My main system is single ended vacuum tube with nice horn speakers, just for a frame of reference. I bought this unit non-working for very cheap. After reading the great reviews, I figured it was worth a gamble. It turned out to be a relay.

I am really really impressed with the quality of this Rotel. The stereo is great! The smoothness and quality is what will strike you. Not a ton of features and not a lot of tone control range, but my main system doesn't have tone controls at all, so I'm used to listening flat. It's not going to blow you away with bass or treble, but it is still just a blast to listen to. Nice deep/wide sound stage.

It's not a AV receiver, which I really like. Just good ol' fashioned 2 channel stereo. I actually like the fact that it's not jammed with features. That tells me that the $600 MSRP was put into quality components, not bells and whistles.

If you have a chance, buy this unit. You will be very pleased!

Have been an Audiophile for 40 years, Just came upon this page, have been with this Rotel RX-950AX for 14 years and have at least 5, other brands, Marantz, krell, Nad , Cambridge , Denon and a few other high end, Have played this Rotel receiver with Gallo Divas Paragdium , 20V5 ,Kef ,Q300 , Monitor Audio BX2 and Honestly this makes all my speakers sound much better than any any other ,its unbelievable what a receiver of this caliber can do, my son is a manager at a Best Buy store, I have tried receivers in the $2000.00 price tag cannot ditch out the music to the speakers with such perfection and realism, and I use the same OPPO 105 ,regular CD's I service it every year and this is a keeper, and it will stay in my collection for ever, things this good dont have a price.

imaging
musicality
bass weight

Remote died

I know there have been few reviews lately for this reciever. I can't help but to reiterate the great marks this reciever has earned. I just bought a Sumo Polaris amp and the tubelike tonal characteristic of this amp is a perfect match with the Rotel and my speakers. I recently came across some Snell CV's and needed to really open these babys up. The 50 Rotel watts was enough since these speakers are quite efficient, but now with 100 plus watts I can hear or feel that 24 hz even better. I also tried an NAD 3150 and that drove them well too, but not the same. The Rotel smokes the NAD in almost all regards. The biggest difference to me is that low bass floor the Rotel can project. The problem is without speakers like these you wouldn't even notice how that last octave is being handled. I have a Parasound 1500 preamp coming. If it works I can't wait to hear if there is any improvement. I'm not sure there can be much but it is hard for me to believe a reciever can sound this good both on it's own and as a preamp. I haven't climbed too far up the hi-fi ladder yet, but on my budget I am lucky to have found this piece and the Snells are amazing too.

Similar Products Used:

NAD 3150
Onkyo 501
Other Rotels

imaging
musicality
bass weight

Remote died

I know there have been few reviews lately for this reciever. I can't help but to reiterate the great marks this reciever has earned. I just bought a Sumo Polaris amp and the tubelike tonal characteristic of this amp is a perfect match with the Rotel and my speakers. I recently came across some Snell CV's and needed to really open these babys up. The 50 Rotel watts was enough since these speakers are quite efficient, but now with 100 plus watts I can hear or feel that 24 hz even better. I also tried an NAD 3150 and that drove them well too, but not the same. The Rotel smokes the NAD in almost all regards. The biggest difference to me is that low bass floor the Rotel can project. The problem is without speakers like these you wouldn't even notice how that last octave is being handled. I have a Parasound 1500 preamp coming. If it works I can't wait to hear if there is any improvement. I'm not sure there can be much but it is hard for me to believe a reciever can sound this good both on it's own and as a preamp. I haven't climbed too far up the hi-fi ladder yet, but on my budget I am lucky to have found this piece and the Snells are amazing too.

Similar Products Used:

NAD 3150
Onkyo 501
Other Rotels

very musical, solid build quality, good value, great tuner and phono pre-amps

bit underpowered if driving low sensitivity speakers

Associated equipment:

Rotel RCD-950 cd player
Systemdek IIX turntable
NHT SuperOne speakers on Target stands
NHT SWP2SI powered subwoofer
Magnum Dynalab FM antenna

Compared with a Rotel integrated that was close to the same price and found virutally no difference. Enjoy listening to some of the public radio and classical/jazz stations in the area. VERY good tuner section when coupled with a good antenna. We live near an apartment building and the combination of the Rotel and Magnum Dynalab antenna does a great job at reducing multipath interference.

