Super interesting to see the specs and details on the new RS250A. I wonder how notable the sound difference will be with the changes in the DAC chipset, opamps and clock side of things. Either way that black chassis looks divine!! Just too bad it’s another $200 more 
Either way… great job Rose for developing such a great product line!! I am proud to be on the Rose train!
Looks good. Wish Rose had released a black version of RS250.
Don’t you hate it when they release a new system days after you bought the”old” one 
now I know why I got such a good price! I just got used to the silver amongst my all black set up. I doubt the updated version would be a major improvement, maybe just a little. But knowing there is something better out there can play on one’s mind. Hopefully they keep up support for all there products and don’t just focus on the new versions.
I feel your pain. I have the old one a little longer than you, so less painful Lol
This is the right step, because the DAC implementation in the RS250 isn’t the best one.
I’m not really affected, because I’m using an external DAC/headphone amp (also the headphone amp in the RS250 isn’t very useful).
Well me Mister @burki, I find that the headphone amp of the RS250 is not so bad, I’m also lucky to have a good headphone (Oppo PM1), I feared a bad quality; now I connect it directly on the RS250, it’s so simple and the sound is good!
Fine, that you like your PM-1 with the RS250.
I’m using a Hifiman HE1000V2, a Beyerdynamic T1, an Oppo LCD-2 and LCD-XC, a Sennheiser HD800 and T5P1, a Focal Clear MG…
Also I’ve multiple headphone amps and so it’s easy to compare them with the heaphone out from the RS250.
For all my magnetostatic headphones, the Rose hasn’t enough power and it’s also not able to drive the HD800 or the T1.
Also it seems, that the output impedance isn’t low enough for headphones with lower impedance.
Not tested yet my Campfire Audio Solaris 2020 with the RS250, but also the Focal Clear MG doesn’t sounds very good with the RS250.
Now I’ve connected a Burson Conductor 3xp and an ifi Gryphon on the RS250 and both sounding with my headphones as expected (compared with the many other dedicated headphone amps).
where did you read about this product announcement? can’t find anything about it…
any changes to the inputs or outputs?
Is this a downgrade in DAC?
Not a DAC expert but worried the sound quality might be less.
As a side note…I heard they will be available around Mid-December.
Original version was rs150, 2nd edition was named rs150B.
Now 2nd edition of rs250 will be named rs250A.
Why??? This is no way to build a brand with great history 
Tested now the IEM from Campfire Audio on the headphone out and there is a lot of buzz and hiss. It’s indepand from the impedance settings in the RS250.
The same in using analog out to an external headphone amp.
In using digital out to an external DAC with headphone amp, the issue occures not anymore.
was the chip downgraded from ESS 9038Q2M to 9028PRO? why this choice?
The ESS 9028 Pro is an 8-channel DAC and the ESS 9038 Q2M is a 2-channel DAC. I wouldn’t call that downgrading.
I do not pretend to be an expert on all of the specific nuances of the ESS dac chip line up. However, I don’t believe the 9028pro chip is downgrade. The ‘pro’ chips are 8 channel dacs vs the 2 channel of 9038Q2M series and thus have higher dynamic range by several dB. It is usually agreed that the summing from the 8 channel dac processing can provide more accurate conversion. Again… I am not an expert in these things, and obviously the implementation of any given dac chipset is just as important as the actual chipset used, but I can’t see Rose taking a step backward in this important product in the lineup. Just my thoughts.
thank you, appreciate it!
SQ depends more in the analogue part and clocks, than in the DAC itself and here are the biggest differences between teh RS250 and RS250A.
