Better for Separates Newbie: Rotel or Adcom?

Put your hard earned cash into a decent integrated unit. The monies you'd have spent on marginal interconnects can be applied to the integrated unit.
There's nothing wrong with buying a used solid state unit.
Many a unit comes up for sale on the gon that is only months old. The buyer made a mistake, is willing to take his lumps, and is selling just to get the mistake out of sight.