Integrated amplifier
£4700
Back in the early ’90s, Rotel was best known as a producer of excellent value, affordable hi-fi. Its budget amplifiers, CD players and turntables were usually considered front runners, and rightly so. So the introduction of the high-end Michi sub-brand at that time was somewhat of a surprise, and an extremely pleasant one at that, considering the exquisite build quality and remarkable sonic talents of that original range.
The reviews were raves and a hi-fi legend was born; but, remarkably, those fine products didn’t go on to develop into a Rotel mainstay range. It wasn’t long before many of the engineering ideas from those Michi products found their way into Rotel’s more mainstream offerings, to a point where the company didn’t feel the need to keep this flagship series.
Now Michi returns in a very different form, but the ethos of delivering sonic purity, exceptional build and excellent value remains undimmed. The words ‘excellent value’ and ‘highend hi-fi’ aren’t necessarily easy to reconcile, but judge this integrated amplifier by class standards and it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the X3 offers
