Rotel RQ-970BX Phono Equalizer.

Manufacturer: Rotel of America, PO Box 8, 54 Concord St., North Reading, MA 01864-0008; 800/ 370-3741, 508/664-4109; www.rotel.com Price: $199 Source: Reviewer purchase

As part and parcel of my digital home recording saga, shipping my phono-equipped AVA Omega III EC preamp back to AVA for the addition of tape buffers and a general upgrade reintroduced the Adcom GTP-350 tuner/preamp (reviewed in No. 64) into the reference rig. The Adcom is a fun unit, limited only by its lack of digital audio inputs and a phono section. If I was going to indulge in vinyl while the Omega III EC was in the shop, then the acquisition of a phono preamp was in order. After calling around to the Washington area's handful of hi-fi shops, I settled on the Rotel RQ-970BX Phono Equalizer. I couldn't find any reviews either in print or on the net so I went with a brand I've grown to trust, already owning the RP-955 turntable, RCD-955AX CD player, and RT-850 tuner, and a local dealer who, despite the expected tendency toward "more expensive sounds better," is a fairly straight shooter. Besides, the price was right. Its local retail competition all started at a grand and ascended from there.

The Big Rig. The amplifier is an original Sunfire. The CD players are the newly repaired Parasound C/DP 1000 and the Integra DX-C606 carousel changer. Analog is jointly handled by a vintage (ca. 1979-80) Technics SL-Q3 turntable and arm equipped with an equally vintage Shure M95ED cartridge, which sports a new stylus, and the Rotel RP-955 'table and arm on which is mounted the Shure V15 Type VxMR cartridge. Interconnects include AudioQuest Ruby, Kimber PBJ, a bunch of Radio Shack gold plated jobbers, Monster Cable, and some manufacturers' inclusives. Speaker wire is Kimber 4VS. Everything's plugged into an Adcom ACE-515 power conditioner, which in turn is plugged into a dedicated power outlet equipped with industrial grade receptacles.

Basics. The all-steel RQ-970BX measures 17.375" x 2.875" x 7.75" and weighs all of 6.8 lbs. The front panel has only a power switch and an accompanying LED indicator. The rear panel has a set of RCA inputs and outputs, a grounding screw, and a switch for choosing between moving coil (MC) and moving magnet (MM) cartridges. The MC section has an input sensitivity of 210 microvolts and an input impedance of 100 ohms. The MM section has an input sensitivity of 2.5 mV and an impedance of 47K ohms. The output sensitivity is 150 mV with an impedance of 100 ohms. S/N ratios are 70 dB for the MC section and 75dB for the MM section.

Setup. The RQ-970BX, like virtually any outboard phono section, is a snap to set up. The turntable's interconnects were plugged into the unit's inputs, and the unit's outputs were ...