I spent a small fortune on my RS 130 and put in more hours than anyone should trying to make it work. Most of us have done. I kept hoping the promises of products and software improvements would be fulfilled but the latest update has made even basic functionality worse ( nonexistent in fact) and enough is enough. I expected superb sound and very good video for my money and patience. The video has never been good or stable, when it works the sound in audio is actually excellent on USB, but basic functionality? Garbage. The machine intermittently can’t see its own storage, its remote control is next to useless, the RoseConnect software fails to connect or loses the machine regularly, and the last straw for me is that trying to select songs to play make and access playlists is complete frustration. “The selected queue is empty”? The brain of the programmer was empty. The basic functions are misconceived, Byzantine ( convoluted and inefficient) and even then seldom work as designed. I have been a big defender of the machine and the company but enough is enough. I very much regret the purchase and can no longer recommend the company or its products.
Couldn’t have summarized it better myself.
I think all the amazing reviews out there are due to the fact that there is probably one 90% markup on these and the different dealers want to sell as much as possible.
I don’t know enough about hardware to judge but the software is just plain bad.
+10000 for both post.
I read also lot of reviews before buying my rs-250a. I don’t understand how rose hifi have so many good reviews : ok hardware is good but the software is so bad.
But anyway is a good lesson : never trust reviews (they probably paid by companies that want to sell lot of their products).
Now each time i turn on my rs-250a i am always wondering what will be the next problem (valid for hardware and software).
I don’t anymore enjoy my expensive machine.
I better bought a wiim ultra that costs only 399 euro
I somehow agree when considering the sum i paid for the RS520
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Yet my life is easy because i mostly listen to whole albums from FLAC files.
I also do the FLAC generation and tagging on a windows computer and copy the files to the internal SSD of the RS520.
A year ago i badly missed functions which make use of tags to find, sort and filter artists, bands, composers and so on.
I still think that more usable functions to make use of tags should be available.
I also never use playlists or watch video
I would want to use radio more but the functions are rudimentary and not overly friendly to use as compared to cocktail audio player i had before. There using radio was simply great. There was even a function to search and list local radio stations.
I hope for improvements
I have the RS250 and ripped all my CDs into the internal storage. I agree with HJK that "The selected queue is empty” is confusing and useless. I don’t use it, and save frustrations. I created folders from my laptop, and each folder is a list to play. I never use the remote control, just the app on my phone. It works for all practical purposes (volume, selection of songs, turn off/on). Overall, I am happy with the system.
I have the basic 201D and use it everyday in my breakfast room.
I use the radio, play tracks from the hard disk I installed and CD from the addon CD rom drive.
I have now owned it for over 2 years and apart from a few radio station issues a year ago have had no problems.
I thoroughly enjoy the sound quality with it driving a pair of LS3/5A’s
The functionality of the touch screen on the unit is OK most of the time if just doing simple things. I am not a great fan of the app but its useable and better than some.
The remote is just OK.
Some of the complaints on here seem to be from people who didn’t check out the functionality before they bought it which is their problem and not the units.
I wish I could use it as a server and I wish it had Tidal Connect but I bought it knowing it didn’t have these functions.
I say a thank you to HiFi Rose for giving me a piece of equipment thats sounds great and is fun to use.
I see so many of you struggling with newer Rose Products - while I’m still having my RS150, to be used as a Roon Backend only. I did lots of tests with it at the beginning, but Roon has more to offer, than any other built in media Software.
I was considering, getting an RS130 as a Streamer only because I don’t use the internal DAC anymore. But after months of reading about issues, I decided to keep my working RS150, mainly because I got used to the screen.
The Rose Software itself compared with Eversolo is several years behind to be honest.
For what I need it, its working. For the rest I don’t care.
I switched from the RS150 to the RS130, using it with a PS Audio Direct Stream DAC MKII. It is connected via SFP through USB using the SFP Hub. I really can not agree to the posts before. Sure, there are some issues via I2S, playing Roon only in DSD64 which was announced by ROSE to be changed in future. Using the USB port the RS130 works really good and the sound and the display are absolutely amazing. I am coming from a Eversolo DMP A8 and the difference in sound is astounding. Yes, there could be more done by ROSE regarding the software, but still I do not regret my decision switching to the RS130
Every software release brings new malfunctions. Software volume control malfunctioned and had to be disabled to get any sound. Now Playlists cannot be added to. Roseconnect will randomly lose connection and ability to connect. Queue list goes missing. Displaying folder content to make a queue or playlist stops part way through and will not load. Functionality was never well designed but now even that is mostly gone. By the time I figure out workarounds as we always have to do a new release with new errors will come out no doubt. It makes it very very very hard to use or recommend the product ( 150B)
As far as the comments about some people not checking out the functionality before buying, that may apply to one or two people but certainly not to me and others that have commented here. I checked out the manual and the claims carefully first and the reality does not match. It also does not cmpare to other similar products from other high end companies of which I own several, so don’t p on my head and say it’s raining.
I reiterate, when you get it working properly I think the sound, especially through USB, is outstanding. but video is highly unstable at higher resolutions etc. and you pay for functionality you do not get. So far. I still have an unjustified hope the problems will be fixed eventually but it is now a faint hope