Soon after their 2020 EISA Award success with the Michi P5 pre-amplifier and S5 power amplifier, Rotel announced an expansion to their MICHI portfolio with the X3 and X5 integrated amplifiers.  The X5 integrated amplifier closely follows the P5/S5 pairing with all noise-sensitive circuits isolated from power supplies and dual ‘oversized’ toroidal transformers, ensuring delivery of 350wpc into 8 Ohms, 600wpc into 4 Ohms. The 600 watt X5 expands on the X3’s connectivity list with a fourth pair of RCA inputs and a phono stage that’s compatible with moving magnet and moving coil cartridges. There’s also DSD decoding and MQA rendering abilities, as well as a more advanced AKM DAC chip onboard.  The MICHI X3 delivers 350 watts of power into 4 ohms and is driven by a toroidal transformer that feeds independent analogue, digital and power amplifier voltage regulator circuits for optimal power isolation. Further measures to isolate music signals and processing from the amplification stage have been taken in the implementation of the direct-path circuit topology. The X3 has 13 source inputs, including XLR, analogue RCA, digital optical, coaxial, USB Type B, MM Phono and aptX Bluetooth.
