I bought the RB-991 200W/ch amplifier about a month ago. I have been using this with the Rotel RSP-960 preamp and Denon DCM-360 CD-player. Even though it generally sounds ok, but I am a little disappointed with its highs and mid range. At US$1000, I think the Rotel guys could have done a little better job. Also, it says on the back that its made in China, which I did not know at the time of purchase. I have not heard of any amplifiers of this catagory that is made in China, so I am not sure of its built quality yet.

Chuck is a little confused. The main reason Rotel consistantly offers a lot of bang for the buck is that they build in the far east where it is inexpensive. The RB991 is a great amp for $1000. 1KV transformer, Balanced In, High Current, 200 watts @ 8 Ohms 350 Watts @ 4 Ohms. If looking at sound quality and build quality no other amp offers as much for as little. It's not state of the art, it is a budget power house that will drive just about any speakers made, including my Martin Logan CLSes

This amp retails for a 1000$ I got mine for 850$. This amp is much better than any amp in its price range. I tried Adcom, Parasound, and Carver, for the price of 850$ this amp can't be beat. It offers balanced and unbalanced speaker connetions, which is onlt available on much more expensive amps like Krell. IT IS A VERY NICE AMP FOR ITS PRICE, TRY IT OUT, (IT COMES WITH A 5 YEAR WARRENTY), YOU WON'T BE DISSAPOINTED.

I have recently aquired an RB991. I am quite satisfied as I am driving an old set of Infinity RS3a towers that have been hotrodded a little with Wondercaps, better inductors in the crossover and silver coated copper internal wiring. They shut some amplifiers down. The 991 has taken the abuse so far. It runs pretty warm so I've been really careful not to block ventilation. It is very dynamic, images very well and drives the speakers to high spl with no apparent audible strain. It is sensitive to the source, I borrowed a CD player, a Marantz CD63-SE with variable output and a set of Audioquest interconnects straight to the amplifier input. MUCH MUCH better. The bass extension was noticably better to. Because I still listen to LPs and tapes (can't find a lot of stuff on CD, especially old small labels) I will be upgrading the preamplifier next, then a new CD player. A couple of notes about the 991. Mine is the latest version which has a heavy detachable grounded power cord. It sounds a little better in a side by side comparision with a 991 with the hardwired two conductor power cord. One friend has rewired his, removing the two strand power cord and using a big Audioquest Hyperlitz power cord and an RF suppresion ring on the cord. Very noticable difference, the background was quiter, further back. The other thing is that it is sensitive to interconnects, but then so is any quality component in a good enough system. Just changing interconnects from the preamp to the amp is noticable. Good interconnects are not cheap so try to borrow some and find a set you like prior to purchasing a set for big money and finding out you made a mistake. The bottom line is, that after looking at a lot of amps for the last year, the 991 is the best that can be had at this price and matches amplifiers costing two times as much and is real close to some pretty bug buck items. The electronics are there, it doesn't have the milled aluminum enclosures of the high price stuff. Because it is the best in it's price range that I've heard, I'm giving it five stars.

I'm on the upgrade path and began it with the Rotel 991. Give me all those watts and leave me with a little bankroll for everything else. As expected, bass tightened up and I heard much more than I heard before. Unfortunately, now I need new speakers as the Rotel is revealing weaknesses there. Recently heard the Magnepan 1.6's and am damn glad I have 200 watts ready to push those wonders!
5 stars for value; can't speak on an absolute scale since I was smart enough not to listen to any more expensive amps.

Excellent clarity. Smooth highs. Excellent Bass.

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This amp has been an excellent purchase. After owning the original Carver M 1.0T for the past 10 years, the Rotel was a vast improvement. I can't believe what I've been missing all this time. This amp provides excellent clarity, superb
bass and a fluid midrange. I auditioned many amplifiers in and above this price range, and none provided so much sound per dollar. The sound of this amp is easily worth twice the price. This amp matches up extremely well with my Paridigm Studio 100's. This amp is truly superb. Highly recommended!!

Similar Products Used:

Adcom, Parasound, NAD, Acurus, Aragon, krell and others.

I recently auditioned this amp at home, connected to some Magnepan 1.5's, listening mostly to classical. This was the store's demo unit, so it had some break-in time before I listened to it. Pre-amp was a Cambridge Audio C500, and sources were a CA D500 CD and my old direct drive turntable.
Now, I'm not sure if it is simply a matter of system matching or what, but both my wife and I realized in short order that this was not the amp for us. Sure, it had adequate power to drive the Maggie's, but the sound quality was poor, particularly in the mid-treble. Very bright, emphasizing the overtones to the extent that there was no core to the sound (in large orchestral pieces, it was difficult to tell which woodwind instrument was playing). Solo piano sounded particularly tinny. Loud orchestral passages sounded pinched. The sound was harsh, and became quite fatiguing after a relatively short amount of time. On the plus side, it did have adequate bass and good soundstage and imaging.

I really WANTED to like this amp, since it would have saved me a couple hundred dollars. But the timbral inaccuracies of acoustical instruments and its harshness made it unlistenable. Perhaps with different speakers or a different selection of music this amp would be acceptable, but for us, it was an easy decision to return it. 2 stars only because of the good soundstage and the price, but there are far better amplifiers out there.

