Power, dynamics, resolution, price, indifference to loads

Excessive emitted heat, no extra pre-out, discontinued

In fact, this is more a review on a RA-980BX.
For some strange reason this great amp is missing on this site, and RA-985 is its more modern descendant with some added goodies which unfortunately deteriorated the sound and have blown the price up. Later on that topic. Read on if you are not scared of the sheer volume of this review.


In the first place I have to say my word about that notorious 'British sound' hype.

On my opinion it is a myth and a great urban hype.

All these Musical Fidelity, Rega, Arcam etc stuff have utterly sleepy and uninvolving sound lacking any drama whatsoever. Add here colouration, rolled off treble and crippled dynamics and you have the recipe of what they call 'musicality'. It is anything but very far from the original music so how come it can be called musicality?
Say for instance, if you expect an explosion of drums and piano in the first accords of Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op.16, Allegro Molto Moderato, be prepared to hear an exposion in a box.
In order to get decent performance from a British made components you need to fork out twice or three times as much as you can do with the alternatives.
I mean, companies like NAD, Rotel, Marantz and similar, just don't make any hype of their products but instead they honestly put good design (everyone knows why, for instance, huge transformer, fast slew rate or loads of peak current are so important) and high-grade components into their products and have great results. And they do it for years.
Britts, from their side, having much greater labour costs, for the same money feed you with much lower-grade components and designs hence much lesser sound quality.
So, in fact, you're served with junk food but under the spicy sauce of the 'British sound'. Self-deception is its name.
Enough said. I admit that some people might like their music slurred, laid back and c^str^ted of any dynamics with the rolled off treble. I guess those are these esoteric maniacs who sometimes refer to themselves as 'audiophiles'. I don't mean true audio/music enthusiasts. These people know what I mean.
I, personally, regard myself rather as a music lover other than an audiophile. See the difference? I like listening to music of many kinds, whether live or recorded. If I listen to recorded, I want it to be as real as it sounds live. If it's a drum hit and a cymbal rim-shot piercing my ear on a live concert I want it to have exactly the same effect in recordings. If it's piercing and torturing my ears too much that means bad music to me. Nothing must be added nothing removed.
I believe so called 'British sound' (more precisely, 'affordable british sound') fails to deliver such a simple thing as sense of reality. Too much added too much removed. It's not music it's the audiophilia or just the maniacal esoterica in the worst sense of these words.
I agree, it's non fatiguing sound. So non-fatiguing that it makes it sleepy, uninvolving and lean.
Should the music really be non-fatiguing?
Could a 2 hour classical concert really be non-fatiguing?
Not for me. Let's face it, you get tired of music, even of the very good one, and that's absolutely normal. If you are not a m^sochist you get tired of everything which lasts longer than it's safe for your health. Sound and music are no exclusion.
I think I said enough to make you aware of where I'm coming from :-)))

I must admit I've been initially captured by that 'british sound' hype and was looking to all british components keeping my eyes and ears off that audiophile despised 'Japanese' or even more despised 'Chinese sh*t'.
But all that time while listening to the next set of sleepy british components in the $1-1.5 grand region I could not help feeling that I was kind of hooked on a hype and deceiving myself and I was continuously trying to comply my feelings with mental prejustices learnt from What Hi-Fi magazines, audio dealers and the like.
No more.
I'm glad that my ears did not let me down and turned me back to the realm of reality but not illusions.
Which also - coincidentally - helped to keep my bank account from the total devastation and my ears to get what they deserved to get.
For the sake of the ultimate truth I have to say, yes, there is excellent british stuff out there for three to five times more money. And that stuff is exactly what earned that reputation of the great british Hi-Fi which then has been promoted by clever marketing people to lots of more affordable j*nk with the cheap and inferior sound under the famous British titles of Rega or Arcam or Cambridge Audio or - you name it. These companies have got very good products but for absolutely different money. Englishmen say - there is no such a thing as free lunch. How do you expect a British amp for $500 with their world-highest labour costs have the same quality components and sound better than a price-equivalent Japanese amp? Is it a miracle or Britts know a spell or a magic secret no one else in the world knows? Just think about that before shopping in the $1000-1500 market and looking to the next What Hi-Fi Best Buy award winner.
Or ask a dealer to uncover that Rega Brio amp and compare what you see with the internals of an average Rotel or NAD for the same price. If you have any idea of what good audio-componentry and design are you'll understand what I mean.
When things change and we talk about $2000 market, 'money is no object, quality is all that matters' rule applies. And here we can easily admit Britts have great successes but not them alone. Americans, Canadians, Japanese, Danes and Dutch, French and Germans - they all have a lot to be proud of. At that price level labour and component costs are marginal, good designs and creativity fight with each other and no one is an absolute winner because every nation has its own heros in equal proportions. However, the hypes do exist to mislead and deceive people. Just remember that Home Theater hype as another example.

