It was a very good trip. My wife and I loved the little get away. Ronnie was very helpful and let me listen to a few different options. We were in the listening room on your left as soon as you walk in the door. He had the Clarity’s set up with all Rotel equipment. First he asked a lot of questions about my system and where I wanted to go with my system in the future. After I told him about all of my future plans for my set up he then had me listen to some receivers. First he had me listen to an Integra, then a Rotel, and finally a Yamaha. He played an Eric Clapton CD through a Rotel CD player. First the Integra; its sound was very good. Then he went to the Rotel and it sounded a lot better. It was like I was at a concert and Eric Clapton was playing on stage. At first listening to the Integra I felt like I was in a concert hall listening to Eric play. Then when he hit the Rotel it felt like I got picked up and thrown into the front row of the concert hall. For some reason the Integra sounded muffled and not as bright. The Rotel receiver just sounded so crisp and open. You could hear the sound of the pick on the guitar strings and the background singers. It was like you could almost envision exactly where the singers were standing on stage. Then he turned it over to the Yamaha, what a mistake. Now it sounded like I was late to the concert and I had to sit outside and listen. So afterwards he said that he just wanted me to see what just a good receiver could do compared to what I had. Then we turned the seats around and listened to the Clarity’s on the Rotel set up with the same CD. Now I’m not exactly sure what type of speakers we were listening to the first time because he had so many on the front wall and I forgot to ask; but when I turned around and heard the Clarity’s, I was blown away. I had to ask Ronnie was the tremendous difference because I was hearing ML speakers or the set up with the amp and separate processor now in the picture? He said, a lot of change was in fact because we were hearing the ML’s, but also a lot to do with the equipment pushing them. The sound was great and I could not believe that my speakers could actually sound that good. So after he blew me away with the separates pushing the speakers, he then moved them to the other side of the room to compare the sound to just being pushed with a receiver. Again the Rotel receiver sounded good and the others sounded the same as before but neither compared to the great sound produced by the Processor and amp combo. After that my discussion was made to purchase separates. Now the only problem is that I wanted a processor that did HD and had all of the bells and whistles to do HDMI 1.3. So I purchased the RMB-1095 from Overture for cheaper then MyerEmco was going to give it to me for. It should be at my house by the end of the week
So with all of that said I am now in the market and in search for a processor. Rotel does not do HDMI 1.3 but I plan on waiting a while to see what they do. I looked online and saw that Integra sells one that will do 1.3. But I would like to know from the forum if I should just wait until Rotel comes out with something or should I go with another brand of processor? Also will this make for an odd couple and not sound as good? Since I am HT almost 95% I would like to get a processor that will do Blue-Ray to its highest potential. What should I be looking for in the future of processors so I am not starting off on the wrong foot?
So with all of that said I am now in the market and in search for a processor. Rotel does not do HDMI 1.3 but I plan on waiting a while to see what they do. I looked online and saw that Integra sells one that will do 1.3. But I would like to know from the forum if I should just wait until Rotel comes out with something or should I go with another brand of processor? Also will this make for an odd couple and not sound as good? Since I am HT almost 95% I would like to get a processor that will do Blue-Ray to its highest potential. What should I be looking for in the future of processors so I am not starting off on the wrong foot?
