Hi, my name is Eric, I'm a writer here at Crutchfield, and today we're going to talk
about the Rotel RA-6000 integrated amplifier. It's part of their Diamond Series, and it's very nice.
As you watch the video you may notice that it looks like the screen on the front of the unit
is flickering — that's just a camera artifact, it definitely does not look like that in real
life. So this is a beast of an integrated amplifier. It's about 41 pounds, and I remember when I took it
out of the box the first time I said, this thing is serious business. It has 200 watts of amplification
for speakers at 8 ohms. My speakers are 6 ohms, so I'm pretty sure I got a good deal more than that.
So I talk about the solid build quality on this unit, and it is really incredibly solidly built.
It has a massive toroidal transformer inside of it, and that's what provides all of that power.
That's a Rotel hallmark: they always build their own toroidal transformers
to make sure that you get plenty of power out of their integrated amps.
Sometimes when you have a large power source, that can create noise in the circuitry, but of course
that's something Rotel took into account and they made sure to isolate all of the other circuits
from that power source, and this unit is dead silent when you listen to music. I think one of
the most impressive internal components here is a Texas Instruments 32-bit/384 kHz DAC, so any
digital source you connect is going to have very high resolution when you play music through it.
So there's plenty of buttons on the front panel to help you select your sources, because you can
connect a lot of sources to this integrated amplifier. I kind of like the rounded type of
buttons that Rotel uses on all of their integrated amplifiers, and there's lots of those here.
Also, a large volume knob if you like to go over and turn it up directly. You're going to have an
easy time kind of making those fine adjustments to volume that you want. All of those functions
you can access with the buttons on the front panel are mirrored on this convenient remote, which does
light up, which is very handy when you're watching television or listening to music at night. If you
prefer the convenience of Bluetooth, this unit does have Bluetooth with high-quality aptX coding
built in so you can easily listen wirelessly in that way as well. So you really can plug in
just about any source you want to this unit. It has just about everything. There are three
optical digital inputs on the back, also three coaxial digital inputs. There's also a ethernet
jack on the back for connecting directly to your home network, and if you like to play hi-res files
off of your computer, there is a type-B USB port on the back as well. Audiophiles will love the
fact that there are balanced XLR inputs on the back of the RA-6000, but there are also three RCA
inputs for connecting other analog components. And for those of you who like to play music from
records, there is a input for a turntable with a moving magnet cartridge on the back as well.
I mentioned all that power earlier that you get from the toroidal transformer, and there are
A and B speaker outputs on the back so you can connect two pairs of pretty high-powered speakers,
and you can easily switch between those sources using the buttons on
the front or that convenient remote control. The integrated amplifier that I usually use at home
is pretty nice, but I have to say this one blew it out of the water. It did a very impressive
job of driving my speakers and being able to listen to compact discs, for instance, through the
XLR connection, I was using another Rotel piece that is part of the Diamond Series to play my
compact discs, and connecting them through the XLRs I got incredible resolution out of the music that
I listened to. It's really impressive, and it's going to be kind of tough to go back to my usual.
This Diamond Series integrated amplifier was built to last, and it's absolutely the best
integrated amplifier that I have had at home. It made my speakers sound incredible; it made
my entire setup sound that much better. So if you have any questions about this Rotel
integrated amplifier, don't hesitate to contact us here at Crutchfield. Thanks for watching.