I bought the rose rs150b few days ago. I used to use Nad c658 as streamer/dac/preamp going directly to mcintosh mc275 VI feeding the set of b&w 802d2. Beside that i used other preout from Nad for mcintosh mc225 feeding the set klipschorns in the opposite side of the room. My room is very good treated acoustically so I always enjoyed very deep, wide and precise bass when listening either one of the sets. When I changed nad c658 for rose rs150b I totally lost the chest punching bass that both b&w 802d2 and klipschorn can produce. I’m not talking about the house music bass missing. I’m talking about emptiness when listing to live performance on acoustical guitar for example.
Ok I admit rose has some real magic on vocals. The stage is sonically very wide with great separation of instruments. So I like it definitely but all together it is sounding smaller than im used to because this room filling bass is missing.
Does anyone recognize this problem?
Absolutely not, I use the Rose 150B with a class A pre and power amplifier and have a pair of Dali Epicon 6 which produce a very low bass, even that low I’m considering selling my Velodyne DD12+ subwoofer because I don’t use it anymore
I’m happy read that. I had that -no need for subwoofer feeling - with the Nad c658. I think rose 150b doesn’t like being connected directly to the poweramp in my case. I probably need a preamp in between.
it won’t be that there were too many before?.. 
I use my ROSE 150B with a Michi S5 and Dali Epicon 6 and the Bass is perfect. Really strong and low.
Ok. Nice to read rose rs150b works good directly on a michi poweramp
In last few days I dit a lot of A/B comparison between rose rs150b and nad c658 first directly to mcintosh tube poweramps and later through musical fidelity integrated amp a100.
The difference is definitely there and it comes from the DAC part I think. Where nad c658 gives a DEEP-wide soundstage, the rose gives AIRY-wide soundstage. With nad more volume = more fun. With rose you have to respect some limits. Nad is warmer and more analog sounding but rose is lot better on timing, detail and separation even on the very busy parts.
For now I diged up old “loudness” processor/equalizer and hooked it up inbetween. That makes it better.
The tube amps and class a amps that I use are not the most powerful ones. Maybe rose needs enough power from the poweramp to work properly on my speakers where nad didn’t? For now upgrading to rose gave definitely a change in sound, but not overall better. So it leaves me to experiment more…
Hi @Zagor I also noticed a slight difference in the bass when comparing DACs in my RS150B to my McIntosh MDA1000. I have used both DACs straight into my McIntosh power amp and also through my McIntosh preamp. Both sound excellent and very similar, but I do give the slight bass edge to the MDA1000. I also prefer the sound through my preamp because it has tubes; the preferred setup is bypassing the RS150B DAC and using the MDA1000 feeding the tube preamp.
The NAD C658 has tone controls and the RS150B does not - could any larger bass difference be attributed to the use of the tone controls?
I have no problem with bass. Its punchy and low. Sometimes am still amazed how low it goes
The differences I noted are not a lack of bass, but rather a relative difference when using another DAC. The RS150B sounds great.
As with anytime you switch gear, you may notice some differences.
If all I had was the RS150B, it would work great. I have other equipment that allow it to sound even better to me.
Because my end setup uses a preamp, I can and do regularly switch between the RS150B and the MDA1000 depending on content.
Of course, as with all things audio, better is subjective. That’s why I note a difference. Some may like the sound of the RS150B using my own setup.
My Rose 150b sounds damn good connected to my mark levinson preamp, to make it more appropriate to personal taste, you can try the various filters available that can modify the sound timbre without compromising the quality
Hi Zagor
ROSE 150B is a very high-quality device and the overall result is very clear from which input source and in what quality the song itself is recorded, I just mean that when playing a song in 24bit/48kHz, the resulting bass is more powerful and dynamic than in 16bit/44.1kHz . I myself have learned about it many times while listening to it from other sources. I am very satisfied with the ROSE 150B because as someone mentioned here, the ROSE 150B can highlight a larger and wider spectrum of sound and then it may seem that there is not enough bass in the resulting presentation. If you have that feeling, add a subwoofer.
@Zagor : Not using the RS150 but i made similar experience when switchng from Naim to the RS250. The bass was not that rich, full, bloomy. On the other hand it is tight with more resolution compared to the Naim (a Unitiy Star). I also connect directly to a pair of tube Mono amps and thougt that a preamp could solve the bass “issue”. Long story short: don´t do it, no effect bass wise. But i learned that the RS250 has a very good soundling analoge output stage. As my Horns (Thivan Labs Grand Horn) are not on the bass side of the moon i moved the speakers near to the room walls to add the extra amount of bass. It´s still tight and i had to learn to listen to it; meanwhile most other speaker systems i listen to are to bloomy and not precise in bass.
well lack of base can be so much. Bad placement of speakers. A new amp that doesnt have enough power to drive the speakers. Amp that is just base shy. Power issue.
Mostly it is the amp or speaker placement. Or maybe a interlink change.
For me I just changed a LPS to an SMPS on my internet switch. And my base changed
Thanks for nice suggestions and shared experiences. In the meantime I tried different things. Nice to know that there are DAC filters you can choose of. I tried that but I cannot hear big difference when switching between them. I moved the speakers through to room and now found a better place for them. So that helped definitely a bit. I tried some different DAC’s to compare and non of them has as rich lows as nad c658. So its more a nad c658 thing. Not so rounded and precise as rose but bloomy and room filling. And no it was not some tone controls left on, I checked that.
Ones I read that if you use good subwoofer in 2 channel stereo you can never go back without subwoofer because the soundstage goes flat. Something like that happened to me when switching between DAC’s. But now I got other advantages in sound with rose. I getting used to it. But I’m definitely adding a subwoofer to it in the near future.
The culprit is the NAD C658. I have use this one and it’s the baddest preamp I ever own… Change it and you will see that the RS150B is full of bass !
Thanks for your suggestion webs. Do you meen to replace it with another preamp of just use the roses preamp?
You can try to connect the RS150B directly to the power amp to see if you heard a difference with or without the C658. I replace the C658 with a used Classe Audio CP800 MKII and I heard the difference from another room while ansering the phone at the same time !
It’s sad to say, but the C658 is really a piece shit… You can check a review on Audiosciencereview.
Didn’t know nad c658 was so bad on paper. I can say that for the bass part.
Now I got the rose directly connected too mcintosh mc275 poweramp. I will definitely hook up a preamp in between in the near future.
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