Hi, I'm Eric. I'm a writer here at Crutchfield, and today we're going to look at the Rotel
RC-1572 MKII stereo preamplifier. I got a chance to take it home and listen to it for a few weeks,
and i really enjoyed it, and I want to share that experience with you today. You may notice that the
display is flickering in this video; that's an artifact of our camera usage, and it's not what
you'll experience when you use this component. All of the Mark II components are upgrades to
existing, very popular units that Rotel makes, and the Mark II upgrades are they put a new DAC into
it. It's a Texas Instruments DAC. They've also improved some of the internal circuitry, they've
made it Roon ready, and they can now play MQA files, which are very high-res digital files. One thing I
like about all Rotel components is this very clean front panel. I really like the buttons. They have a
nice tactile feel to them, they're easy to operate, and they're laid out in a way that I find very
intuitive. There's a convenient type-A USB port on the front for plugging in your Apple device,
and then there's a headphone jack as well, which I always like to have for times when you want
to listen when other people are asleep, you don't want to disturb other people,
maybe when you're working. Since this is a stereo preamplifier, then you really want to
make sure you have lots of inputs and outputs. That's its main job is to allow you to plug in
all of your sources and then pass the signal on to a power amplifier. So this one has four
RCA unbalanced inputs, including a phono input for moving magnet cartridges, which is very important
to me. I always want to make sure I can plug in my turntable. They've also got one where you can
plug in your CD player, your tuner, your aux...and then there are balanced XLR inputs and outputs,
which is very nice. That's the way you connect your audiophile gear. It's got superior noise rejection
and it's a great way to plug in some of your high-end gear, especially other Rotel pieces. And
then for digital sources you've got two coaxial digital inputs and two digital optical inputs. You
can also plug in your computer and stream through the type-B USB. I typically like to use my wired
sources, but for convenience and really very clear streaming you can use the Bluetooth with
aptX, which is built into this Rotel piece, and it's very nice and convenient but it also sounds great.
For output, I did mention that they had XLR in; you also have that going out so you can connect
to your power amp either with an unbalanced or a balanced connection. You also have two mono outputs
where you can plug into a powered subwoofer. So some details that I experienced when I was working
with this at home that I really liked was first of all when you plug in a digital source and use it,
the display on the front automatically tells you kind of what sampling rate you're getting
and what you've connected. I really like that, kind of lets you know what you can expect. I do like when
using the remote you can cycle through the menu very easily, and I find it very intuitive and easy
to read. I know exactly what to expect when I get to each section of the menu. One of the things that
you can do in the menu that I like is that you can do fixed source inputs. You can change the volume
level of things that might be...one thing is quieter than the other when you're listening to them one
after the other. You can bring those all up to the same level based on how your system works.
And when you first start out, the tone controls on this unit are set to flat response, but you can
change the bass or treble response if you find that that helps your listening experience.
So with this as my source unit I wanted to build a system around it that would work really well
with it, so we had the RC-1572 MKII with a power amp made by Rotel, the RB-1552, also a
Mark II. To really put it all to the test we hooked them up to some ELAC Carina BS243.4
bookshelf speakers. That gave me an opportunity to play some of my favorite analog music from my
record collection, and also dig into the compact discs that I have carried around with me for the
past three decades, and play them through the CD player. And I wanted to make sure that I had the
signal path as pure as possible, so I did use the balanced connections. I used the XLR connections
on the back of this machine to connect it to the power amplifier to get superior noise rejection
and really make it sound as good as possible. And then I used a digital coaxial cable to connect
the CD player to this stereo preamp, because I did want to make sure that I was using the DAC
that's in the preamp to get a good test of how that performs. So the strange thing about
assembling all of this audio gear is that you kind of want it to disappear once you're done.
You just want to hear the music sounding exactly the way it was supposed to sound, the way that the
artist intended, and that's something that I can say happens when you use this Rotel gear with
a great pair of speakers. It really filled my room with this really gripping, detailed
sound, and something that I like to refer to when I say, "What's the point of going for nicer equipment
is the goosebump factor." You go from where you're just listening to music that you're familiar with
and kind of passively enjoying it to, "Wow. I'm hearing something I didn't hear before
and it's making me feel something," and that's what a setup like this can do
for you, starting with these Rotel pieces that are really the heart of the system.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us here or leave a comment below.
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