Over the top

[karatestu]

Well the plot thickens. How dare they do a preamp which makes you a cup of tea on a morning as well.. Infact for thwt price I woul be upset if it couldn't scratch my ass for me as well.

[Geoff.R.G]

Would be nice to hear it! Never got on with rotel gear in the past but this is supposed to be a step up so would be nice to take a listen!

Many years ago they were lower end, many a starter system had a Rotel amp or receiver.

I would never had called Rotel "lower end", just because (like most manufacturers,inc NVA) they have a "starter amp" at the bottom of the range.

I am talking 1970s and I wasn't really in a position to look much further up the range at the time. I had a Leak Stereo 30 with a Trough Line tuner and didn't feel the need to upgrade. It is entirely possible that I missed their higher end amplifiers but I certainly don't remember them.

[karatestu]

Many years ago they were lower end, many a starter system had a Rotel amp or receiver.

I would never had called Rotel "lower end", just because (like most manufacturers,inc NVA) they have a "starter amp" at the bottom of the range.

I am talking 1970s and I wasn't really in a position to look much further up the range at the time. I had a Leak Stereo 30 with a Trough Line tuner and didn't feel the need to upgrade. It is entirely possible that I missed their higher end amplifiers but I certainly don't remember them.

"didn't feel the need to upgrade"

That is so refreshing to read Geoff. Tell that to the poor sods who are constantly chasing their hifi dream.

[valvesRus]

The Michi preamp does have an ethernet network socket and can be attached as a network audio player.
This suggests that it can be used as a streaming device.

From a test report.

"A network port is also provided, but this is for control over IP and firmware updates, not network audio streaming, "


*

[Fretless]

Okay. That's clear.

[Geoff.R.G]

"didn't feel the need to upgrade"

That is so refreshing to read Geoff. Tell that to the poor sods who are constantly chasing their hifi dream.

Quite honestly Stu I tried a well reviewed amp (I can't remember what it was), and took it back, it was rubbish. Then when the Trough Line gave up* I got a Lux receiver which I used for some years. I stayed with that until it too developed a fault, which I had repaired, then replaced it with a Quad 34, FM4 and 306 set up. I still have that system, now with a Quad 405 II as well so we can use it in two bedrooms. The main system is a Quad 99 Pre, Tuner and CD player with a Quad 707 power amp that I bought in the mid 90s partly because my wife wanted something with a remote control.

My tape deck, Teac X10, dates from 1982 and my turntable from about 1979, a Thorens TD160 with SME 3009 S2 Imp fixed and an Ortofon VMS30. So, nothing newer than mid 90s and most much older. It's not about the hardware, its about the music and recent experiments with my own recordings of live music has shown that the main issue isn't the kit it is the material, records, CDs etc.

Yes, before anyone mentions it, I am sure there are better components out there but I don't really want to spend any money on Hi-Fi. Now, a nice pair of Sennheiser shot gun mics would be a different matter!

*In the late 70s early 80s you couldn't get valve tuners repaired easily, today it is actually easier but I don't really need another tuner. In case you are wondering why I didn't just get anew tuner, the Trough Line has a particularly low output so the Stereo 30 has quite a lot of gain on the Tuner input meaning I would have needed an attenuator.

[karatestu]

You have some nice equipment there Geoff. I wish I had discovered NVA in the 90's and I would have saved myself a lot of time, effort and money.

[Fretless]

I discovered NVA in the 80's.
Never looked further.

[CN211276]

I discovered NVA in 2016 throuh the Internet shortly after my interest in hifi returned after thirty years.

[savvypaul]

In the 1980s, Rotel were known for decent budget kit. My first 'proper' amp was an RA-820BX.

Now that the budget separates market has shrunk, they are doing what many have done and are looking for higher margins at the 'luxury' end of the market.