The Rotel RX 802 Receiver

This is a truly unique receiver. It is 24" wide by 14.5" deep by 5" high and weighs in at a very nice 30 pounds. There is definitely a European feel to the design. It is rated for 440 watts so should produce something in the neighborhood of 100 watts output per channel. The '93 Orion Blue Book says it was a late '70s model and sold for $500.

For the detail oriented reader, the beer at the back is a Shiner Hefeweizen.



Here is a view of the unit with the top off.
Construction quality is first rate. The Toshiba output transistors are mounted on a heat sink that runs along the back and bottom of the unit. The output board is very elegantly laid out and is immediately in the front of the outputs. All caps were replaced with Panasonic FC's. The relay board, immediately in front of the output board, had a problem with one cap in failure. All caps were replaced and the relay burnished. The AM board is the small board at the back right in front of the tuning capacitor. The FM board is immediately in front of the AM board. All caps were replaced. The phono board is at the far right of the FM board, mounted vertically and shielded. Again, all caps were replaced.

The tone control board is mounted at the front, immediately behind the controls. This board is barely visible from the top, under the lamp shield for the display, and is upside down in relationship to the other boards. This board was a challenge to replace all the caps, so I had no objections when Mike was motivated to do it. Thanks, Mike.

Here is the bottom of the unit. A small shield has been removed from the FM board for clarity. The tone control board is visible at the front.

Listening has just begun and it sounds very nice despite a complete lack of burn in. I will provide an update once it has a few hours on the caps.

With the exception of the tone control board this unit was a pleasure to work on. Approximately 80 capacitors were replaced. Only the two 6800 mfd main power supply caps were not changed. All switches and potentiometers were cleaned with Deoxit Gold or Blue Stuff as appropriate.

UPDATE: I am very pleased to announce that this unit has passed the very difficult Robert listening test when matched with the very respectable Kef Coda bookshelf speakers. Robert is a very senior and skilled technician and a musician to boot, so his unsolicited praise is highly valued.