Got a new Rotel A-12 integrated amplifier last month and am very happy with it. The only thing I noticed (after all this burn in time) that I didn’t like is that some items with complex tonality, like Karen Carpenter’s voice… pure high tone with that special depth that made her voice so memorable was missing the latter. I was thinking strongly about buying an external DAC, but after reading about this item I thought I try it. GLAD I DID.
Not only do I now her Karen’s voice in ALL it’s glory, I hear ALL the richness in other items like pianos, harmonicas, voices, violins, etc. Basically any item where sound is made by vibrations controlled by air flow passing over chords/reeds of some sort (voices, harmonicas, reed instruments) or manually struck (piano, violins, etc). Note I’m a subtle but NOTICABLE difference. I also agree that it cleans up the background of noise and distortion so it makes it easier to hear items in the background that used to be missed.
Do yourself a favor and try it. You can always return it. But my guess is you’ll keep it.
YOU CAN THANK ME LATER…. Glen