I'm fairly new to the hi-fi scene, but am technically aware of certain things. I recently purchased a Rotel RA-03 to power a pair of B&W 602 S3 speakers but the amp seems to get hot really quickly, and the protection unit was triggered once as well. the amp is on top of my hi-fi rack and has plenty of air around. Is this a problem with the amp or is something else causing it???
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The amp shouldnt trip the protection circuit without cause, get it back to the dealers for a check up.Btw, are you bi wiring the speakers? do you have them connected correctly?
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Thanks for that. I've contacted them (Sevenoaks) and they said to bring it in. The speakers are connected correctly and they are NOT bi-wired. i'm using "QED X-Tube XT300" speaker cable. i tried listening to it at a moderate volume for a long time yesterday and it again got hot relatively quickly but it didn't trigger the protection unit this time. i don't know why it gets hot quickly but otherwise its a superb amp, and the sound quality is just excellent, especially with the B&W 602 S3
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Took it back to the dealers who tested out for the day. they admitted it heated up quickly but it didnt get too hot. but they ordered me a brand new amp which i collected yesterday. so thats great customer service from both Rotel and Sevenoaks in ealing
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 maybe that amp doesn't like our hot weather ;)
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This is a more common problem than people let on, basically when playing CD's full volume/power of the amp is normally achieved by the 11 O'clock position (proberly when yours cut out) I think your amp is rated at 60 watts per channel and your speakers are rated at 120 watts(90db sensitivity) so technicaly your amp is down on power in relationship to your speakers hence it getting hot, if you had an amp with 120 watts per channel it would not be twice as loud but it would drive the speakers more efficiently,I can say from experience not all amps of the same rated ?watts output will have the ability to drive a given speaker to the same levels of output volumes,My Rotel 1062 amp would cut out after 4 hrs use (10/30 pos) but then wouldn't play past the 9 o'clock position after lots of probs they refunded my money so credit due to them and the retailer.
So it will run hot and cut out if you ask more than your 60 watts per channel
Regards
KW
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Hello James, I am thinking of buying the B&W dm602s and also the Rotel RA-03. I'm interested to know if you had the same problem with the replacement equipment?
Many thanks
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Keith: thanks for that info. may upgrade to the new audiolab equipment being released to combat the power rating issue
Ben: the replacement equipment hasnt cut out at all, but it still runs hot after a while. Also my replacement amp had different speaker terminals on the back and a different remote from my original one!! so maybe it was an old version i initally got!!?? i think Keith has given the answer to the overheating problem but also i have seen and heard that Rotel amps have tended to run hot anyway. i would probably advise you to listen to the rotel RA-03 with the 602S3's and then try them with the new audiolab amps coming out soon (sevenoaks say end of september). if you use the link on the left for HiFiBitz, they have it for the same prices as the Rotel. But as always: "listen before buying"!
hope that helps
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Thanks a lot for the reply James. It has been very useful. I am planning on auditioning the RA-03 and 602s soon, and will try listen to the audiolab amp as well.
Cheers
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No problem at all. The one thing i would say is that the 602s might, actually will definitely, sound terrible at first!!! they do take a while to break in. so make sure you find out how long the 602s you demo have been used for. also, if you have the room, i'd recommend finding a pair of 603S2 floor speakers. they're on ebay for around £250 mark. i have a pair of those as well and they sound superb with the rotel amp, in fact better than the 602s. anyway happy shopping!!!
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the heat is caused by high current being drawn forn the amp... decrease the amount of current been drawn from the amp and the heat problem will subside...
i have a rotel RA-1062 powering a pair of wharfedale diamond 9.4. (6 ohm)and it works well most of the time, except when played very loudly in the 2 o clock position. It will then overheat and trigger the protection circuit after about an hour at this volume.
When hooked up to a friends mission m35's (8ohms), it plays at this volume without incident. I did however hot have to turn the volume control to the 2 o clock position to get the same volume form the missions. About 1 o clock was just fine. When I do turn it to the 2 o clock position there is still no overheating problem.
The 6ohm wharfedale then obvioully draws more current form the amp the does the 8 ohm missions at ant given volume setting. However the missions are also more sensitve so there's no need to turn the volume to the same setting (1 vs 2 o clock).
what i noticed most about the missions was that the "mid/bass-drivers" hardly moved when playing very loudly, whereas with the diamonds the "mid/bss-driver" moves greatly and hits it's end stops at any volume setting past the 2 o clock postion.
