Rotel announced two special editions of its extremely popular models: the A11 Tribute integrated amplifier and the CD11 Tribute player, each named a memorable (tribute) version in honor of the company's partnership with the late Ken Ishivata, an audio industry legend.
Fans of Hi-Fi have always admired its unique ability to highlight the most worthy, perfect products for modification, and then set musical benchmarks for engineers, plus offer changes in components to take sound quality to the next level - often only with a small price increase.
Describing the collaboration, Rotel Chief Technology Officer at Rotel, Daren Orth, said: "Since we both worked in the Hi-Fi industry almost the same period of time, I have been in the same audiophile circles with Ken for many years - like the Tachikawa family in Japan - the founders and owners of Rotel. We had mutual respect for talent and market position, and a long desire to work together, but this opportunity never came up. Only at the end of last summer, when the first discussions began, there was a chance, but the joint project became a reality only in September. The entire Rotel engineering team was delighted to finally have the opportunity to work with Ken.
A joint decision was made to focus on the A11 and CD11 products that Ken was already familiar with and successful in receiving numerous awards, especially A11, which was named Best Buy Amplifier of the Year 2019-20 in the prestigious EISA Awards.
The team believed that the integrated amplifier in the AB class (2 x 50W) A11 and the CD11 CD player were an ideal base to take products that were already excellent and turn them into something very special.
Ken made his initial estimate and agreed on the new specification with Rotel's team of engineers. The initial prototypes were then made by Ken and his own longtime acquaintances, the engineers and acousticians, and the final specification was agreed with the Rotel team.
For the A11 amplifier, we selected specially chosen, improved components that provided better sound quality throughout the signal path. All 10 capacitors and two resistors in the signal path were replaced in the amplifier stage. For the preamplifier stages, six capacitors, representing more than 50% of the components in the signal path, have been upgraded. All six capacitors in the volume control circuit have also been improved. Special damping materials have also been added to the A11 chassis design to reduce its "ringing" and to additionally isolate and dampen any vibrations inside the chassis.
Eight capacitor replacements and one resistor change were made for the CD11 CD player in the DAC cascade, and all nine capacitors in the power supply were replaced with improved versions. As usual, great attention was paid to damping the internal vibrations using a special material added to the top cover of the case to eliminate unwanted resonances, while further changes were made to the mechanical and electrical grounding of the CD player.
A11 Tribute and CD11 Tribute are available in Silver Silver and Black finish.
A11 Tribute integrated stereo amplifier will be available in autumn 2020
Having agreed on all the changes and overseen the creation of the first prototypes, to our deepest regret, Ken died in November 2019 before the project was completed. However, some of Ken's old friends and industry partners - including his personal friend Karl-Heinz Fink - volunteered to continue working with the Rotel team to complete the product and realize Ken's original vision.
As a result, the A11Tribute and CD11 Tribute have achieved better resolution and detail, while providing more musical playback with an improved sense of rhythm and time.
Ken's finalized A11 Tribute and CD11 Tribute models are ready for release today with a special "Tribute" badge in honor of the legendary man whose passion for music and desire for excellence made their appearance possible.
Technical specifications
A11 Tribute and CD11 Tribute are available in Silver Silver and Black finish.
A11 Tribute integrated stereo amplifier will be available in autumn 2020
- Rotel amplification in AB class, output power (nep,) 50 W per channel of 8 ohms.
- Toroidal power transformer with large power reserve of own design.
- Phono corrector input for MM cartridges
- DAC Texas Instruments 24-bit 192kHz
- Bluetooth codec apt-X and AAC for wireless streaming
- 4 analogue RCA inputs for flexible application, two sets of A-B speakers, screw terminals for 5 ways of connection
- remote control unit
CD11 Tribute CD Player will be available in autumn 2020
- Specialized CD drive with boot tray
- DAC Texas Instruments 24-bit 192kHz
- Analog and coaxial digital output on RCA
- Rotel (Balanced Design) Topology for Digital and Analog Circuits
