HiFi Rose RS150B music server

REVIEW
Jason Kennedy
Apr 20, 2022

I tried another filter setting, it’s hard to choose when your favourite NOS (non oversampling) option isn’t available, and alighted on minimum phase, slow roll off, which turned out to be a little on the polite side. However combine this balance with the emotionally and musically raw ‘Pensacola’ by Joan Osborne [Relish, Mercury] and you have a surprisingly gripping, clear and powerful sound. This track often sounds too raucous and edgy but the Rose delivered its intrinsic message rather well, proving that full on exposure can mask the message if that recording isn’t cut for revealing systems.

You can get a better streaming DAC for the Rose RS150B’s asking price but not one with anything like the feature set on offer here, nor the video processing powers. It’s sheer flexibility is remarkable in itself, never have I seen different levels of fixed output before nor has filter setting been so straightforward. It would be nice if more of these changes could be made with the app but I suspect that the app applies to more than one Rose device. All in all however this product sounds as good as it looks, and it looks pretty slick.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: AV streamer, DAC, preamplifier
Analogue Inputs: One single ended (via RCA jacks)
Digital Inputs: One coaxial S/PDIF (via RCA jack), one TOSLink, one AES/EBU, one USB B, one HDMI ARC
DAC Resolution/Supported Digital Formats: FLAC/WAV/MP3, etc. Sampling rate for D/A conversion 384kHz/32 bit, DSD512
Music services/Wi-Fi inputs: Spotify Connect, Bluetooth, Airplay, Tidal, Qobuz
Analogue Outputs: One stereo balanced (via XLR connectors), one stereo unbalanced (via RCA jacks)
Digital Outputs: One coaxial S/PDIF (via RCA jack), one TOSLink, one AES/EBU, one I2S (via DVI), one I2S (via RJ45)
Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20,000 (+/-0.5dB)
Distortion (THD + Noise): 0.0003% (balanced, 1KHz 6.5Vrms), 0.0004% (unbalanced,1KHz 2.2Vrms)
User Interface: 14.9inch touch screen display (on main unit), Rose application software for iOS, Android
Dimensions (H×W×D): 123 × 430 × 316mm
Weight: 13kg
Price: £3,899