Интегральные усилители — Rotel A8

The Rotel A8 is the entry integrated amplifier in the current range, a Class A/B stereo design aimed at a balance of power, size, efficiency and cost. An in-house manufactured, high current toroidal transformer powers the circuit, and the input set covers three line-level RCA sources and a moving magnet phono stage. Black and silver finishes are available.

Key specs that matter

The A8 is rated at 30 W per channel into 8 ohm and 40 W per channel into 4 ohm. THD and intermodulation distortion are both below 0.03%, and the damping factor is 80. Line inputs cover 10 Hz to 100 kHz within -0.5 dB and +0 dB, and the phono input covers 20 Hz to 20 kHz with the same tolerance. With A-weighting, line signal-to-noise is 90 dB at maximum volume and 102 dB at minimum volume, while phono reaches 80 dB. Line sensitivity is 180 mV at 60 kilohm impedance, and the MM stage needs 2.5 mV at 40 kilohm. Overload is 4 V on line inputs and 50 mV on phono.

Engineering and use context

Rotel uses high efficiency output transistors in the power stage. The case is 430 x 73 x 347 mm with a 60 mm front panel and weighs 5.8 kg. For the 120 V, 60 Hz US version, power consumption is 110 W, standby draw is below 0.5 W, and 340 BTU/h is quoted as heat dissipation at 1/8 output. The unit is double insulated and needs no earth connection. An auto power down selector at the back makes the amplifier drop to standby or switch off after a period with no signal or operation. Front panel bass, treble and balance controls act by plus or minus 6 dB at 100 Hz and 10 kHz, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack sits beside them. The volume indicator LED can be set to red, green, blue or purple. The supplied RR-AX1403 IR remote has a DIM key for front panel LED brightness and a mute key, handles volume and input selection and also includes transport keys for Rotel CD players. Speaker cables attach through 5-way binding posts. This model has neither digital inputs nor Bluetooth.

Pairing

A Rotel CD player can be run from the same handset, and a turntable carrying an MM pickup feeds the internal phono section, with a ground terminal next to it for the turntable earth wire. The handset also carries numeric keys for Rotel tuner preset recall. The remaining RCA inputs take a tuner or a streamer with analogue outputs.

Alternatives

In the same chassis, the Rotel A10MKII integrated amplifier raises output to 50 W per channel.