New MKII Rotel home theater products add Dirac Live room correction

[Flak]

Rotel introduces RSP-1576MKII Surround Processor and RAP-1580MKII Amplified Surround Processor now with Dirac Live room correction support
The RSP-1576MKII Surround Sound supports theaters of up to 7.1.4 channels for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio formats, the surround processor features Dirac Live Full room correction and a measurement microphone.
Dirac Live Full enables 20Hz – 20kHz automatic frequency and time domain adjustments
The RAP-1580MKII Amplified Surround Processor includes a license for Dirac Live LE room correction - delivering adjustments in the most difficult frequency region from 20Hz to 500Hz.

 

[Vasr]

Very nice!

The 1576 at US$3500 MSRP beats the Monoprice pricing for a pre/pro. Haven't looked at the feature comparisons.

No balanced outs though.

https://www.dagogo.com/rotel-launches-rsp-1576mkii-rap-1580mkii-surround-processors/
for pictures and details

 

[Vasr]

Hmmm... with PCB screws missing and sloppy alignment of components, I wonder if they just rushed through photos of "vaporware".

 

[Flak]

Very nice!

The 1576 at US$3500 MSRP beats the Monoprice pricing for a pre/pro. Haven't looked at the feature comparisons.

No balanced outs though.

https://www.dagogo.com/rotel-launches-rsp-1576mkii-rap-1580mkii-surround-processors/
for pictures and details

As usual, it depends on requirements... it costs less but features fewer channels (which could be useful for Dirac Live Bass Control if desired)

 

[Vasr]

Totally fake photos. Some of the display looks to be photoshopped. They should tell their PR guys that displays don't usually have serif fonts. I am not sure but it seems like colored DTS logo photoshopped on a mnochrome/gray scale screen.

 

[jomark911]

RAP-1580MKII has only 7 channels of amplification. That means that the only one height pair of speakers needs external amplification , just to conform with atmos.
Funny.

 

[da Choge]

Unlike the AVRs from Sound United and others, I think I read in a review of a former Rotel AVR, that the front channels and unamplified channels are not re-assignable, which if true, means that you could not reassign the amplified channels to the height channels (instead of the fronts), and leave the front channel only to its preouts to be amplified externally, using the internal amps for the remainder of the channels. Does anyone know if that is true for this new Rotel MkII AVR?

 

[hmt]

Made by Rotel in China. No Balance Outs. Charge $3500.

 

[ta240]

Made by Rotel in China. No Balance Outs. Charge $3500.

It is funny that as everything shifts to being made there the prices do not go down based on cheaper production costs.

 

[Vasr]

It is funny that as everything shifts to being made there the prices do not go down based on cheaper production costs.

The other way to look at it is that it may be far more expensive or not economically viable to do it without going that route. In reality, it is not just production costs, it is also the ability to scale to volumes needed (e.g., iPhones), get streamlined supply chains required for the unit, set up the entire assembly line with fixed costs, get time-to-market guarantees, etc.

Some companies like Schiit manage to do it but it is not very scalable in equipment complexity or volume. It does put limits on how much they can branch out into different products if they wanted to.

 

[Krobar]

Unlike the AVRs from Sound United and others, I think I read in a review of a former Rotel AVR, that the front channels and unamplified channels are not re-assignable, which if true, means that you could not reassign the amplified channels to the height channels (instead of the fronts), and leave the front channel only to its preouts to be amplified externally, using the internal amps for the remainder of the channels. Does anyone know if that is true for this new Rotel MkII AVR?

The RAP-1580MKII can reassign any channels to height channels according to the product release info.

 

[GD Fan]

I don't think we've seen any Rotel products reviewed here. This would be a good start.

 

[ta240]

The other way to look at it is that it may be far more expensive or not economically viable to do it without going that route. In reality, it is not just production costs, it is also the ability to scale to volumes needed (e.g., iPhones), get streamlined supply chains required for the unit, set up the entire assembly line with fixed costs, get time-to-market guarantees, etc.

Some companies like Schiit manage to do it but it is not very scalable in equipment complexity or volume. It does put limits on how much they can branch out into different products if they wanted to.

I get that a lot of production ability is gone from many countries but up until recently there were still high end offerings from that were built in companies 'home countries'; but they are going away fast. A lot of these higher end products I can't imagine selling in numbers that would need to be scaled up.

I still find it funny and sad that in a time when so many people are second guessing the actions of our past leaders based on modern standards we are in mass willing to overlook funding the horrific treatment of millions of people because we want an endless supply of shiny new products and their government co-owns the manufacturing.

 

[da Choge]

The RAP-1580MKII can reassign any channels to height channels according to the product release info.

That's good to hear. Being only a 7-channel internally-amped AVR, I would think one might want to run the front L & R channels, at least, through a nice high-quality external amp.

 

[Newman]

Hmmm... with PCB screws missing and sloppy alignment of components, I wonder if they just rushed through photos of "vaporware".

View attachment 81996

View attachment 81997

Those photos are identical on the RSP-1576 'Mk 1' webpage, so they are actually pretty old and repurposed for the new model's page.

 

[Newman]

Made by Rotel in China. No Balance Outs. Charge $3500.

What exactly is the negative aspect of unbalanced outputs, for the short-run cabling that would normally apply to this unit?

And what is the positive aspect of balanced outputs that are, in almost every case of realistic competitors for this model, derived from unbalanced outputs via an unbalanced-to-balanced converter?

 

[krizvi786]

Does this support dolby vision? Doesnt say

 

[FrantzM]

What exactly is the negative aspect of unbalanced outputs, for the short-run cabling that would normally apply to this unit?

And what is the positive aspect of balanced outputs that are, in almost every case of realistic competitors for this model, derived from unbalanced outputs via an unbalanced-to-balanced converter?

Hi

not using balanced at the moment, in spite of long runs but many of us have come to realize the virtues of powered/active speakers. We would like to see balanced and healthy (>4 Volts) outputs on all channel from an expensive Pre/Pro. And at $3500, it is.

 

[krizvi786]

RAP-1580MKII has only 7 channels of amplification. That means that the only one height pair of speakers needs external amplification , just to conform with atmos.
Funny.

Weird

 

[North_Sky]

We need to measure this bad boy.