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Review 2 of 2
Price Paid:
$700.00
from Casa Palacio Summary:
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name: luis
email address: luisburgoa@hotmail.com
casa palacio
2006
got this "economical" integrated to update my place's living system (secondary system) which is a 2 channel ring (actually i hate surround, so my main system is stereo too... ha-ha).
after reading all the good reviews that latest rotels have received (ra-02, ra-04, etc) i put this one in my short-list along with some hybrid designs like pathos classic one and unison research's unico.
because my musical tastes are sort of "diverse" i didn't want to sacrifice anything; of course there's nothing like hearing a small acoustic assembly trough a valve system, but if the price to pay is losing any punch while listening to kraftwerk's autobahn or libertine's smiths-clash inspired riffs, at the end you only get half of the fun...
well, the good news are: this bloody little power transistor integrated deliver much more than its price tag deserves to, a bon marché? yup, quite so.
plurifunctional: yes indeed, big classical, acoustic classical blues, indie pop, electro, etc. every kind of genre is reproduced with aplomb, every genre but of course poorly mastered material, remember that even when this brand plays in the cheapo field, we are talking about serious separates, so the "feed sh**, receive the same" rule of high-end applies here too.
it's fast as every transistor design must be, but not over-analytical or cold, you can re-discover old faves because of all the small details that jump out of the speakers, but never losing the picture as a whole, there's no sense about listening to every kind of strange arrengments and noises hidden in your music if that means to distract your attention from the main event.
it takes like some 50 hours for this big balled midget to start sounding decently, then it starts sounding less congested and articulated.
nothing is perfect... we all know it, so its worst sin is power or its lack of it, these days 70 watts are not too much if you are in the market for a transistor design, so if you have a difficult load (less than 8 ohms) speakers... be careful, this amp goes quite hot when struggling with hungry speakers and saddly its thermal protection circuit triggers more frecuently than average.
any solution for this? yes ladies and gentlemen, go back to the shop with another 350.00 quid and get you an rb-06 power amp and go bi-amp way sonny... i did so but it's too soon to place that review now, today we're talking about ra-06 working on its own.
vinyl anyone? another plus, it has a factory installed phono pre-amp (mm only) and to be quite honest... it is very, very good. it made bellari pre (today's bargain-performance reference) sounding poor by comparison.
so... even if you don't need it, get one, you will appreciate it as soon as you plug it, if you are looking for a starters system or for an update of a cheap ring, or if you are a tycoon looking for some system for your guest's bathroom, go ahead, remember that it costs even less than that pair of nordost cables you have been thinking about lately...
Strengths:
* one of the best price-performance relation components i've ever listened to.
* friendly with almost every kind of musical genre (skiffle and glassophone lover, go and find out for yourself).
* up-grading facilities, pre-out for active subs or for more power amps.
* fast articulated and even bombastic when needed.
* nice and contemporary design, it looks fantastic on top of my italian aluminium furniture.
* free mm phono pre-amp, a nice plus specially because it's a bloody good one.
* did i mention it's damned cheap?
Weaknesses:
* not too powerful for demanding music.
* it really stresses out with demanding speakers, but what did you expected for 350 quid, a boulder...?
* runs hot like hell, specially during summer.
* thermal circuit triggers on too soon
* to cheap and to good to be taken seriously by some "serious audiophiles"... wankers...
Similar Products Used:
NAD, MF
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