Multi Room, Power, and number of hook ups

lacking a phono hookup

This is a great reciever for ht usage and is very good for stereo. I haven't had any problems with it except for the remote. To switch the input selection (dvd to cd) you have to slide down a cover on the bottom of the remote. This is a little bit of a hassle, but what is really bothersome is the fact that the tuner buttons are adjacent to the volume buttons on the remote and if you are not paying attention and hit a tuner button by mistake while watching a movie, the tuner turns on and screws up the movie, even more so if you are using the receiver for video switching.

In order to hookup my turntable to the unit, I had to buy a preamp. However it may have been possible to have a phono card installed in the unit.

Overall, I am very pleased with the 972's performance, and believe it to be a very good product. It has digital inputs and outputs, 5 video inputs, cd, tape, multi room, and an elaborate tuner.

I haven't had any problems like I had with the RSX 965,and believe this unit may be a little pricey for some folks, but the bottom line is it delivers very good performance.

Similar Products Used:

RSX 965

First understandable universal remote controle.Clean looks.
loads of power.

poor sounding tunersection, slow volume control and the monitor output is only activated when a videosource is selected and the source is switched on.Time before it has switched from one to another dolbymode

This is not really a fair review of this product as I only play dvd on this receiver. For my normal stereo listening I use a Musical Fidelity Nu Vista M3 amp. and a Sony 777ES sacd-player.
I bought this receiver on the looks and on the trust that Rotel makes good products for a quite reasonable price.
As I said in the "strenghts" box the RC is the first I find understandable and it is able to replace most of your original RC's. I use the rsx972 in combination with a rdv995
dvdplayer also by rotel an I use a coaxial digital cable instead of optical. I have listened to it quite a while in the stereomodus because I had to wait for more than 2 months for my nuvista to arrive.
I think this is one of the first combo's that sound good in stereo (while they are meant to be surround-equipment) for a reasonable price.
The stereo-image is not large but is fine detailed and you can almost pick out the instruments as you listen.
What strikes is the simplicity on the frontside in comparison with other dolby-receivers, the flipside however is that it is a study to store radiochannels, and you have to use the remote to adjust delaytimes or the different volumes of the speakers.
In general this is a very good dolby-unit without too much surroundprogrammes (like Yamaha, 56 I believe in the DSP AX1), it just chooses it's right dolby mode and gets on with the job.
Just look and listen, it's worth its' price.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha rxv-800 and Yamaha rxv-595 with Yamaha M45 and M35 for Front and surroundspeakers