The Rotel RCH-10 passive - A cheeky little number

Hi all.

Just recently I've been using a Rotel RHC-10 passive and I have to say its rather lovely sounding. Looking in to the history of this remarkable range from Rotel back in the early 90's the amount of care and engineering they put in to their products was very nice indeed.

http://www.thevintageknob.org/rotel-RHC-10.html

I've always wanted to give one of these a go. The thing was would it match with the Copper amp? Well as of now its most certainly fitting very well.

But hold on... What about the Croft? Well, that is still as highly regarded and it makes a monster standalone phono stage anyway. The Rotel is a different flavour. It's a little more open and wider which was to be expected. The croft however because of its bonkers upgrades does have a more rounded sound to it... Which was again only expected.

Feeding the Rotel with either the IQAudio or the latest Allo BOSS makes for a very nice listen indeed.

The build quality (go to the link above) is bonkers for a,passive.

It weighs 5kgs and its almost empty. The main dual mono pots are I think Ko-On but not sure about the switches. The movement and feel of the switches are sublime.

It's been in my system now for a few weeks so its still on trial but I have to say.... It's very nice.

One thing puzzles me though to which I hope someone can clarify for a potential upgrade. On the main circuit board there are a pair of resistors one each input and a pair on the output. Could this be a shunt design?

Thanks
Jo

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Black Adder

One thing puzzles me though to which I hope someone can clarify for a potential upgrade. On the main circuit board there are a pair of resistors one each input and a pair on the output. Could this be a shunt design?

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Unlikely, but a few measurements with nothing more than a multimeter would soon remove any doubt.

Always liked the look of the Michi gear, classy.

As it's got input and record selector switches, the resistors on the output are probably series resistors to protect against very low impedance's or short circuits on the record outputs.

:)

Thanks guys.

Yes the michi stuff is built like top of the range Sony. Beautifully built.

Thanks Alan... Ah, that makes sense. I'd not use the record outputs anyway.

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing that; another bit of kit to look out for.

Your welcome Rob. :)

It's nice to try something new once in a while. It seems this range (more so this particular pre) is a bit thin on the ground when it comes to buying one and also reviews. It's a very nice discovery.

My take on this is, I may be wrong, is that the 3.3k resistors on the inputs are to isolate the grounds from different connected equipment.

The two 100r on the outputs elevate the ground




Happy Days

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I have a review of the Michi pre/power combo from when it came out. Think it might be by Eric Braithwaite, not sure about that without digging it out. Good review, the pre-amp was tested with other power amps and was preferred to the power amp, the power amp was said to be a bit too 'laid back'.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tubehunter

My take on this is, I may be wrong, is that the 3.3k resistors on the inputs are to isolate the grounds from different connected equipment.

The two 100r on the outputs elevate the ground

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That makes perfect sense, happy days indeed.