Rotel has returned to its 90s roots and relaunched its high end Michi amplifiers. These take the form of the P5 preamplifier (£3,299) and two power amps, the S5 stereo and M8 monoblock, which both cost £5,399 each. Build quality is in the substantial class with the power amps weighing 60kg per chassis with a specified output of 500 Watts for the S8 and 1080 Watts for the M8, and this isn’t peak power, it’s a continuous rating, so they are essentially monsters.
The P5 pre has both digital and analogue inputs plus an MM/MC phono stage which we are told is not merely included for specs sake but is a decent quality device in its own right. It has dual 32-bit AKM DAC chips, a class A preamp circuit and 17 independent voltage regulators. It also offers a Bluetooth aptX receiver and MQA decoding although the latter has not been finalised. Analogue connections are available on RCA and XLRs for both in- and outputs and you can control all the functionality with a slimline but solid remote handset.
The two power amps are based around huge transformers in an epoxy filled enclosures with massive, fan cooled heatsinks for the 32 high current output transistors. Everything is big about these amps including bake bean can slit foil capacitors. Build quality across the range is very high with glass front panels and anodised aluminium casework the former containing a TFT display on all three models. Those on the power amps can display the frequency of the signal or the power output as well as internal temperature.