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how well would the Rotel RB-1080/RSP-1068 go with the RF83s?


Ou8thisSN

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Yikes, the old rule of thumb with electronics (yea, they even teach it in my labs) is that you want to be able to touch any electrical component for at least 3 seconds. If your outside chassis is this hot, I have to wonder how the components are on the inside. [:o] If there are no explicit airholes, then it's possible that the entire chassis is being used as the heatsink - something Crown started doing with their pro amps. QSC does it with a few of their amps too - at work they get really hot when running at full steam.

It never hurts to improve the cooling of your gear and theoretically it's supposed to increases its lifespan too. But before getting all gung ho with it, I would probably give Rotel a call and obtain a maximum safe temperature of the outside chassis - then you can just get yourself a thermometer and address your cooling needs accordingly.

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like i said, it gets hot but not enough to burn you, or even scald you or anything. And i've listened to music today for about 2 hours, at my hearing threshold and it didnt stop playing and i had no issues whatsoever. but i will take your advice and give rotel a call, see what they think. they will end this discussion.

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Nice lookin set up ou8.

Rotel designs some very tasteful equipment to blend in many enviroments.

They also "use" their heat sinks, they do more than just look good. When using the processor in the 1068, the left top side gets quite warm. Am assuming this is where this is where the processing and power supplies reside.

My 1068 would get much hotter than the 1080 ever did. They get the heat out of the chasis and into the enviroment so if you have clearance, (2-4" on sides and top) it will be gone.

I helped a friend set up a fan on some gear with the 12 volt trigger, as he was concerned, but my beleif is, if they felt it needed it, they would have designed it in there.

His gear still made the heat, it just made him feel better to be able to "force the issue" and dissipate it quicker.

Again, sweet lookin set up, enjoy it....

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thanks for the compliments, the sub should be here before the end of the week, and hopefully that'll be that, in terms of spending more money on completing this setup. i hope you can see in the picture that i posted above, that I do have the clearance they ask for in the manual. I have about 4 inches on the top and the sides. Yesterday I was watching a bit of basketball for about a couple of hours, and watching it very quietly, even then the processor gets quite hot, but again you say thats normal, so i'm hopefully just going to leave it at that.

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So, I bought the SVS PB12-Plus/2 sub and received that yesterday. It seems that if i set the main speakers to "large", i get almost no bass redirected to the subwoofer. If i set it to small however, I get, what i think, is the right amount to the subwoofer. I did have a couple of questions though. First, there are two crossover settings in the Rotel setup, one for the Speakers and one for the Subwoofer. Do both need to be set the same? Right now I have the rf83s set to small and crossed over at 80hz and the sub also crossed over at 80hz. I'd like to know why I need to set this twice, the manual isnt succinctly clear on this topic. Also, what is the point of pure analog stereo? that disables all bass management as well as the tone controls. Who would use that?

btw this piano black finish on the SVS is superb, it really looks very stylish.

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Did you read the manual? [:P]

Every receiver is slightly different in its bass management settings - though they should all perform the same functions in the end. I haven't had a chance to read the Rotel manuals yet, but I put together an article to share my thoughts on the subject:

http://www.klipschcorner.com/Articles.aspx?guid=feb5d669-1513-426d-a8fc-29f8aa90869f

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What i discovered was a quirk in the Rotel is that everytime i was changing channels or the input, i would here a pop comming from the subwoofer. It was kind of irritating. So then when I disabled the crossover in the pre-amp/pro and sent the full signal to the sub, and then used the subwoofer's internal crossover, no more pops... I'm wondering if this is a defect of the Rotel or am i doing something wrong. Also, I'm crossing over at 80hz on the sub with its own crossover, but I'm assuming that the one inside the Rotel is more complex/refined/better? any thoughts on this or similar effects?

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Just to confuse things a bit more...

I hear lots of 'cross purposes' here... Talking of 2 channel and surround processing capabilities?

Is your intended use HT or stereo playback?

If its stereo playback why would anyone be looking at a HT unit?

Many more fundamental things should be of concern than balanced versus unbalanced?

Do you plan on watching HD pre-recorded material? If so then you will need HDMI at the very least or ideally DisplayPort.

And 1080i is not the same as 1080p!!! Except for the larger display area, think of 1080i as 'kinda' <590p - its less precise than 720p! And do you have a true 1080p monitor? And no, upscaling a 540DVD will not result in true 1080p performance, I don't care what the box or the 18yo BB salesperson says.

My point is that while I read much concern about particular specs, I do not sense a very defined sense of what is the primary intended use. And to buy ANYTHING right now, you had better know, as buying last year's model may get you a good deal if you know you will not be using the new standards that are rather quickly advancing - or it may mean that you are investing in something that you will quickly grow out of as it is incompatible and incapable of supporting the new formats.

(And compared to the intended use, worrying about balanced versus unbalanced is like worrying about which color you want - black or brushed aluminum! Nice, but of no impact upon the more fundamental feature set. )

Edit: Oh, and do not run both crossovers! I would defer to the sub's and not employ the receiver's.

