Arcam or Rotel

Has anyone done a critical comparison between any of the following for
2-channel music:

1) Rotel RSX-1056 vs. Arcam AVR-250 or 300,
2) Rotel RSX-1056/RB-1050 (using the 1050 power amp for the front
speakers) vs. Arcam AVR-300,
3) Rotel RSX-1056/RB-1050 vs. Arcam AVR-300, in this case with front speakers biamped.

I am running Quad 21L speakers

I will be comparing these myself soon, but I am interested in a
cross-section of opinions from those who have aready gone through this
exercise. In particular, is there any really noticeable difference in sound quality between the 3 options?
(I can live with either Arcam or Rotel for HT so that's not an issue
for me).

 

I was at a dealer who had Rotel and Arcam today. Did a quick demo of the RSX-1067 and AVR300 with B&W store speakers. Pretty much a wash, with the Rotel a bit more punchy. The RSX-1056 in another room running Paradigm Studio 60's was also very impressive.
Anyway, here's my question. I always thought that the black circle on the front panel of the Rotel was a headphone socket. It turns out to be the IR sensor. Since I use headphones a lot, I asked the dealer how to connect 'phones to the Rotel. He didn't know!!! I can't believe I am the only person who has asked this question. It could be the deciding issue between choosing the Rotel or Arcam. Can anybody out there help?.

 

I cannot remember if it has a headphone socket or not... From what you say probably not.

So you would need to buy a seperate headphone amp, and plumb that into it.

There is a headphones / headphones amp section. Maybe ask in there?

Steph