A competitor for the RS520? What do you think?

ROSE Products RS520
#61

The Peter Principle states that employees in a hierarchy are promoted until they reach a position for which they are no longer competent. The core of the theory is that good performance in one role does not automatically guarantee success in the next higher position, as this often requires different skills, such as leadership. The principle was satirically described by Lawrence J. Peter and explains why incompetent managers can be found in many organizations.

It’s no different at my workplace. I have a wife (former classmate) and she hasn’t a clue about technology (hydraulics, engine and transmission).

For me, a manager who comes from production (a pragmatist) is better than people I have to explain everything to, so that they might have some idea of what I’m talking about. She’s simply out of place. No truck driver’s license, no technical knowledge, but raking in a fat paycheck every month… great… that’s how it’s been done here for decades now, and that’s why everything’s going downhill.

#62

This is what killed Boeing. No more engineers, too many males. Look what they got. Women and minority managers. Politically correct to please the government.
The engines fall off.

1 Like
#63

Promoted up and out.
Or what we called brown-neckers (You can use your imagination as to what that means.)

I’ve been on enough client sites where you don’t say what you think… even when someone tells you its a safe space to share your opinion.

@StandardModel
There’s more to what killed Boeing. Not so much DEI but that the management team was controlled by the bean counters.

When I took on a full time role as an exec… in one company… 1/2 my day was spent w accounting going over each project’s budget. And the burn down rate against budget.
So if procurement of an item was pushed back a month for whatever reason… they wanted to claw the funds back until you told them no, you needed it for when you did make the purchase.

Then the rest of the day was split w meetings of your indirects and then vendors… with maybe a meeting or two of doing real work.

Then home to handle the late night calls w Japan, Korea, Australia and sometimes India although those were early morning calls.

While DEI is a different issue…

#64

Uh huh. And you’ve beaten Mike Tyson in a street fight, too!

#65

Says the ambulance chaser listening to the MiniDSP DAC (not that there were anything wrong with that :rofl: )

#66

What do you think about this?

#67

So this is a colab w Douk and is based on their A5 or A7 model.

I bought an A7 but returned it because there was no sleep function and would run hot even though there was no music playing. So always on isn’t going to work. (The RS520 has this where you can set a sleep timer if there’s no music for an hour or longer… )

For the price, the sound was clear and nice… a bit bright… and you could roll op-amps. (And yes, they do impact the sound…) I have a pair of Burson 5i s that I was given to evaluate and write a review… but I don’t have an amp that would let me do that.

Is it a competitor to the RS520? Other than they are both amps… no, not really.
The Ampapa fits into a desktop / near field scenario only. Lacks a lot of the features… doesn’t produce the same amount of output. (You have to read the reviews for an explanation of what they found.)

Its something you could put into an office , or dorm room / bedroom .

For $250… I’d take the Arcam Solo Uno over it though even though its 25wpc @8 / 50 wpc @4.
The Arcam is less bright, a bit more laid back. (Although you have wifi not bt )

#68

Boris…

Amir has his site. He controls who can say what and when.
He didn’t like the fact I was raising questions that he couldn’t answer.
Or that I was questioning his testing methodology.

As the famous expression goes… if all you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.

And Amir only has a hammer so he can test only one set of things.

Which is your kinda crowd.

#69

Yes, it might not be bad, and for someone with a desktop system, it might be okay.

If I needed something like that, I’d rather go for a Wii M, EverSolo, or one of the main competitors like Bluesound, Sonos, and Cambridge Audio.

What would I do with that in the bedroom? I want to sleep and have some peace and quiet, maybe watch a little TV. How are you supposed to really enjoy music lying down? Someone who works from home also needs some culture in their workspace, so that’s fine.

1 Like
#70

I was thinking more in a teen’s bedroom or dorm room where its not just a place to sleep.

The WiiM amp or Eversolo amp is going to be more expensive.
The Eversolo Play is the AIO that’s $800 USD.
The Ampapa / Douk is ~$250 if memory serves.

So BS, Sonos, CA and Eversolo are all at a higher price point. There are some now questioning the value of the higher end Eversolos which have hit a price point that matches Rose. (Which should scare Rose.)
And there are still other alternatives at the same price point as the Rose.
The Korean brand Ella and then some other Class ND which I never knew anything about until I was googling around for any info on the Ella since there are no North America distributors. (They were just in Europe’s shows this year…)

Ampapa vs Douk A7? I’d say Douk A5 or A7 because its the Ampapa without the bling and I think less than 1/2 the price.

#71

No, you weren’t. Both you and standardmoron had your behinds handed over to you for coming in with shitstains on your pants, and now you are trying to convince everyone that you “won” by making them smell your crap. For you it’s probably winning bigly, indeed. Not for anyone intelligent though. But you too can tak to each other how you “showed them” till cows come home.

