coveted “Best Buy” rating. This exceptional compliment and testament of Rotel’s electronic designexpertisewasfurtherevidenced knowing that the two runners-up that year also cam e from the sam e Rotel factory, even though they were sold underdiferentbrand nam es! Towardsthe end ofthe 1970’sm any m anufacturers had m oved to a trend ofproducing products that were m arketed on featuresratherthan sound quality or actual perform ance. M any m anufacturers sold products based on such things as unquantified measurements of power output or the newest fluorescentbar-graph display.Rotelhoweverchose to folow a path designing products based on perform ance,ease ofuse,sim ple elegance ofthe mechanical designs al with uncompromised m anufacturing standards and the brand has never looked back. By 1979, Rotel had fuly solidified its m is ion leveraging the heritage and tradition of its roots. Rather than endles ly chasing “features”, they continued to focuson designing audio com ponents that em phasised m usical ac uracy, superb build
quality,and afordabilty.This product strategy was easily evidenced by Rotel’s suces producing quality audio com ponents reliably and eficiently in theirown dedicated factories through Asia.Asa testam entto thisapproach is the factthatm anyofthese now 40-plusyear-old m odels are stil in service today to countles audiophilesand m usiclovers!
The 1980’s The 1980’s, considered by som e to be the golden decade forHiFi,saw the introduction of the Rotel RA-820B (later becoming the RA-820BX) which quickly becam e the go to am plifierofa generation and was the firstin a long line of products that cem ented Rotel’s reputation for superb m usical perform ance, winning the com pany’s firstProductofthe Year award from W hatHi-Fi?m agazine and receiving m any otherac oladesfrom the HiFipres .1985 also saw the introduction ofRotel’sfirstCom pact Discplayer,asRoteljoined the digitalage. In the late 1980’s Tom okiTachikawa’s son,Bob Tachikawa,joined Roteland wasinstrum entalto the com panyduring the nextphase ofgrowth as the second generation of the family m anagem ent. The 1990’s M ichiO rignalStack.jpgBob,a graduate ofthe University ofVirginia in the United States and globalin his outlook ushered in a new era for Rotelextending the brand beyond traditional stereo products with the introduction ofdigital
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker