Quote Originally Posted by audio2
Hi all,

finally about two months ago I came across a good occasion and bought a Rotel Ra 04.
Since then I haven't spent much time on long and extensive audio sessions. I mostly played it when I had time as background music.
Anyway here is my first impression:

My previous amp was a Pioneer SA-506 from the 70s (25W) which at low playing level could reproduce a warm sound and full bass.
With the Rotel RA 04(40W) I miss this warmth when playing at low level but as I turn the volume up the power and potential of the audio system come out as a whole.
It's like giving gas on a fast car and enjoying being push into the seat, that's the feeling (just to make a very expressive comparison!).
I'm happy with this match (Rotel + Tannoy) and I especially I enjoy it with live recordings.
Of course the quality of recordings are now playing an important role and this system puts a strong accent on it.
The room where the audio system is installed it's not very big (approx. 14 square meter) but it doesn't seem to be problematic at higher levels, although I play more often at low/medium levels (I would also like to play louder but I'm considerate to my neighbors).
I'm now very curios to find out how it would sound a Sugden amp, maybe that's where I will move next, but I will take some time to enjoy and test the Rotel properly.

What may be happening to you here is that the Rotel likes it better when played louder. Something i generally don't like about most SS amps is that you have to choose between the sluggish dead sounding amps that present some bass depth and warmth but lack clarity and don't do well at louder levels, or the amps like Rotel that sound thin and two dimensional at low levels "lack bass depth" and "drive" but sound clear and quite good at high levels. Although I like Rotel because it has these same problems that the likes of Bryston and Krell have at many times the price - ie I would nto spend much more than what Rotel is doing for a fraction of the price.

Sugden doesn't have any frequency limiter - this is why I liked the Sugden A48b so much because for $350 used (they rarely come up though) you get a class A/B amp with real bass depth and drive - far superior in direct comparison to a $3000 Musical Fidelity integrated with a 150 watts per channel. The MF sounds more open and bigger in terms of staging which I suppose some might like better on big orchestral works and who care about big staging. But on the finer points of intrument tone vocals and all smaller scale musci to me it is no comparison - and this on tougher to drive Paradigm 100V2 speakers. Had it been higher sentive the Sugden probably would have handled the bigger scale music better so the MF advantage would then have likely disappeared. And this was a Sugden amp that wasn't tuned up in ages was heavily used and rather battered. The A21a takes it up a whole other level.

The Sugden A48b though sounds better than my Rotel RC 1082 preamp and RB 1050 power amp in the same general way as the MF. It is a matter of what kind of sound you prefer. It's not that my Rotel combo sounds bad - it just has a certain take on the presentation that some will view as accurate. But the Sugden sounds better when listening to music and maybe the Rotel sounds better when reading the measured response. I prefer to listen to music than read the measured response. And the OTO sounds better than both of them - incomparably better, but sounds incomparably worse when reading the measured response. Funny how there is an inverse relationship - the better it measures the worse it sounds - the worse it measures the better it will likely sound. Confused yet.

What you want is the full range sound the speaker is capable of with the appropriate amount of bass depth and drive and warmth(when it is on the recording) without the amp to sound thin(bass shy zero warmth) across all recordings. A sound that is "thick" and "warm" is arguably more preferable than bright and thin but this too can be irritating in the long haul because it can lack clarity. Rotel to me still sounds lean but it isn't bright and etchy sounding so it's better than the average in the budget range - which is why I bought them. I get a healthy Solid State system with a damping factor of 500 and it manages to keep the edge off. I have this system to remind me of typical Solid State sound and the preamp is above average for the price range of what Solid State amps are capable of - and it is feature rich making it a good review preamp. Interestingly I like it better than an ARC tube preamp and more than Bryston's preamp that cost more (because of the paid for warranty).

System matching is also important because a bass weight strong amp could go too far with thicker bass weight speakers while the thinner leaner sound might make an old Cerwin Vega with too much bass sound better than if I matched my OTO or a Sugden A48b up to it.

I still maintain a good tube amp will be better on the Tannoys. SO long as the tube amp has 4ohm taps and most good ones do then that is probably where I would go down the line. SETs or SEPs are the easiest to own since you don't have to do any work with voltmeters and calibration. Just change the tubes like you would change a lightbulb.