Read our full Rotel Tribute Series review here: audioadvice.io... | Chat with us online: audioadvice.io... | Call for sales and support: 888.899.8776
Read more product reviews & shop on our website: audioadvice.io...
Follow us on Instagram: audioadvice.io...
Raleigh, North Carolina Location: audioadvice.io...
Charlotte, North Carolina Location: audioadvice.io...
Ken Ishiwata worked for Marantz for 40 years. He had a special knack for looking at a simple piece of gear and figuring out how to make it sound a lot better without raising the price much at all. In his last years at Marantz, he became their international brand ambassador, but he was really more of an ambassador for great sound. He believed enjoying music was one of the best aspects life had to give and was passionate about spreading his love of music and great sound. The Chief Technology Officer at Rotel, Daren Orth, and Ken had been friends for many years and both had great mutual respect for each other. In the summer of 2019, they started initial conversations on how they could finally work together. The Rotel team and Ken took a look at the current Rotel lineup and were very interested in modifying the A11 integrated amplifier. It had just been awarded “Best Buy Amplifier of 2019-2020” by the Expert Imaging and Sound Association. The companion CD11 was chosen as the perfect CD player to mate up with the amp. Ken then came up with the initial changes and had prototypes of the new designs produced. In the early fall of 2019, the Rotel team agreed with the new designs and it looked like things were going to move forward.
Tragically, Ken passed away in November of 2019 before final production began on these. Rotel contacted his son and daughter to see if they were interested in Rotel continuing with these as a tribute to their father’s contributions to the audio industry. They wholeheartedly agreed, and the Tribute models were put into production for a fall 2020 release. The A11 and CD11 Tribute models come from the very heart of the Rotel value lineup with both of them being well below $1000 a unit. The Tribute models bear a badge on the front and are available in a black or silver finish. Fit and finish are quite nice for the price with the buttons and controls having a nice firm feel. These units are quite simple in design and also easy to operate right from the front panel or with the included remote controls. Both have detachable power cords with good quality connections on the rear. With the front panel displays being of the same design, these two guys look great with the amp stacked right on top of the CD player. Their slim size means this stack will only take up just a little more than 7 inches of height.
We could not wait to plug these up and give them a spin. Normally I will take an amplifier and connect it up to speakers far beyond its price range, but this time we wanted to see how good the A11 Tribute could make a good value pair of speakers sound. I picked the Paradigm Atom, which is a small bookshelf speaker that sounds fantastic for the money. Obviously, we used the CD11 CD player. If you are lucky enough to become an owner of the A11 Tribute or both, the first time you turn things on, don’t worry if you have the volume level where you think would be fine and get no sound. Rotel chose to offer a super wide range of adjustments across the entire spectrum. With the level set at 35 we could barely hear anything, but what this means is unlike a lot of amplifiers, you can really fine tune the volume for low level listening. From the first bar, if you would have been in the room, you would have heard me say “wow, that is sweet sounding!” This combination has a natural sound that is very pure and sweet, almost old school tube like, yet with all the details. The first track I tried was indeed old school with She’s Leaving Home from Sgt. Peppers. The layers and layers I heard on this track was just incredible. Every note and voice hung out in space totally separated. But what really got me was how smooth yet open the presentation was.