Exclusive: Rotel Launches New Michi High End Separates
Veteran audiophiles will remember Rotel's legendary MICHI series of 1991. This beautiful range of 'affordable high end' hi-fi products centred around the RHC-10 passive preamp and RHB-10 power amp, both of which are now collectors' items. After several years the company discontinued them, and the illustrious name went into retirement – until now.
MICHI is the Japanese word for 'direction', or 'way'. Rotel's concept was to offer much of the sound quality and build of crazily expensive US exotica while keeping the pricing affordable for mere mortals. The brand new range continues this tradition, with the P5 Preamplifier ($5,500 RRP), S5 Stereo Power Amplifier ($9,500 RRP), and M8 Monoblock Power Amplifier ($9,500 RRP each).
At an exclusive launch event held last night in one of Melbourne's finest Japanese eateries, Rotel Managing Director Peter Kao explained that the second coming of MICHI represents a huge investment by the company in the specialist two-channel hi-fi market. Great care, he said, has been taken to use top quality power supplies and output transistors – the result being that the products are over-engineered in every respect.
Said to be three years in the making, the new P5 preamplifier has a wide range of inputs, as befitting a modern preamp. It also employs Dual AKM 32-bit DACs, supports DSD and is MQA capable.
The S5 stereo power amplifier puts out a claimed 500 watts per side into 8 ohm loads and 800W into 4, and offers what Rotel says is "best-in-class audio performance". It's a dual mono, Class AB design with twin oversized, custom-made toroidal power transformers. Its M8 brother is similarly configured but punches out a claimed 1,080W into 8 ohms and 1,800W into 4.
Both amplifiers feature a high-resolution display supporting a peak power meter or spectrum analyser.
Like its nineties predecessor, the new range is expected to grow …
The MICHI by Rotel range will be available in Australia later this month.
For more information, visit Rotel.
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Marc Rushton
StereoNET’s Founder and Publisher was born in England and raised on British Hi-Fi before moving to Australia. He developed an early love of music and playing bass guitar before discovering the studio and the other side of the mixing desk. After writing for print magazines, Marc saw the future in digital publishing and founded the first version of StereoNET in 1999.
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