Hi, my name is Eric I'm a writer here at Crutchfield, and today we're going to talk about
the Rotel A12 MKII. It's an integrated amplifier, and it's kind of one of their entry-level models,
but it's this great intersection of value and performance. It's a wonderful way to start
your two-channel system if you don't need a ton of power. Speaking of power, that's one of
the things that is a Rotel signature. They have a hand-wound toroidal transformer inside each of
their integrated amplifiers that provides a lot of clean power when you hook it up.
This one gives you 60 watts per channel into two speakers, and if you find that you need more when
you are upgrading your system, getting larger speakers, perhaps, then you can step up to the
next model and the one after that if you need more power. But 60 watts per channel from that toroidal
transformer is probably going to be plenty for bookshelf speakers or even smaller towers.
You can step up to the A14, which offers you a little bit more power, or if you find that you need
even more inputs and outputs then you'll probably want to step up to the RA line. And just like with
the rest of Rotel's lineup, these are really clean sounding amps. We've really tested a lot of them;
we've played them for our advising staff who you talk to when you call in on the phones, and
we've all really enjoyed the way they sound. They're very clean, they're very spacious,
and they give you plenty of power for for anything that you want to hook up to it. As you can tell,
these Rotel components are very clean looking as well, and one of the things I really like
is the way the front panel is laid out. It's very intuitive, and those slightly rounded buttons are
very easy to manipulate as you choose your sources or change the volume, whatever it is you want to do.
Now most of us are probably going to be sitting in a chair a little ways away, so fortunately this
remote mirrors all of those functions, and that comes with it. And this amp comes in black or
silver, so you can match it to your decor as well. Now this being a kind of the entry-level model,
you still have plenty of connections on the back. For analog sources, you've got multiple RCA inputs
and the one that matters the most to me, we've got the moving-magnet phono stage that you can plug
in your turntable to and start playing records, which is one of the things I've enjoyed the most
about listening to Rotel pieces at home. I like connecting my turntable and listening to records
for hours on end. And for your digital sources, there are two digital optical and two digital
coaxial inputs on the back as well. There's also a USB type-B so you can connect your computer, and
multiple options for remote control. If you use third-party remote control, you can do that as well.
So as I mentioned, there's a type-B USB on the back, but on the front you'll notice there's a type-A
USB that is very specifically for Apple products: for your iPad, your iPod, or your phone. Okay, so
we've talked about what makes the A12 a great machine in its original incarnation. Why did
they make it a mark ii? The mark ii is about the DAC that's inside of this, the digital-to-analog-
converter. In this one we've converted to a Texas Instruments 32-bit/384kHz DAC, which is very
impressive. That's a lot of resolution. You're only going to get that resolution when you're using the
type-B USB that's on the back. If you're using the other digital inputs, those are going to be 24-bit/192kHz,
so keep that in mind. And while they were designing around that new digital-to-analog-
converter, Rotel's engineers had a chance to work on some of the internal circuitry and components
and just improve them a little bit, so you get just that little extra edge when you're listening
to music. It's going to sound just a little bit better, a little more spacious, and there's just
going to be less noise. It just gave them a chance to really refine things on the inside.
They have made these Roon ready, so you can use that software to kind of enrich your experience.
If you have any further questions about the Rotel A12 MKII or you need a little help building
your system, give us a call here at Crutchfield and we'll help you out. Thanks for watching.