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my.php?image=dscf1921pc3.jpgwell i dont think you read the whole thread because my original intent was to just upgrade to separates for 2 channel music only. I went with the RSP-1068, a surround sound pre-pro, because I heard good things about it here and elsewhere, and it also would convert composite/s-video to component. The only reason surround sound capabilities came up is because after i ran coax out of the cable box, all the signals from the HD channels come in as Dolby Digital, so thats why we were talking about it. I dont need HDMI/DVI because any future device I get, be it bluray or hd dvd, will go directly into the display, so i can definitely do without it in the pre-pro.

btw: pictures of the SVS PB12+/2

dscf1921gu7.jpg

dscf1923or4.jpg

my.php?image=dscf1921pc3.jpg

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I read lots of it! Including discussions of LFE outs for subs as well, setting speaker to large, etc - none of which have anything to do with 2 channel. Ironically there seems to be more discussion pertaining to aspects relevant to HT receivers than to 2 channel pre-amps or amps. And you are evidently content having a HD player and listening to the sound on whatever is built-in to the monitor or 'down-converting it to component? Thats fine, but I wonder why anyone would need a BluRay or HDDvd player for that.

But hey, to each his own.[:P]

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So, I bought the SVS PB12-Plus/2 sub and received that yesterday. It seems that if i set the main speakers to "large", i get almost no bass redirected to the subwoofer. If i set it to small however, I get, what i think, is the right amount to the subwoofer. I did have a couple of questions though. First, there are two crossover settings in the Rotel setup, one for the Speakers and one for the Subwoofer. Do both need to be set the same? Right now I have the rf83s set to small and crossed over at 80hz and the sub also crossed over at 80hz. I'd like to know why I need to set this twice, the manual isnt succinctly clear on this topic. Also, what is the point of pure analog stereo? that disables all bass management as well as the tone controls. Who would use that?

btw this piano black finish on the SVS is superb, it really looks very stylish.

Ou,

if you notice in the sub set up of the Rotel, you have "no", "yes", and "max" I beleive. It has been a long time since I was in my setup menu, but if memory serves me correct, and your 83's are set to large, and sub @ "max" it will send your crossed over frequencies to both the 83's as well as the sub. Experiment, as they are very flexible pieces. Keep at it and you will get it dialed in. SVS makes some sweet subs, I use one of their cylinders.

As far as pure analog bypass, "why would anyone use that"? Well, I do in my 2 channel as I want the truth be told from the source, and if it lacks this or that, then it doesn't exist and I don't want my gear to try and "fabricate" it. I have some recordings that aren't worth the plastic their stamped on, and then there are others, well, they should have been etched in gold.

I don't get caught up in the theory's of "less components in the chain" as much as I want to know what it sounded like when they recorded it.

Maybe its age, but "Real" is very important to me, in all aspects of my life.

Again, enjoy, your putting together a pretty nice system.

p.s. How long have you had your 83's?

My 7's took a huge leap in bottom end at about the 14 month mark. How, why, doesn't matter, I am assuming "break in" and am content with that.

Bob

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We've had them since october, so far, besides the brand new soundstage i'm getting used to with the Rotels powering it, not much to report. Its just an all around sweet sound. Another quirk I noticed, that frankly shouldnt exist in a piece this sophisticated is that the RSP-1068 does not mute the pre-out for the sub when you change inputs or interrupt the input sound (ie when changing channels on the cable box). every time i change the channel, i hear a pop. That should be a very simple feature that should exist in all preamps, unless there is a special reason it needs to not be muted?

In terms of music, i dont think i color any of the sound. All the tone controls are defeated, so i'm assuming i'm getting a pure reproduction of the original mix, just seems on pure analog it takes out all the bass. not complaining, in stereo mode, i get a fantastic sound. On the Denon, however, in their 'pure direct' mode, they do allow for bass management, but everything else is disabled.

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The "pop" you hear in the sub may well be a ground issue. Manufacturers use many different ground schemes to accomplish or eliminate different things, and it sometimes makes one piece of gear not play well with others.

You could put a wire from metal chasis to metal chasis on the 1068 to SVS, and 1068 to cable box, to determine the root cause of the pop. Your cable should be run through a ground block somewhere in the house so the coax should be bonded and not the cause. Another quick easy option would be to plug into an isolator, just a 3 down to 2 connector for the end of the line cord which eliminates the ground pin on. These are safe so long as your wiring is up to code. If it still pops, I would contact the dealer and see what they say.

Typically, uncommon grounds will allow for ground loops, which can be heard as an anoying background humm, or louder, but due to the fact its only through the sub, I would question if that isn't the problem.

My previous 1068, and current 1056 both switched quietly, maybe an audible click on occasion, but never a problem.

On the Rotels, when you select "stereo" for mode, the inputs are routed through the processor to extract the low frequencies for output to the sub, then tone (even if set to 0) and volume circuits, and then to the outputs.

When you select "bypass" for mode, they are routed through the volume circuit (digital, not a pot) and then to the outputs.

I would by no means try to tell some one how "they should" have their system set up, anymore than I would listen to someone telling me how "I should" do mine.

Half the fun of this obsession of ours is the pain of getting it just the way we want it.

Again, enjoy...........

Bob

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could it be a defective pre-pro itself? the ONLY thing i changed was the addition of it, replacing the onkyo. Everything else is exactly the same, in terms of wiring, equipment, everything. should i try to hook up the pre-pro and amp to another outlet to se if that helps? I'm not getting a constant hum or anything. very perplexing. I'll definitely ask the dealer or rotel themselves.

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