Still listen to vinyl so having the phono pre-amp section was a real plus. Again, very quiet and musical.

Until I got the powered sub to take some of the load off, must admit the Rotel had trouble driving the SuperOnes, which are a fairly insenstive compact speaker. With the powered sub, this baby rocks! Feed it some Miles Davis, Massive Attack or Blue Rodeo, whatever your tastes may be, and you will be impressed. If you don't want to spend the money on separates, this is a very acceptable alternative. Problem is, I've cannibalized the NHTs for my home theater setup and need some new speakers. Anybody have suggestions, feel free to e-mail me. Need a sensitive speaker that is less than $1,000/pair. Currently using an old pair of Paradigm 7SEs. Great speaker in its time but I can afford a bit better now.

I purchased the RX-950 used and have been *very* happy with it's performance. It replaced a 100wx2 Yamaha reciever. I will never go back to Yamaha/Sony/etc for music (maybe for HT). I 'borrowed' a 75x2 rotel integrated amp from a local store and couldn't tell much difference (I was very impressed). Very highly recommended.

The Rotel 950 receiver is the best receiver that you can purchase, It sounds as good as seperate componets costing much more.

Buy a receiver for somewhat serious listening? After looking a various separates and integrated amps, I bought this Rotel over 2 years ago. I haven't regretted it once.
The amp section is great. The highs sound very refined, and there's ample bass. Quite frankly, I thought this sounded comparable to the Rotel separate Integrated + Tuner setup my dealer auditioned for me. And with the receiver, it was one less thing to buy interconnects for, and it was $100 cheaper, too! Oh, and my lazy butt couldn't live without the remote control, either.

5 stars. No question Rotel makes the best sounding receiver made today.

The Rotel receiver is a replacement, but represents an upgrade, as well. The previous receiver, a Yamaha R-3, was bought as the center of a complete system purchased at one time, so the budget was not as generous for any one piece. Now we could spend a bit more. The retailer, Audible Elegance of Montgomery, OH a suburb of Cincinnati, carries the Rotel as their only integrated receiver. Hooking everything up was relatively simple.
But when I turned it on! The sound filled the listening room, aka living room, without requiring an annoying level of volume. The tone controls for treble and bass work very nicely, as small knobs. Volume has a good, tight feel for manual operation. It is responsive when using the remote, and does not turn up or down too far in remote mode. The timbre of sound is very natural, both for spoken word and for music. One of my best tests for sound quality was with AM reception of baseball games. One of the Cincinnati announcers has a voice with alot of treble overtone. With the Sony portable that substituted until the purchase, the treble was bright to the point of being intolerable for his voice. The Rotel is free of this problem. It can also power the speakers adequately that they can be heard in another room without excessive volume increase. I have listened to CDs of choral music and Eric Satie solo piano music. Both gave very natural sound, very clear and precise on the pianistic touches of the Gymnopedies, etc. The voices on the choral disc were very well balanced in the trebles and the basses. The CD player is a Rotel, purchased a few years ago at the same dealer. It and the receiver sound wonderful together.

I have to agree with all the reviews below me. This receiver sounds better than any YAMAHA/SONY/HARMAM KARDON that I ever heard, regardeless of price. Smooth, laid back and detailed. It has only 50 Watts per channel but dont let that fool ya. I can turn the volue control up to the 2 oclock position without strain or distortion. Its a 2 channel only receiver though. I am currently looking for a good surround receiver or processor. Until I find one, this baby makes me happy enough. Two caveats: not enough inputs and I can hear a slight amount of midrange grain. Still, it performs better or at least as good as receivers costing well over one thousand dollars(believe me, I heard them)