I looked at the Rotel RSP 1068 preamp.... I liked the looks of it considering it is silver, it looks good, my adcom amp has some silver in it and the Alesis EQ is silver too. performance is more important to me than looks but i do want the units to blend well aesthetically.

I found several good reviews for the Adcom, and one bad one saying it colored the sound too much. however no one on this forum or any others seem to have any experience with it.
im sure the Macs are pretty good but i hate the looks of them. they look like they are stuck in the early 70's
your right about all the settings, When i demoed my Klipsch RF-7 there he did change all kinds of settings. I insisted on listening in 2 channel stereo, the sales rep did let me spend several hours doing critical listening. however im sure that the room is acousticall perfect and designed for such purposes. my living room isnt i have to deal with standing waves because of my woodburning stove in the middle of my room as well as placing the subwoofer along the side wall rather than on the same plane with the front speakers. when I listen to 2 channel sources without the sub the bass is strong near the speakers but when i move back to the back of the room you can hardly hear the bass. I also know that my sectional couch prob causes problems.. but I just dont have the space for a dedicated listening room. ah the days of going back to when i just had a turntable, 2 pairs of realistic mach 1 speakers and a 110 watt per channel Pioneer amp. somehow i think the more money you have to burn on this hobby the less you enjoy it.