The Cutting Edge

s t a r t m e u p
Rotel RX-1052 and Outlaw Audio RR 2150
Stereo Receivers
Jim Hannon
All but forgotten in the age of the audio/video receiver,
two stereo-only models focus on the music
During the audio boom period
of the late 1960s and
70s it was quite common
to see stereo receivers, not
only as part of dorm-room
systems but also in more sophisticated
and costly setups. The audio shops of the
day, often located outside the gates of
local colleges, moved these audio equivalents
of a Swiss army knife like hotcakes,
and GIs were able to buy hulking
receivers made in Japan for ridiculously
low prices. While most of these flashy
receivers suffered sonically compared to
their separate counterparts, they made it
very easy for many music enthusiasts to
jump on the audio bandwagon. That’s
how I got my start in this hobby. The
market’s enthusiasm for receivers waned
in the 1980s and early 90s, and with the
advent of home-theater systems, sales of
multichannel AVRs
took off and the venerable stereo receiver
practically disappeared from sight. When
I was asked to review a couple of new
receivers from Rotel and Outlaw specifically
designed for two-channel applications,
I thought, “Are these guys nuts”
Both Rotel and Outlaw Audio may
be crazy like foxes. Rotel recognizes that
many audiophiles and music enthusiasts
prefer stereo sound for their serious listening
(and rightly so). For its part,
Outlaw Audio suggests that although
millions of AVRs have been sold, only a
small percentage of households use more
than two speakers. I can’t verify this
claim, but with the explosive growth of
two-channel digital sources like the iPod,
a high-quality stereo receiver makes a lot
of sense from both a practical and sonic
standpoint. Indeed, what sets these two
receivers apart from most AVRs is the
quality of their sound, and that is the primary
focus of this comparison.
Over the past several
decades, Rotel has gained a
solid reputation among
audiophiles for goodsounding
gear that’s reasonably
priced, and the
$899 RX-1052 definitely
fits this mold. It is an
interesting synthesis of the
“tried and true” and the
“new.” This stereo receiver
employs proven techniques
to produce better sound,
like using good internal parts and external
binding posts, and a beefy, custom
toroidal transformer mated with highquality
storage capacitors. Pick this
unit up and you’ll realize you’re not
dealing with a lightweight. Appealing
to analog lovers, Rotel includes a decent
moving-magnet phonostage, so there’s
no need to add an external phonostage if
you want to spin vinyl.
As for the new, the Rotel can distribute
audio and composite video to
four rooms or different locales in and
around your house, but you’ll need to
add amplifiers to power the other three
pairs of loudspeakers. What’s very slick
is that each “zone” has independent
source selection and volume adjustment,
so you can play jazz in one room from a
CD while others listen to vinyl or the
radio in different rooms, or switch to
“Party Mode” and play the same source
throughout the house. While I consider
the basic video capability a bonus convenience
feature in a stereo receiver that
sounds this good, some videophiles will
24 THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ■ SEPTEMBER 2006