Rotel RA-6000 Integrated Amplifier

When we first saw the price of the RA-6000 integrated amp, we thought it might be a bit pricey, but that was before we saw its power ratings and how it was put together. This is one stout and very powerful integrated amplifier.

The class AB amp section is rated at 200 watts per channel into an 8-ohm load. This is not a fictional power rating as it's across the whole audio band at low distortion. But better yet, it comes very close to doubling down into a 4-ohm load producing 350 watts per channel into 4 ohms. That is pretty darn good!

Input wise the RA-6000 has just about everything the modern music lover would need. There is a moving magnet phono input, a balanced analog connection with three more RCA inputs, 3 Toslink, 3 Coax digital inputs, and Bluetooth aptX HD. In addition, there is a USB connection on the front for Apple products and the rear has a USB input for computer audio.

We do wish they would have included an HDMI ARC connector as this would have made operation with a TV simpler, but it does have plenty of Toslink inputs to accept a feed from most TVs.

All of the digital sources use a high-end Texas Instruments 32-bit/384kHz DAC. The Coax and Toslink inputs support 24-bit/192kHz PCM audio. The PC-USB input renders up to 32-bit/384kHz high-resolution music files, and unfolds and renders MQA and MQA Studio. The RA-6000 is fully Roon tested which means you will be able to see it and control its volume from inside Roon.

This is a very good DAC, but as we said earlier, the DT-6000 is really something special from a technical digital standpoint

For those of you considering pairing the RA-6000 with the DT-6000 transport, we recommend you connect the DT-6000 via the balanced analog outs as the DAC and the rest of the digital circuit is superior to that in the RA-6000.

You can configure any of the analog inputs on the RA-6000 for home theater bypass mode which makes adding it to a home theater system a piece of cake. All of the inputs let you set a different turn-on level, which is pretty neat too. Bass and treble controls are also on board and can be fully bypassed for the purest path, but we have to say, these controls come in really handy for some older recordings where the music is great but the recording is not.

There are two sets of speaker connections for A/B speakers or you could just use both for easy bi-wiring. You also get a preamp output connection, although we can not imagine why someone would want to add a bigger amp to this guy!

Finally, there are a pair of mono subwoofer outputs. We wish Rotel would have allowed you to cross over your main speakers when you activated these, but that is not the case, these just each send a full-range mono signal you’ll connect up to the input on your subs that then crossover the signal.

The big thing that struck us about the RA-6000 was its heft which obviously is due to the massive power supply. This guy weighs a shade over 41 pounds!

Like the DT-6000, it uses a Rotel custom-designed and made toroidal power transformer which accounts for a lot of the weight of this unit. It also gets the same type of Michi custom-made caps.

After reviewing all of these great features and specs, we expected the RA-6000 to be able to drive just about any pair of speakers with ease, so we decided to really put it to the test in our listening session.

Specifications

Maximum Power Output: 350 watts/ch (4 ohms)

Continuous Power Output: 200 watts/ch (8 ohms)

Total Harmonic Distortion: < 0.0075%

Intermodulation Distortion: < 0.03% (60 Hz : 7kHz, 4:1)

Frequency Response

Phono Input: 20 Hz - 20k Hz, 0 ± 0.5 dB

Line Level Inputs: 10 Hz - 100k Hz, 0 ± 0.5 dB

Damping Factor: 600 (20 Hz - 20 kHz, 8 ohms)

Input Sensitivity / Impedance

Phono Input (MM): 5.2 mV / 47k ohms

Line Level Inputs (RCA): 340 mV / 5.6k ohms

Line Level Inputs (XLR): 540 mV / 100k ohms

Input Overload

Phono Input (MM): 52 mV

Line Level Inputs (RCA): 3.5 V

Line Level Inputs (XLR): 4.5 V

Preamplifier Output / Impedance: 1.9 V / 100 ohms

Signal to Noise Ratio (IHF A-weighted)

Phono Input (MM): 80 dB

Line Level Inputs: 103 dB

Digital to Analog Converters: Texas Instruments

Frequency Response: 10 Hz - 90k Hz (0 ± 2 dB, Max)

Signal to Noise Ratio (IHF A-weighted): 102 dB

Input Sensitivity/Impedance: 0 dBfs / 75 ohms

Preamplifier Output Level: 1.43 V (at -20 dB)

Coaxial/Optical Digital Signals: SPDIF LPCM (up to 24-bit / 192k Hz)

PC-USB 

USB Audio Class 2.0 (up to 32-bit / 384k Hz )* *Driver installation required

Support MQA and MQA Studio (up to 24-bit / 384k Hz )

Roon Tested

Power Requirements (US): 120 V, 60 Hz

Power Consumption: 500 watts

Standby Power Consumption

Normal: < 0.5 watts

Network Standby: < 2 watts

BTU (4 ohms, 1/8th power): 1239 BTU/h

Dimensions (W x H x D):  17 x 5.875 x 16 ins (431 x 144 x 425 mm)

Front Panel Height: 3U / 5.25 ins (132.6 mm)

Weight (net): 41.47 lbs (18.81 kg)