6
About Rotel
A family whose passionate interest in music led them to manufac-
ture high fidelity components of uncompromising quality founded
Rotel over 30 years ago. Through the years that passion has re-
mained undiminished and the family goal of providing exceptional
value for audiophiles and music lovers, regardless of their budget,
is shared by all Rotel employees.
The engineers work as a close team, listening to, and fine tuning
each new product until it reaches their exacting musical stan-
dards. They are free to choose components from around the
world in order to make that product the best they can. You are
likely to find capacitors from the United Kingdom and Germany,
semi conductors from Japan or the United States, while toroidal
power transformers are manufactured in Rotel’s own factory.
Rotel’s reputation for excellence has been earned through hun-
dreds of good reviews and awards from the most respected re-
viewers in the industry, who listen to music every day. Their
comments keep the company true to its goal – the pursuit of
equipment that is musical, reliable and affordable.
All of us at Rotel thank you for buying this product and hope it will
bring you many hours of enjoyment.
Getting Started
Thank you for purchasing the Rotel RA-985BX Stereo Integrated
Amplifier. When used in a high-quality music audio system, it will
provide years of musical enjoyment.
The RA-985BX is a full featured, high performance component. All
aspects of the design have been optimized to retain the full dy-
namic range and subtle nuances of your music. The RA-985BX has
a highly regulated power supply incorporating a Rotel custom-de-
signed toroidal power transformer and custom-made slit foil ca-
pacitors. This low impedance power supply has ample power
reserves, which enables the RA-985BX to easily reproduce the
most demanding audio signals. This type of design is more expen-
sive to manufacture, but it is better for the music.
The printed circuit boards (PCB) are designed with Symmetrical
Circuit Traces. This insures that the precise timing of the music is
maintained and faithfully recreated. The RA-985BX circuitry uses
metal film resistors and polystyrene or polypropylene capacitors
in important signal paths. All aspects of this design have been ex-
amined with the final goal being faithful reproduction of music.
Contents (circled numbers refer to illustration)
About Rotel __________________________________________ 1
Getting Started ______________________________________ 1
A Few Precautions 2
Placement 2
Cables 2
AC Power and Control _______________________________ 2
AC Power Input
24
2
Power/Standby Switch
1
and Power Indicator
2
3
Auxiliary Power Outputs
23
3
Input Signal Connections
15
__________________________ 3
Recorder Connections
16
_____________________________ 3
Second Zone Output Connection
17
__________________ 3
Preamp/Power Amp Jumpers
18
_____________________ 3
Cassette Remote Connector
19
_______________________ 3
Remote Sensor Extension System
20
_________________ 4
Speaker Outputs
21
and
22
__________________________ 4
Speaker Selection 4
Speaker Wire Selection 4
Polarity and Phasing 4
Speaker Connection 4
Front Panel Controls __________________________________ 4
Volume Control
10
4
Balance Control
11
4
Tone Defeat Switch
9
4
Bass Control
7
and Treble Control
8
4
Speaker Selector Switch
5
5
Listening Selector
14
5
Recording Selector
12
5
Phones Output
6
5
Remote Sensor
4
5
Second Zone Operation _______________________________ 5
Rec/Zone Button
28
and Zone Indicator
13
5
Source Selector Buttons
27
5
Zone Volume Buttons
31
5
RR-927 Remote Control _______________________________ 6
Reprograming 6
Other Remote Control Functions ______________________ 6
Standby Power Buttons
25
6
Mute Button
26
6
Tuner Control Buttons
29
6
Numeric Direct Access Buttons
30
6
Volume Control Buttons
32
6
Cassette Recorder Control Buttons
35
6
Surround Sound Processor Buttons
34
6
CD Player Control Buttons
33
6
Protection Circuitry
3
_______________________________ 7
Troubleshooting ______________________________________ 7
Standby Power Indicator Is Not Lit 7
Fuse Replacement 7
No Sound 7
Protection Indicator Is Lit 7
Specifications _______________________________________ 52
STEREO INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER RA-985BX