Reference Receiver Reborn

Rotel RAP-1580 Surround Amplified Processor

- Mark Fleischmann

IS THE ROTEL RAP-1580 THE surround receiver that dares not speak its name? In keeping with the two-channel distinction between stereo receivers and integrated amplifiers, Rotel calls it a surround amplified processor because it doesn’t include an AM/FM tuner. But to my mind, the defining trait of a surround receiver is that it combines a surround preamp/processor and a multichannel amp in one box. So I prefer to call this an audiophile receiver. You say tomato... [Editor’s Note: I’d call it a surround amplifier, and I don’t think it’s the last of this type we’ll be seeing...but, whatever.—RS]

Life isn’t easy for audiophile surround products, whatever you call them. They are reviled from one side for not having enough features— and reviled from the other side for being, well, an oxymoron, as if surround sound shouldn’t even aspire to audiophilia. But there’s a determined cadre of home theater buffs who are thrilled by the dynamics and subtleties of a great movie soundtrack. Some of them even collect music in high-resolution surround and stereo formats. I count myself among them.

And I love audiophile receivers. I gave up on surround separates years ago, as soon as the first true audiophile receivers became available. Some of the most convincing ones came from Rotel, one of the pioneers of relatively affordable audiophilia. Rotel poured so much love, know-how, and aspiration into the RSX-1065 and -1067 receivers—with their distinctive front-panel heat fins and golden, dynamic sound—that the existence of audiophile receivers could no longer be disputed. Such receivers were like quarks, antibiotics, and Post-it notes: Once discovered, they couldn’t be undiscovered.

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