In the end, NO FREE LUNCH - got it?


Ok, let's start the review and come back to Rotel.
You should now understand why Rotel had eventually become a natural choice for me. Especially down here in Australia with our very limited choice and predominantly British sourced Hi-Fi gear.
NAD, Creek, AMC are also good and honest guys but for various reasons, including aestatics, local pricing variances, reliability, availability etc, Rotel turned out to be the best choice (NAD, for instance, although they have great amps, their CD players are infamous for ill-fated reliability which put me off).


After many hours of taking all those 'british sound' tranquiliser pills and hearing 'Rotel/Marantz - chinese/japanese sh*t' from those hype-infected dealers I forced myself to come and listen to Rotel stuff.

Up goes the RCD-991 CD tank, along comes the RA-971mkII to start with. Or goodness! My ears feel like they've been taken ear plugs out and they can hear the music again!!!
I feel that those tranquilising pills stopped working!
I can hear the real music! Dynamics, pace, details, highs go up high and lows go down low! The music flies and breathes and carries all the drama and the emotion it's supposed to carry!
What I listen to, you ask.
Ok. Grieg to Tchaikovsky, Scarlatti to Bach. Schnitke to Mahler, Wagner to Schtrauss (I,II,III)
Jazz trios, dixielands and big bands, John Lee Hooker and Eric Clapton.
Sara K and Diana Krell, Patricia Kaas and Alla Pugatchova, Tina Turner and Tracy Chapman.
Al di Meola and E.Klugh, S.Grigorian and J.McLaughlin.
Black Sabbath and Pearl Jam, Deep Purple, Ingvie Malmsteem and Ronnie James Dio.
Enough?

So, finished and quite satisfied with the 971mkII and prepared to take it home I spot a RA-980BX sitting on the bottom shelf and ask a dealer to hook it. And, h*ll, what a difference! Although very subtle - the 971 is a great amp by all means - the better quality of the 980BX is pronounced. More air, more details, even more dynamics. Ok, I could live with the 971mkII at the end of the day, but you know you always want better, especially if you still keep yourself within your budget limits and there are more options to choose from. So, 980BX wins over.
Then a dealer tells me about the RA-985 and intrigued from what I just heard I ask him to bring and hook one.
Let's just read the specs. The RA-985 is a more contemporary replacement for the 980BX (now extinct), has a remote control, multi-zone, extra pre-out and based on the 980BX design.
And luckily a demo-sample for US$500 (AU$1000) is available, speaking the same money as a brand new 980BX. The 985 must be a winner?
Let's switch to it and compare.
What?!!!!
The air's gone, treble muddled and suppressed, those precious details are lost. Even it appeared to sound worse than the 971mkII.
So, the utlimate winner is the RA-980BX.
Here are my relative ratings (by 5 points scale):
RA-971mkII: Sound - 4, Value - 5, Features - 4
RA-980BX: Sound - 5, Value - 4, Features - 3.5 (no dedicated pre-out but has an external pre-power sections separation outlets)
RA-985: Sound - 3.5, Value - 3, Features - 5.

Nevertheless, in absolute terms all Rotel amps sounded very good and even better than many times more expensive esoteric stuff I auditioned before (e.g. Alchemist) and much much better than any British stuff in the same price range or even up to 50% more expensive (costing about US$750).
To better Rotel with the British gear you'd have to fork out, for instance, US$1200 or similar amount for the MF A3 integrated, or a similar range British gear. No doubt, it will sound better but for what price! Forget about Arcams, Regas, MF and other British stuff costing similar to Rotel money. Just no contest!
That famous MF A2 Class A 'tube-like sound' was just a joke!!! F^rt in the bottle. It only suits small jazz trios playing simple square or Take Five all over the day. Just add a bit more spice and energy and that's it. A lot of steam and smoke and no fire or motion. Lethargic as they all get.

