Rotel RX-875 1988 Black

Rotel RX-875

The RX-875  is a great receiver, and has that cult rotel sound - accurate and precise with tons of bass. It pumps out 70 watts at 8 ohms RMS but is probably way over that, and it’s stable at 4 ohms.. It is as loud as my 200 watt power amplifier. In fact it’s a dual mono design, this means there are two power supplies and two sets of filter capacitors per channel. Really it’s two whole amplifiers in one chassis, one per channel so the stereo effect is huge. It's small enough to use as a desktop set-up and powerful enough to fill an entire living room easily. I have power hungry JBL L5 speakers and this receiver did a great job. 

There are several standout features: Tone defeat, so you can cut out the tone controls and have the signal path be more clear. It has hi-blend for the FM section so the tuner strikes the perfect balance between sensitivity and static. The receiver is bridgeable with another power amplifier, the power amp of the day can connect to this and you’d get 120 watts of power!  And the main in and preout sections. This means you can use thisRotel RX-875  as a preamp to drive your power amplifier, or the other way around - use the Rotel RX-875  as a power amplifier and use an external preamp. About that, I tried this and was blown away at how good it sounds as a power amplifier paired with my CX-800 preamp. The phono stage is excellent and includes both a MM and MC option, you won’t need an external phono amp. I get FM stations with ease, the classical station sounds really good, because of the hi-blend. 

Cosmetically this is in good condition, and the LED works with no fading. The LED can be switched off while the unit is on, which is a feature i’ve never seen on an other receiver of this era. While this is not the silver faced vintage receiver look, it does look cool. Like it’s some laboratory test equipment from the cold war.  

I cleaned the potentiometers with de-oxit, and set the bias and DC offset to factory specifications. I also replaced the battery cage in the back with a new one. 

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