And i do believe therein lies the crunch . With only one "woofer" the warfedales are thus having to work so much harder and move so much further from it's neutral position it's causing impedence to drop to very low levels in these situation, thus aggrivating the amout fo current been drawn from the amp even further.(And thus the excessive heat)
the missions with all its dirvers (3 woofers in total)does not place such demanding stresses(impetance swings) on my amp and it is thus able to get on with its job without being stressed to much by speaker induced stresses.
having said what ive said said, i still do prefer the wharfies when listening to acoustic music, they tend to bring out the character of the instruments more than what the mission do. I just dont turn the volume up to much. But for parties and high volume listening the missions win hands down.
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Wow this is interesting. I just got the RA-03 and some diamond 9.6's as well. Have not connected up yet but I will report back with a heat review. Zade, New Zealand.
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Hi,
I have been reading with interest the comments about overheating RA-03s. I am using this amp with a Miller and Kreisel sub/sat system, and I periodically have this problem where the amps cuts out (at about the 11 o' clock position). It comes back on after a couple of minutes. There's plenty of space for air-flow around the unit, but it does seem to get excessively hot. I took it back to the retailer today and will post any comments as and when I receive them.
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 Hello! B&W 602s3 is not a easy load. In fact it really drops to 3 ohms, so amps are running hot and you need very good internal power supply able to feed up the speaker with real pure power. If not amp will clipping, sound will be harsh, lacking in bass control and extension. Rotel is good , but there are better stronger choises.
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The amp has since been tested and found to be ok. (No surprise there). The dealer lent me an RA-06 which demonstrated the same symptoms, making all concerned suspect cabling or otherwise. I re-checked continuity (all ok) and on return of my own amp tried it again, with the same results. While I was in the shop, the manager phoned Rotel and explained the problem, and Rotel just came back with something along the lines of "If you play it that loud it will cut out", which I thought was ridiculous. To prove a point, I sat a 15" floor-standing fan in front of the amp and set the volume at 11 'o' clock for 30 minutes and guess what - no problem. I then cranked it to the 12 'o' clock position for a further hour and still no cutting out. I suspect it's simply a case of poor design and the amp is simply unable to dissipate the heat sufficiently. The guys from the shop are coming to my house to experience it first hand soon - I'll let you know what happens......
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One of the guys from the shop came round and soldered all the speaker connections but this made no difference. The amp has now been sent back to Rotel. Watch this space........
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The amp came back to me the same "problem" so I phoned Rotel and spoke to the chief service engineer. We had a long winded conversation and it turns out that in order to drive my speaker set-up without issues I simply need more power. It appears that at the 11 'o' clock position I am driving my amp flat out (I said I like it loud) and it simply can't cope with it. What I'm particularly miffed about is that I would have expected somebody (ie. the retailer) to be aware of this and advise accordingly in the first place. I can't believe this is the first time somebody tried to run this set-up or that this is the first time this problem occurred. My options are now either buy a small clip-on fan and attach it to the stand (that's going to look real good) or sell the Rotel and buy a higher powered amp, no doubt at even more expense. I'm looking at the Arcam FMJ A32 at present. Anyone considering buying a Rotel amp beware. Don't get me wrong - it's a lovely amp but it appears a little over sensitive when the speaker load gets demanding. Arcam, here I come...........
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Tony, Same problems I had with my rotel 1062, if you read my piece near the begining of this thread, I found if the room was cool it would last longer than a hot room ei. summertime even my Cyrus amp will cut out in hot weather but not with a fan on it. In a nut shell it's like running a 4ltr car with a radiator from a mini in traffic ! it's going to overheat, computers have fans in them to keep them cool because they are in warm offices, some makes are better than others but they all need decent cooling but then theres that salesman offering that mystical upgrade path that will cure all your problems, but are they that much better at the end of the day when you put a £10 disc in which some engineer has compressed and messed about with so it can be heard when in a crowded room.Try looking at the Cambridge 840 Amp plenty of power and it got tone controls which I feel is a must with CD's.
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Thanks Keith, I've bought myself an FMJ 32 since my last post and even with the small amount of use its had so far I'm confident the problem has gone away. The Rotel will shortly be listed on ebay....... I bought an RA 611 about 30 years ago and it didn't miss a beat - in fact I only sold it a couple of years ago and it was still working perfectly. Thanks again, but I think the problem is now sorted.
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