These strengths apply to all of the Rotel amps I auditioned:
Incredible dynamics and capability (high current and huge toroids work!), good detail, spaciousness, clarity.
Of course they have their drawbacks too. Sometimes the refinement and subtlety is sacrificed in favour of raw dynamics and energy. Still they are very far from being ragged 'louts' and to buy refinement with the same power and dynamics as Rotel you'd have to pay at least two or three times more. It's true!
So, this is an absolute drawback but it is offset by the modest and fair price and affordability.

Now, let's read some facts to see the reason of such a surprising fact that the old models beat the newer ones.
Both the 971mkII and 980BX are not made by Rotel anymore. The 972 and 985 are their replacements respectively, both come with remotes and both are based on their predecessor core designs.
And the trick is that Rotel doesn't make non-remote integrated amps anymore, so no direct comparison can be made with the current non-remote models.
And both the 972 and 985 claim improvements against the 971/980 with added 'British split-foil T-capacitors'.
I have no idea what the h*ll those 'T-capacitors' are and how they are better than those 'XXX(you name it)-capacitors used in the preceding model designs, but apparently to my ears the RA-985 sounded worse than even the 971mkII, save for the 980BX.
Seems this simple physical and engineering law works - more motors and circuitry added to support convenience features make the sound inevitably worse provided all other components remain unchanged. These extra features bearing no relation to the sound as such add more noise and distortion which mask the details, muddle the sound which then loses its 'airiness' and 'spaciousness', such precious and so hardly obtained attributes.
This is a price to pay for the convenience.
Do you really need it?
Isn't the better sound quality is the biggest convenience of all?
To me the answer is obvious - YES.
That said, on their alone though, both the 972 and 985 still are very good amps, as it's been confirmed by many positive reviews they got recently.
But nevertheless, my subjective opinion based on my own tests says that they sound worse than their predecessors. Actually, no any magazine or the likes dares to make direct comparison tests between superseded and current models. This is the rule of the game (called 'marketing') - pity for the consumers who have to make their judgements on their own experience.
And I have made my own choice - I took the 980BX home.
Together with a demo RCD-991 which I luckily got for just $1400 Australian (~700 US$).
And I can't be more than happy now.

It appeared that in my system of preferences, the remote control and other goodies are nothing in comparison with the good sound.

Conclusion.

Two purposes of my review.

1. Don't be hooked on that 'british sound' hype. If you are shopping in the 1000-1500 US$ market for a set of CD+amp, start from Marantz, Rotel, NAD and then go to the British stuff if you still want to or are just curious.
If you have the same opinions as mine that the music coming out of your system must not lack or add anything from the original and after that you get better sound from any British stuff for the same money I'd be very surprised.

2. If you're considering the RA-985 and you can get hold of an old sample of the RA-980BX at your local shop, take a chance to bump them in an AB test. You might be surprised how better the 980BX actually sounds. And if you are lucky to find it, chances are that you could get better sound for 60-70% the price of the 985 (superseded models normally get bigger discounts).
On the other hand, if you're after sitting in your recliner chair fiddling with a remote control then pay more for the worse sound and take the RA-985 home.
On its own it's not a bad piece of gear at all and actually beats many at the same price.


I give RA-985 4 stars overall just because RA-980BX in my view sounds better and is much cheapier.
3 stars for the value for the same reason.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel RA-971mkII, RA-980BX
Musical Fidelity A2, A3(integrated), E11
Marantz 6010ose
Arcam 7,8
Cyrus 5,7
various mega$$$ esoterica: Alchemist, Electrocompaniet etc

build sound power looks great

plastic nobs annoying volume split control

if the bloke whop posted the firt review reads this i would just like to let him in on a little secret all rotel stuff is desighned and developed in the UK ok? understand? the desighned product is then shipped abroad to keep the manufactureing cost down so you get the best of both worlds!
brittish desighn and lower cost. so get your facts straight you spoon!
however the ra 980 bx is without doubt better than its successor i took it home litened for a hour hit the dealer who sold it to me with it and took my old amp back. not that its a bad product but its just not an improvement, if you cant find a 980bx then buy all means buy it if you can bit whoever offers it ot you's arm off to the shoulder and never let it go! but if you do have one make sure you hoover out the heat sinks as they produce alot of heat and keeping them free of dust helps all in all buy listen and smile but dont by a rotel tuner or your faith in the company may be shaken :-) good hunting. and im not going to sell you mine so there!

Similar Products Used:

kenwood ka 3200000000 or sommit bag of arse