This is my first separates system. I believe the RB 991 is a two channel power amp and the RB 993 is the 3 channel power amp. I bought the Rotel RB 991, RB 993, and RSP 985 for $3,000, all brand new, factory sealed boxes. I must say that initially I was a bit put off by the system because I feared the buzz that others have mentioned. Alas! I brought my system back to the dealer and we tested it with all my cables on the same B&W speakers that I own. I was relieved and angry at the same time. Relieved because when we turned on the system, I heard no buzzing at all. This put my mind at ease but revealed another problem, wiring in my house. I checked my wiring and it appears that every previous owner of my house (my house is 50 years old) added on to the same circuit. So I have florescent lights on the same circuit, lights, freezer, etc.. So now I will deal with the slight buzz until I get a dedicated circuit wired to that outlet. The buzz really isn't bad. My wife noticed it and pointed it out to me and now I hear it more (thanks honey).

But the sound coupled with the RSP 985 is really phenomenal. I have the 991 powering my two fronts and the 993 powers my center and surround sound speakers. I also hooked up the power to a Niles surge suppressor and line conditioner. My power amps are plugged into the switched outlets so when I power up my pre-amp, it turns on the outlets. Therefore I never have to get up and turn the power amps on or off.

In conclusion, this is a great start into the high end for a great price.

I purchased the RB 991 2 weeks ago for only $570USD (ex displayed). For what it costs, it's an excellent amp. I use it to drive my NHT 2.5i (pre amp Onkyo 828 AV). It certainly brings out the color in my NHT 2.5i. Mid and high frequency are crystal clear. Bass is real tight. I just love this baby. Highly recommended.

Great over-all performer, lots of power and detail

Rather big

I wanted to replace my dear old integrated Accuphase E-203 (2X70W) with a good pre-power amp combination for my new Infinity Kappa 90 speakers.

After months of searching on the web, in magazines and in shops, I decided on the Rotel RB-991 power amp. I looked at ADCOM, NAD and LINN. I thought the RB-991 had the best price/value ratio. And I wanted lots of power, to be on the sife side with my Kappa 90 speakers. The only other power amp I've tried in my system was an old Linn PowerTek, so I can't really tell you how this amp sounds compared to others. However, I think it sounds absolutely fabulous in my system. Great bass, midrange and treble. The "soundstage" is wonderful.

I have teamed it up with a Linn Kolektor pre-amp (didn't like the Rotel pre-amps) and this beauty and the beast combination is MUCH better than my old Accuphase E-203 (which is a great amp). The "soundstage" is bigger. Especially bass is much tighter and better controlled. It's wonderful. The Linn PowerTek amp sounded like crap compared to the RB-991. I know, the PowerTek is an old amp and probably Linn's worst power amp ever, but it's the only one I've been able to compare with. The PowerTek was far too weak for my Kappa 90 speakers too, so it's not really a fair comparison.

I honestly don't think I could get a better 2X200W power amp for the price, $800. And how could you possibly get a better pre-amp than the Linn Kolektor for only $750? I can recommend the Kolektor-RB-991 combination, it works great in my system. It doesn't look ugly either. The Kolektor has a clean, modest look, while the RB-991 has the beastly heatsinks in the front. I first thought I could do without the front heatsinks, but it looks pretty cool.

The RB-991 has "balanced" and "unbalanced" inputs. Don't fall for all the BS about balanced connections, it's just another way to squeeze more money out of your pocket for components and, especially, interconnects. Balanced connections may have some use when you have really long cables, such as in a studio environment, but not in a normal home system. The electronis that converts the signal from "unbalanced" to "balanced" is ususally crap anyway. You will actually get worse results with "balanced" connections than with "unbalanced". The RB-991 has balanced connections. The Kolektor does not. Don't fall for the balanced scam.

What can I say, I'm really happy with the RB-991. I haven't heard any Krell or Mark Levinson power amps in my system, so I can't tell you how they compare, but I seriously doubt that you will get considerably better sound if you double the money, or even triple it.

Don't fall for the interconnects scam either (even worse with "balanced" XLR connectors). My Cambridge Pacific cables, for $35, sound great. I even compared them to cables from TARA Labs for twice the price, but the TARA cables were actually worse.... HiFi salesmen told me I should spend 10-15% of the money in a system on cables!!! It's preposterous! Bi-wiring your speakers actually does make a difference, though. I didn't believe it at first, but there is scientific (and audible) evidence (as opposed to the interconnects BS). Rotel's new model, that replaces the RB-991, is called RB-1080. It is exactly the same amp, 2X200W, but with a 12V trigger input so that you can turn it on automatically from a power amp equipped with such a trigger (such as amps from Rotel and NAD). The big difference is on the price tag. The price is about 30% higher! The normal price for the RB-991 was $1000, the RB-1080 is about $1300, at least here in Sweden. In other words, you get a lot less bang for the buck from the RB-1080. If you can get a RB-991 on sale, it's a bargain. The RB-1080 is not.

My system:
CD: Arcam DIVA CD72 (great smooth sound)
Pre-amp: Linn Kolektor (no potentiometers, great features)
Power amp: Rotel RB-991
Interconnects: Cambridge Pacific ($35, great "sound")
Speakers: Infinity Kappa 90 (awesome)
Speaker cables: LS Kabel (German cables for bi-wiring)

Similar Products Used:

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