#72

Okay, I misinterpreted that.

So, I’d save up the money. I don’t like used cars either, unless there’s no other option. I want to fart in the new seats first.

But I’m not that crazy about cars anymore. I’m not a globetrotter anymore. My time as a trucker is over. I don’t want to be on the road anymore. In my job, in the public sector, a truck driver’s license is still mandatory for employment.

Sure, if you’re savvy, you can get nice hi-fi for little money. You have something like that too, which is why I posted those videos.

May I ask, somewhat indiscreetly, what you paid for your used 520?

I told Boris that I was going to buy the new EverSolo Play (without CD player, it’s €699 here) for my small system in the kitchen. I’ve decided against it and I’m getting another 520.

I completely agree with Boris: Just because something is expensive doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better or sounds better.

In the kitchen (where I don’t spend much time anyway), the appearance of the device wouldn’t matter to me. Whether it has a display or not. I stream via Roon, and I have a separate iPad as a Roon remote for my kitchen system. But I would definitely get the 520 again because it has served me well as a Roon endpoint.

Maybe I’ll get a good deal like you did, and the 520 will be in my kitchen. :muscle:t2:

#73

Man… Boris, you’re :sweat_smile: :rofl: :laughing: today :joy: :laughing: :rofl: but very direct again.

:v:t2:

#74

In terms of value… Here in the US, there’s an Arcam Dealer that is selling the Solo Uno new for $250.
(Depending on their inventory) An open box unit goes for $200 if they have one. Other dealers didn’t drop the price even though its a close out. So for me, if you don’t need a lot of power… is the best unit… warts and all. (Now that dealer is selling them all for $200 USD) Supposed to be Roon Ready. But I don’t use Roon so no idea…

If you need the power… I would agree that the RS520 could be a good value.
My unit was lightly used. I purchased it from a dealer who took it back on a trade in from one of their customers who decided he wanted to go into separates and the dealer had it out as a demo unit while he was trying to sell it.

It was priced below the B-Stock being sold directly from Rose…

If you are talking new full price for the RS520? I probably would have gone w Orchard Audio’s smaller Mono blocks and then something else as a streamer/dac/pre-amp . Not that I’m unhappy w the RS520… but that its not what I would consider ‘end game’.

In terms of buying used vs new… it depends… used from a dealer is probably the best option. Or open box / floor model on sale.

The nice thing about the RS520 is that in sleep mode… you can use it as a clock w weather… :slight_smile:

1 Like
#75
#76

Or just get a NAD with proper sub outputs, possibly Dirac, and infinitely better software…

#77

So Boris why don’t you sell your Rose and get a NAD?
In terms of Dirac there’s some push back that its not the end all. Lyngdorf reportedly has better room correction.

In terms of sub outs… again Rel bypasses this… but you can do 2 out if you use the line out… or a single one using both left/right channels into a single RCA or if your sub takes the speakers out as input and then provides other jacks… or RCA in to the sub then speaker out from the sub… YMMV based on the Sub.

There are a lot of competitors out there. Each w its own issues…

#78

Yeah seen that one… A bit of hot air.

You have a lot of DAC options.
R2R, FPGA and then chips from Rohm, AKM, ESS, and CS. multiple chips available. Then you have the op amps, and other bits and bobs in the DAC itself.

Do you need to spend a shite ton of money? No.
You can, but there are a lot of different DACs are different price points.

But you do need a DAC of some kind to take digital back into analog. (Digital Analog Converter). Even the USB-C to 3.5mm jack has a small DAC built into the USB side.

Just saying.

#79

Clearly spoken by someone who had never worked for anything in his entire life, and pays for whatever the salesman convinces him to buy by swiping his momma’s credit card while she’s not looking…

Why sell Rose at a steep loss to exchange it for something that would be only marginally better – I have my own ways of doing room correction. And it’s not like a 520 would be in my critical listening system anyway. Rose is there for Rose’s one and only distinguishing feature – looks.

RoomPerfect’s better (unless you also get Dirac’s bass integration and ART). Trinnov is better. Arguably, Anthem’s ARC is at least as good. But Dirac is much better than nothing, and not everyone wants or can design a good convolution filter themselves.

Sure… Except that REL isn’t a subwoofer, you get a cheap analog crossover, and it doesn’t do jack to help cheesy amps with load dependency… like the 520.

I have mine integrated well enough for a kind of system one would create around a 520. It’s just neither as easy nor as good as you could get from a device designed by company that knows and cares about audio, not just looks.

Indeed. Most (starting from Wiim) are better at that whole “audio” thing, and software, at the expense of not having a cute screen.

#80

Hi Boris

Okay, I’ll take a look at NAD’s all-in-one amplifiers.

:v:t2: