Sorry, posted in wrong thread. Deleted.
Incredible!
We are in 2025, almost 2 years after duffer5’s post and things are still the same… I can say even worse! I think hi-fi rose doesn’t know an old saying in the market: you fool a customer once, the second time he doesn’t come again!
…and yet, we are all still here, aren’t we?
And why? Because we are held by the sound they create.
HIFI ROSE is a product of the highest quality. The technical execution of the devices is impressive. As a standalone product, it is simply magnificent.
The only real issue is the somewhat underdeveloped control applications. Problems with OS updates are often quickly addressed with near-instant releases.
Moreover, there is remote debugging, which works excellently if you reach out directly via email with your issue. Some problems can even be resolved on an individual basis. Try something similar with EverSolo or Lumin, and you’ll understand what I mean.
I am sure that if ROSE’s software were as good as its hardware, we would be paying a different price…
Don’t forget to be grateful.
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Sorry, I think you don’t understand what I wrote.
I come from an Aurender and Lumin user and I’m used to other standards regarding a streamer. You probably haven’t tried a real streamer before… I’m sure that after you try it, you’ll change your opinion 180 degrees.
I made the mistake of buying rose hi-fi products 4 months ago and since then I regret that mistake every day!
Try to read the whole thread, or at least duffer5’s posts, and maybe you’ll understand that it’s not just the software that’s the problem…
And no, we are not all here! Some managed to sell their rose hi-fi products, with big losses it’s true, and went to other serious brands!
We just have to accept that we made a mistake, deceived by marketing, and also accept a financial loss.
I also think that you should grow up and stop putting pictures of BMW cars on your profile picture! Tell everything about yourself! 
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Vic,
Well said. In a sense, the excellence of the hardware is an impediment because it makes the gap in comparison with the software even greater.
Still where else can we get close. Nowhere.
StandardModel
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It might be much easier, really. Rose started making solid products that had some unique features (albeit with underdeveloped software) at a moderately premium price. But HiFi is a tough business, you need to have either very high volume or very high margin, and Rose, like many others before, discovered that you can easily sell products that require no development effort (130) and serve no practical purpose (130, 720), or just aren’t very good (160) and audiophiles would still gobble them up as long as enough woo-woo words are included in the product description.
How sustainable that business model is remains to be seen, but FraudioQuest, BS Audio and the like have been in business for decades and are doing reasonably well.
Before deciding to buy the RS150B, I had a Lumin X1 for quite a while—a streamer with a separate power supply. It sounded great, but not three times better to justify the price difference with the 150. So, I went with ROSE and have been very happy with it ever since. And no, my world didn’t turn upside down… wait a second—actually, my bank account is still up by 8,000 euros. If that counts as a 180-degree turn, then sure! In a blind test, I couldn’t tell them apart 
Plus, the RS150’s display is way more fun than the Lumin’s.
Of course, you screwed up. When you bought the 130, you thought you could outsmart the manufacturer and create a magical combo better than what was originally designed. In the end, your setup sounds pretty much the same as a regular 150 (or, more likely, worse), and now you’re drowning in cables, switches, adapters, and all sorts of junk—desperately convincing yourself that it was all worth it.
I’m so done with his endless posts about how he’s spent a year looking for the FACTORY RESET menu. The simplest way to fix his Tidal streaming issues would’ve been just resetting the damn thing. But no—he flat-out ignores help from the developers. Well, what can I say?
So do something already… Stop whining like a drama queen …
I think you understand as much about car tuning as a reindeer herder understands trigonometry. 
But hey, I’m flattered that you’re obsessively stalking my profile—where, by the way, I can post whatever I want. Dude, just stop dishing out useless advice and try to get a grip on your emotions. Envy can ruin your life. Stay healthy
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Have you listened to the RD160? I have, I was impressed had it for a whole week.
I almost traded my Holo May KTE for it. Ultimately, I liked the combination of HQPE, HQNAA, and Holo May over the RD160/RS130. My RS130 is now mostly collecting dust but would make a great companion for the 160 if anyone is looking for a DAC better than that 150b DAC/Streamer.
Yes. Reminded me of an old Perpetual Technology upsampler/DAC combo I have collecting dust. It sounds quite inoffensive, and at a Topping price would be a decent component, if you like the looks.
Somehow I am not surprised…
You need to qualify it with “someone looking for a less transparent, accurate and resolving DAC than 150.” 150 and 250 are indistinguishable as it is (and I was trying hard to justify getting the 150 for the bigger screen) but at least they are reasonably state of the art transparent. 160 might sound pleasing (not that it sounded greatly different anyway) but it is, objectively, not as good at what is DAC’s primary purpose.
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Hello VIK,
powerful argument 
.
Anyone who has a little knowledge of electronics and physics (even if it was just school physics) should know that a large number of components in the signal path are counterproductive.
But it sounds better because people then lie to themselves in order to justify all their expensive purchases.
There are enough examples here…e.g.
The SFP module and fiber optic “burn-in” faction. The circle then closes with the power cable and golden fuse community…and the angels come with their harps and sing a song in the moonlight and drop angel dust at the same time.
All of this is then heard…but unfortunately they are not angels…they are sirens (mythology)!!!
The sirens look/call themselves differently today:
Snake oil faction (HiFi & High-End Mafia).
