• Frequency response (line): 4 - 100.000 Hz, -3 dB
• Frequency response (phono): 40 - 100.000 Hz, +/- 0.2 dB
• Total harmonic distortion: < 0.004%
• Signal to noise ratio (line): 95 dB
• Signal to noise ratio (phono MM): 78 dB
• Signal to noise ratio (phono MC): 64 dB
• Dimensions: 440mm x 72mm x 286mm
• Weight: 3.0 Kg (now 5.5 Kg, with new floor plate and feet)

Rotel today has a good name in providing no-frills HiFi components, featuring what has come to be termed ‘British sound’. In this context, I was surprised to learn that Rotel is a family-owned Japanese manufacturer of audio and video equipment established in 1961. Perhaps the image of Rotel as a British manufacturer has rubbed off from the company’s 40-year strategic alliance with Bowers & Wilkins, based in Worthing, UK. But perhaps it is also due to the rather English or at least germanophone sounding company name. In the company fact files, we can read that Rotel was formed by Tomoki Tachikawa, is currently run by the nephew, Peter Kao and has had a major influence on the direction of Bowers & Wilkins, by setting up the global sales network for the loudspeaker manufacturer.

Although Rotel is primarily known for its range of High End HiFi components, including amplifiers and preamplifiers, they have always maintained a line of affordable, entry-level gear that boasted the Rotel design features and carried some of the myth of the ‘British sound’ to a new generation of audio enthusiasts. The Rotel RC-960BX is such a case in point. Paired with one or two of the RB-960BX dual-mono amplifiers, the combination of pre and amp could easily beat many of the contemporary receivers at the same price point in terms of tonal balance and punch. The wise lack of controls and the ability to bypass those that remained, paired with the separation of channels and tasks, brought something solid to the table that many other devices were lacking. Coming from a mid-priced Denon Amplifier, the Rotel combo sure was a revelation.

Although the Rotel sound can be described as sophisticated, the entry level gear shown here maintains tonal balance at the cost of providing that highly engaging musicality we have come to love from Hafler, Restek, and DB-Systems preamplifiers. The build quality shows some obvious sacrifices to careful budgeting: a plastic floor plate that broke during transportation and has since been replaced by a more solid version, plastic absorber feet that were an integral part of the broken floor plate and have also been replaced, a cheap but quite common folded sheet metal casing without copper plating, a single circuit board construction with the humming transformer placed directly on it, a balance control that is part of the volume knob and generally feels a bit iffy when trying to get the balance right. While the performance is commendable at the given price range, piano sounds do not extend into the room as well as on the other devices, separation of instruments is present but not great. The stage feels more confined than on the other devices, although there is a great center image and the mids are nice and full, features that are at once endearing.

I found the Rotel to work well with soft dome tweeters and generally speakers that would blend over occasional blunders. The RC-960BX is not a bad choice, if you are getting started in High End and need to purchase lots of gear at the same time. It usually holds its price when purchased used. Just make sure the floor plate does not get broken during transportation, because that really is a hassle to fix.

Sure enough the alloy fascia is a clear enough departure from the 840BX4, while the centralised volume control, limited-action tone controls and separate rec-out/in-put selectors are all part-and-parcel of 900-series practice. The phono input still accommodates both MM and MC cartridges, but in common with the RA-940BX, Rotel’s traditional shunt-feedback RIAA circuit has been replaced by one culled from its Michi preamplifier. The huge toroidal mains transformer and slit-foil electrolytics are a further departure from the 840BX4. And what has happened to those ‘tweaky’ Apycap coupling capacitors we heard so much about two years ago? The line stage is now based on op-amps from Analogue Devices rather than Signetics — a change from both the 840BX4 and 940BX. In fact the only real link between the RA-960BX and its predecessors would appear to be the Sanyo B817/D1047 power transistors used in its output stage!

Sound quality

This is a well-behaved little number, an amplifier that lacks the exuberance of, say, the HK6250 or Denon PMA-450 but which trades this for a little extra body, weight and finesse. Some of our most up-beat discs, and the Marty Paich jazz CD in particular, sounded slightly restrained on this occasion, with measured rather than liberal dynamics.

This feeling of restraint, this lack of colour and character prompted two distinct trains of thought. One group of listeners clearly valued a neutrality which, they suggested, did not stand in the way of the music’s emotive impact. Others thought differently, claiming the amp lacked a degree of commitment, sounding slightly bleached or bland. They even uttered that damning phrase ‘competent’.

Frankly the RA-960BX is not a particularly forceful amplifier. The music ticks-over with a certain security, giving the feeling of latent rather than overt power. ‘In control but wearing slightly over-heavy running shoes’, they concluded.

Conclusion

Not the last word in edge-of-the-seat entertainment, the Rotel RA-960BX is a very polished and likeable sound nonetheless: a safe and capable amplifier, functionally styled and endowed with sufficient power to manhandle the most awkward of speakers. Its music, however, has strayed from the signature of old and now borders on pipe-and-slippers territory. Nevertheless two out of three panellists said their ears preferred it.