The life of my 30 year old Rotel RA-314

[nad]

It’s a big post, but maybe you’ll enjoy it?



The key points of my Rotel RA-314's life……..

First purchased by my father in 1979 (coincidently, the year I was born) from a little local Hi-Fi shop that is still going strong today, found in the same premises and run by the original family, although unfortunately, the founder and salesman who sold my father the amp, passed away some 5 years ago.

The amp was used by my father daily for around 6 years until my brother (11 years my senior) decided he would claim it to play Jam and the sorts at the highest volume possible.

My brother used the amp for many years giving it a whole load of punishment, not physically though, which I thank him for.

Then it was my turn, at the age of 12 I claimed the amplifier and had quite a bit of fun, first up, I wired as many speakers to it as I could find, then coloured the recess’ on the controls in blue. Many happy but ‘loud’ years passed without it going ‘bang’.

At the age of 16, my ‘wanna be’ DJ friend and I was hosting a party, or should I say ‘happy hardcore bash’ (sad, I know) at a local village hall. The party word had spread far and wide and before we knew it, it was 7:30, almost time to open the doors.

We had a problem and it was big! The speakers we had rented from the PA firm had delivered the wrong ones. We had asked for active but they delivered passive and disappeared for the weekend.
2 Pairs of 15” drivers and a pair of horns to power! What do we do was the question?

I rang ‘mother’ and asked her to go in my room and bring the big silver box with knobs and buttons 15 miles to us, and be quick!

We chopped the Speakon connectors off the cables, connected the ‘bins’ to the rotel, turned it on, crossed our fingers and turned it up. Blimey Charlie, big smiles all round, the hall filled with bang, bang, bang, tisch. Great stuff, lets hope it lasts as we don’t have a backup!

3 hours later at maximum volume, the amp had now turned itself into a radiator, the heat coming out of the vents was immense, you could hardly touch the top panel! No failures, it lasted all night long!
The party was great, everybody enjoyed themselves and the saviour was the little Rotel RA.

In 2001 I left the ‘nest’ for my own home, the amp stayed behind for quite a few years until I visited the parents sometime in 2005. I pulled up the drive partly blocked by a big yellow skip, walked past the skip and noticed something shiny poking from under a pile of soil. Argggghhhh, my dad had just ‘chucked’ it in the skip. It had been sat under soil in there for 2 days!

I rescued it, hoovered it out, gave it a clean, removed the blue paint from the recess’ and plugged it in to my B&W 601’s and it sang! Great stuff, no scratchy pots, no hiss, no loss of bass usually associated with old and well used capacitors.

It is now retired to the ‘loft’ where it will stay for quite a while, hopefully it’ll still be going strong in another 30 years!


I don’t think an amp of today would survive a life like that.

[jaycee]

You should mail that to Rotel. They'd probably be quite proud! At least they should be!

[sakis]

since i am 30 years in the market of electronics and sound was most of it ....i have a million like these story to tell

some amplifiers not even factory made brand TENSAI sub constructor of akai i think managed to make similar gigs for 30years

we have clubs tilltoday operating with peavey first cs 800 ( that is a quasi )

may be a sticky thread with stories like that could be a hit !!!!

it is actually worth noticing that only japanese or us made equipment managed to do that

[destroyer X]

You should post something for us, would be much better.

Having picture you would have more people reading and posting here.

You are talking about something we cannot see...just a brand name and numbers.

And you did that in the other forum Georgejack.

regards,

Carlos

[nad]

Originally Posted by destroyer X

You should post something for us, would be much better.

Having picture you would have more people reading and posting here.

You are talking about something we cannot see...just a brand name and numbers.

regards,

Carlos

Sorry, I wrote it in a bit of a rush. Forgot to add the photo.

I also typed the model number wrong twice, its a Rotel RA-412, silly me.

Here's a photo......

[event horizon]

Originally Posted by nad

I also typed the model number wrong twice, its a Rotel RA-412, silly me.

Well just to satisfy you i happen to have an RA314 sitting here I'm not using it but it certainly works ok.

Nice story btw

[nad]

Give us an hour to get it out of the loft and I'll post some more pics, It'll be good to see what's inside the wooden exterior and I'll post them too.

[destroyer X]

I am already sending mails to friends, that, alike Sakis, may have the schematic, i want to understand, observing the schematic, the reason why the unit is so strong.

You told was too much hot to the touch and this was very, very, very impressive to me.

Sakis!. do you have schematic to uncle Charlie?

Post some pictures my dear friend, internal pictures.

regards,

Carlos

[nad]

Originally Posted by destroyer X

Post some pictures my dear friend, internal pictures.

regards,

Carlos

5 mins......

[destroyer X]

I have found another model schematic, was good to see the way they do.

I am not sure if all models are using the same topologie, but it is possible they use something alike.

regards,

Carlos