Rotel RSP-976 vs. Adcom GTP-830

[Demetrio]

After several years of musical delight with my old Adcom pre/pro (the Dolby Pro Logic GTP-550), I decided it was time to upgrade for a Dolby Digital & DTS model, and ended up getting a used ROTEL RSP-976 unit just some few weeks ago.

This Rotel unit is awesome for Dolby Digital & DTS encoded discs, but when it comes for non-encoded material (and I still have lots of non-encoded music material, such as rock live concerts on VHS, so on), I really miss the spaciousness of my old Adcom pre/pro. Fact is, the DSP modes of my old Adcom (Concert Hall, for example) are far better than the DSP modes of this Rotel RSP-976. The music modes of the Rotel (Music 1, 2, 3 & 4) just don’t have that nice spaciousness that my old Adcom used to have.

The same vendor where I bought the Rotel RSP-976 still has a secondhand unit of the Adcom GTP-830 available there, so I was wondering I could get that one instead of this Rotel. Unfortunately I don’t have how to audition the unit before doing the negotiation, because the vendor is located very far from where I live, so I would like to know your opinions on this matter. I know that the Adcom unit features 7.1 channels, while the Rotel is 5.1, but independent of this aspect, what is the opinions of you guys who know both the units?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Demetrio.

[Demetrio]

I just thought I should share this with you guys!!...

In the meantime (while I was waiting for some reply to my post above), I just tried a new experience: I connected the preamp outputs (front, rear, center and sub) of my old Adcom GTP-550 pre/pro to the 5.1 inputs (external in) of my new Rotel RSP-976 unit, then I connected the normal stereo RCA outputs of my DVD player directly to one of the GTP-550 stereo source inputs (and keeping, on the other side, the digital outputs of my DVD player connected directly to the RSP-976). This way, when I want to watch some encoded dvd, I run it directly through the Rotel unit, and when I want to watch some non-encoded material (some VHS material, for example), I run it through the Adcom GTP-550, using one of its amazing DSP ambience modes (such as Concert Hall, my personal favorite for live concerts).

The overall result is just awesome, it’s great to have the DSP ambience modes of my old Adcom GTP-550 back again!!

Demetrio.