind the plastic overlay on the readouts. We hauled it out of the house, re-packaged it, and exchanged it. As soon as we open the box on the second one, I chekced the readouts, same problem but not as severe.
Took a digital picture and returned to the store and was offered a third one, I settled for a discounted price, since this one was not nearly as noticable. lol

i've been lucky with extended warranty...with all the electronics i've purchased, the only time in my life i bought EW was when i purchased my tv about 4 years ago. Even though it was tube technology it was still some of the newer forays for CRTs into flat screens & 1080i. After pretty much finalizing the deal i gave him the old, "well i'm still not too sure, but if you threw in EW i'd sign right now". Got it and turned out to be a good decision. I've had work done on the TV a couple of times now to fix minor problems. Would have easily eaten up the little over $100 for the price of the EW.

In my opinion, deciding to buy EW depends on a number of factors including:
-reliability of the manufacturer
-newness of the technology
-% EW cost vs the product cost
-transportability of the product (most EWs provide in home repair - a saviour with my TV)

I hate to burst your bubble guys, but Rotel amps are way overrated. The way they cut corners by choosing sub-standard parts is most evident in their choice of capacitors. If you open one of them up, you'll see what I'm talking about.

LOL.............................. At first I figured you had better have a good place to hide for a few days Peter.

I think this explains why the amp works so well. It's extra HOT!

Wid: I just have to wonder what the probability of two bad amps in a row would be?

Of course, I would be surprised if the rep told you anything else. LOL!!!

I would hope it to be quite high. For the most part the Rotel amps are suppose to be pretty reliable. I guess my experiance would not be concidered the norm.

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-% EW cost vs the product cost

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This is a really good point Sid.
If the EW were only 0.05% of the primary cost, i'm sure i would be more apt to buy into them as well.

Newness of the technology is sometimes a concern of mine as well, however i tend to give more new technologies several years to advance before taking the plunge. Heck, i just bought my first dvdrw last week.
I only bought a cdrw drive 2 years ago. I can honestly say i've NEVER burned a single coaster like in the days of old...

As for Rotel, i hope their quality is top notch. I'm looking at getting their tuning unit and possibly the preamp.

I read your post on used gear and warranties a couple of times. I have mixed emotions. I have not had good luck with used anything. It only takes once to discourage a fellow. You may remember my "last" disaster was a refurbished Toshiba laptop. That was the last straw!

I think that it all boils down to how much risk are you willing to take to save how many $$$$. This could further be magnified by your socio-economic status, hassle factor, ego, and piece of mind.

Guess the bottom line is that whatever works for you. LOL!!!

Right now, I'm in the new with warranty camp.