But everyone decides for themselves where they really “burn” their money…
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I found the ESS DAC on the 150 to be similar to my experience with Topping DACs. Clinical, thin, harsh on the top, boring, and just overall less pleasing to my taste. I’m happy you prefer your 150.
I preferred my RME ADI AKM DAC over the 150, the RD160 had a lot more warmth and sounded almost as good as my Holo KTE.
So can we agree in this subjective hobby of ours, that our taste may differ? I have no doubt in the confidence of your convictions, but why are you so certain about them being right and others to be wrong?
“Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one” Voltaire
“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” Bertrand Russell
IOW, it sounds exactly the same as any other, but you really want to hear the difference, so there’s a lot of audiophile words that mean nothing, but no indication of any real difference (because there isn’t any).
RME is a very good DAC. Should we believe that you have done a blind, level-matched test, or maybe we should believe RME who do not see any difference between the AKM and ESS versions
Absolutely. One absolutely can prefer tube amps, more distortion, speakers painted pink, or upsampling everything to DSD1024. De gustibus non disputandum and all that. It’s when you claim, with certainty, that there is some objective physical difference between things that can not be different based on every law of physics used to design them in the first place, and which have never been heard by anyone under proper test conditions that a line needs to be drawn.
You do realize that Russell was talking about people like audiophiles – willfully ignorant about about scientific facts but absolutely sure that their subjective opinions carry weight.
I personally have never been so full of doubt, and yet I am reminded daily of so many others, so “cocksure” of themselves.
Sorry, not all DACs or DAC chips sound the same Boris. I thought the same until I tried them myself. The differences can be subtle, but they exist. For me, the Holo May is my end game until I hear something better. By then, I may not hear much about 8kHz 
Sorry, but I have to ask again. Did you do a blind test after level-matching DAC output or not? If yes, great, we should present it to the AES and see Amir hang himself on his Klippel rig. Something tells me though that no, you did not, you just “listened” to them, and this is about as valuable, as far as objective data goes, as Darko singing hosannas about speaker cable from his pimps at AQ.
For someone in his 20’s an R2R DAC, which tend to have a dip in upper frequencies, unlike more accurate delta-sigma designs, there might be some minuscule difference in the upper range. I still hear to somewhere around 14KHz at sane volumes, and still there is no difference between AKM and ESS. Or between Rose, McIntosh, and Mark Levinson implementation (don’t have anywhere nearby to listen to Topping or Holo).
As an engineer you should know the difference between anecdotes and data. And the importance of gathering the data correctly.
Boris - I am truly sorry you can’t hear the difference between DACs. I too, have friends that can’t tell a Pinot from a Zinfandel. It really does make this hobby more fun when you can find source equipment that appeals to your taste.
So, no tests were ever performed, you just stared at the price tag of a DAC and felt warms and fuzzies.
You do realize that not hearing things that aren’t there is far less troubling than hearing them, do you? It’s usually called “hallucinating.”
When there actually are differences (i.e. a PowerNODE with a SINAD of 76, which is even worse than the 160) you can hear them, although even those are subtle enough. Being able to hear differences between a 150 and an RME though… sorry, but either you are that infamous Bat Boy that National Inquirer was writing about, or you are trying to deceive yourself (which is your prerogative) and us in the process, which is not.
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HMANZ,
Truer words were never spoken.
“Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one” Voltaire
“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” Bertrand Russell
There lots of studies proving that the more certain a person is about his facts, the less likely he is to be correct.
StandardModel
3 Likes
You know what they say about making assumptions…
Boris - You and I have been through this before… but let me indulge you once again.
I personally have saved 393 unique measurement files in REW each with many samples. So YES, I have performed tests. Thousands of times. Some might say I have testing OCD.
My dedicated blind tester AKA “wife”, who has better hearing than my own, is sick of my requests to help A/B equipment. I have implemented source switchers to flip between preamps, and use my preamp to quickly switch and validate what I hear between sources.
I have watched every review and even checked Amir’s Audio Measurement Review website prior to every purchase/demo.
I have purchased or demoed dozens of DACs some 5X more in $$ than my Holo May. Which according to GoldenSound and ASR has the best SINAD score re: Objective test performance.
Please stop trolling, no need to stoop to personal attacks. I’m happy with my DAC, and might be selling my RS130 not because it isn’t great but because I am getting better performance from HQPlayer upsampling from my personally built Intel NUC HQNAA Endpoint running AudioLinux and my self-built roon core. Both device that cost me a fraction of the cost of the 130.
RE: Amir - I am sorry but someone that listens to speakers in mono at crazy volumes is not someone I want telling me that a SINAD score is what determines how good a product is. I have personally, using my own scientific method proven his conclusions false.
For example:
Tubes add distorition yet I prefer how they sound.
Fiber drops my noise floor.
Sources and cables make small differences in soundstage.
All of these are minor compared to speaker placement, room dimensions, and room treatments.
This forum along with the others where you like to troll for audiphools would be a lot better if you kept your posts on topic and free of personal attacks.
That’s just my opinion. Peace out.
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Here Here. SINAD in the 2025 is just about the silliest way to rank DACs. Sure see if one is poorly built, but still the SINAD in these things no-a-days is so small its not going to influence the sound this way or that way.
Example a friend swapped his Filter in his Pre based upon ASR measurements saying this one is much better. He could not stand it and went back to the default one supplied by manufacturer. He is very happy. Amir did not like the roll off he saw. Sometimes manufacturers know what they are doing.