HiFi Rose RS150B music server

Having so many features does make the initial learning process a little steep for those of us not weaned on touchscreens; for instance, it took a while to notice that there are other icons than those initially shown on the home screen and that swiping sideways revealed more. I also got confused by the number of Rose apps available in the Apple Store, there appear to be at least three, two of which will operate the RS150B albeit one doesn’t do half as much as the other. With a bit of RTFMing all of this was figured out and I was able to get its server to take a good look at the music on a Melco N10 music server. The result in terms of what was shown on the app wasn’t terribly easy to navigate however as there is currently no way of showing just the albums made by a specific artist. Instead you get every track in order of album. The order in which the artists were listed was also unclear, fortunately there is a search option and it proved fairly easy to track down the desired tracks. This is one area that will hopefully be improved over time via software updates to this Android-based device.

When you get it up and running the display reveals a pair of bright yellow VU meters that twitch in rather a distracting fashion. Delving into the menu I found numerous alternative styles of meter to look at as well as the option to get rid of them and see the artwork for the selected track instead, and this proved a lot more useful and appealing. There is also an option to defeat the display entirely but that would be a pity after the makers have gone to so much trouble. Volume can be controlled on the box, in the app or with the handset and I picked the option to have a numerical indication come up when changes were made. Connected via its RCA outputs to a Moor Amps Angel 6 power amp and PMC twenty5.26i speakers the Rose delivered a detailed yet fairly smooth presentation that was relaxing if not totally engaging, it’s a polished sound that has some similarities to the design of the casework on the RS150B.

It is quietly enjoyable, however; not drawing attention to itself but delivering the soul and groove of whatever is played. As the onboard volume control is often a limitation in DACs, I bypassed this by choosing from one of many fixed output voltage settings and connecting the Rose to a Townshend Allegri Reference preamplifier. This had a distinctly appealing effect and revealed the RS150B to be a rather more subtle performer than it first appeared. I used it to listen to the new Esperanza Spalding Songwrights Apothecary Lab album reviewed at the back of this magazine, and found clear differences in the results delivered by Tidal’s Master and Qobuz’s 24/48 stream, with the latter being clearly more relaxed and three dimensional, thus much more easy to enjoy. The vocal imaging in particular was excellent on ‘Formwela 4’, and the way that the backing vocal is used to extend the sense of stage width also came across well.

I found the DAC filter settings page in the menu and used one of the two linear phase options to get a more engaging result with better timing, albeit only when I remembered to press ‘apply’. Anyone looking to get the best out of this Rose should listen to several of the options here as they make a clear difference to the sound and give it a degree of transparency that the default setting lacks. I listened to a variety of material this way and while it didn’t quite hit the highs that can be achieved with a more dedicated audio streamer the results were impressive for such a comprehensively equipped device. Chick Corea Akoustic Band’s ‘On Green Dolphin Street’ [Live, Concord Jazz] has plenty of energy and snap while John Fahey’s Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You: The Fonotone Years, 1958–1965 [Dust to Digital], containing lo-fi recordings of acoustic guitar, proved to be highly engaging thanks to the way that the Rose puts flow before detail.