Rick,
I've probably owned around 100 vintage receivers over the years. Although I design and build tube gear I have great admiration for the quality of many of the SS receivers built thru the end of the 70's. I have owned two Rotel's in this series and found them to be quite good sonically and esthetically very attractive with their more innovative look. As far as the big stink everyone always makes about a few plastic parts my attitude is that the overall superior appearance, quality electronics and reasonable prices far outweigh any psychological dismay one might have over a little chrome plated plastic that looks good and has absolutely no musical consequences. As a matter of fact, when I bought my first one I didn't even recognize that they were plastic until I read about it. Of course it obviously hadn't been harshly treated but something that spends it's life in protective custody on a shelf shouldn't be. I have also owned many, many Pioneer receivers of the era and although they are universally solidly built they are not universally sonically superior transducers and your Rotel will be a better instrument for musical enjoyment than many of those Pioneer's with their solid metal knobs and their unmusically bright top octaves. The one Pioneer receiver that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the companies receivers, in my experience, is the SX-1250. Pioneer pulled out all of the stops with that one and used all of the good stuff. Toroidal transformer, polystyrene caps, top notch tuner, etc. The rest of the models in the line, although very solidly built aren't even close sonically. I compared an SX-850 one day with a Sansui 9090 in a side by side listening test with speakers and volumes that would negate any power differences and it wasn't even close-the Sansui was superior in every way. If you look under the hood you find that in the next generation they jumped the top of the line up to a higher claimed power rated model SX-1980 but it uses the same power supply that was used in the earlier 1250?!? And it sells for crazy prices and to my ears does not sound as good as the 1250. I'm 56 years old and I have been involved with music my whole life and the best advice that I can give you is to listen and judge equipment with your own ears. So many people express strong opinions, that to be valid, would have to be backed up by actual listening experience and direct comparisons which they have never done. Since the internet has provided an individual with a chance to grab some spotlight time, I have seen this non-expert/expert phenomena become the basis of far too many purchasing decisions. The truth is that there are some models from lesser recognized companies of that era that are superior to what these SpinMasters have declared to be superior. Actually LISTEN to some of those receivers from the likes of; Nikko, Onkyo, Concept, Harman Kardon and the early US made Sherwoods and you will find many superior products at bargain products. I have also found that almost any Sansui of the period will reproduce life-like music that is well balanced across the frequency spectrum and if you want to own the best receiver ever made find a Sansui 1000a in good shape and just listen-you will be amazed. Of course it is a tube unit and that makes some hesitant because of their lack of experience. Just enjoy your Rotel and appreciate what a bargain it is for $60 compared to an SX-850 that would cost you $300.