JMBARG,
I know I have asked this once before, but have you tried other sources on your system, such as a phono or CD player, bypassing the 151? If so, how is the sound?
Also, have you tried taking the digital out of the RS151 into another DAC? Or plugged your CD player’s digital output into the digital in of your RS151? Might help isolate the problem.
Smarter than you though.
Tell a high-rate MP3 from a lossless recording in a blind test then.
Funny how it had only “changed” for people who also put audiophile fuses into their gear, and not for anyone else.
So… junk.
The company is somewhat questionable but for entirely different reasons.
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Nothing has changed, and the sound hasn’t changed either. Only the names and positions of the FIR filters were altered, and that alone was enough to throw you pseudo-audiophiles into confusion, because now your “golden ear” can’t put things in order since it actually hears no difference. The great debate of crap versus piss – that’s the true essence of your ignorance. If ROSE changes the font size and the color tone of the letters to something warmer in the next update, people like you will suddenly start “hearing” more silence between the notes and even claim they can better recognize when the sound engineer farts.
In terms of gear, you might have HIGH-END, but the real junk is your rotten brain.
Dude, my RS150 has been running day in, day out for 3 years and is practically never turned off. Once you rack up the same mileage as I have, you’ll understand that ROSE builds their hardware as reliable as a tank. As for the software, sure, there are some issues, but they’re always solved with a reset to factory settings.
VIK
Could you tell me how to check how many hours the player has played? I have an RS 151, but maybe it’s similar. Thank you.
If you could hear 100% differences when using a given filter in a blind test, you would be able to name these filters without knowing which one was being used at the time. What you can say is that now the music is playing, say, in tone X, and then in tone Y, and then the next change in tone U—these are your impressions, which cannot be measured or logically explained.
To answer your question, this is my setup and playback chain. I don’t have anything else: HiFi Rose RS151 → PrimaLuna Evo 300 Hybrid → Wharfedale Elysian 4.
I don’t connect the RS151 to the internet. I play music from an external USB hard drive with: 16-, 24-, and 32-bit WAVs; SACD ISO; DSD 256 and 128-bit files. I try to avoid FLAC files whenever possible.
I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again: for me, the RS250A, and now the RS151, function as a DAC with a display for navigating my hard drive.
Why?!
Might explain why you perceive difference in sound though.
Thank you, I am sorry that you had to repeat it for me. The relative simplicity of your system will make it a simple matter to attach an old CD player directly to the integrated amp and have a listen. Also if the CD player has a digital out you can attach it to the digital in of the 151 to see if you can rule out your HDD as the problem. You can switch the analog inputs you are using from the 151 to the amp to see if that changes anything. And finally you can take the digital out of the 151 to an external DAC and plug that into the amp. This way you can isolate the problem.
I once had a bad trigger cable running between my two monoblocks which would intermittently affect SQ. Once I swapped that those problems disappeared. No my RS130 is a whole other problem, but its SQ is not one of them. But it does not have the complication of a DAC like your 151. Good luck.
Hi, go to SETTINGS – USER ACCOUNT = PROFIT
I simply don’t like FLAC files; I prefer PCM WAV without any conversion; and I’m not worried about disk space.
Regarding the sound differences, with the same files, I noticed a difference. As some of us have been saying, the update did more damage than it did anything.
Precisely because I don’t want CDs or vinyl records taking up space in my life, my music is in the aforementioned formats (32-bit Vinyl Rip or DSD-SACD ISO format, uncompressed WAVs extracted from original CDs).
Absolutely every cable in my system is from Audioquest, including the USB cable that runs from the hard drive to the RS151.
I’ll say it again.
They destroyed the RS151’s sound with that crappy upgrade, and they know it perfectly well, but they’re acting stupid.
I have no doubt that is what you believe, but if you have no way of troubleshooting, it is hard for others including Rosehan to identify and solve your problem. Since you have no other sources I still recommend checking the cable connections and trying a different input on your amp. Probably won’t change anything but it is worth a try, otherwise you have to wait for another software update or buy another streamer DAC.
But there is no conversion, you just get a working metadata container and error checking, with optional space savings. For all we know, your WAV files might be corrupt, and you will have no way of ever knowing it.
It’s exactly this kind of irrational thinking (and I am not even trying to be offensive on purpose here, for a change) that makes one totally believe that they are hearing some differences where there are none whatsoever.
Maybe try some real cables? AQ cables may be many things, but certified, compliant USB (or Ethernet etc.) cables they are not.
Trying a known working cable(s) is the most basic troubleshooting step, and Rose can’t do it for you. Surely there might be something analogous to Office Depot in Argentina, where you can pick up a definitely working, spec-conformant USB and network cables (i.e. guaranteed to be better than anything AQ had ever produced) for a few bucks.
I completely understand what you’re saying and I see your point.
I have three hard drives with the same information, one for use with the RS151 and the other two for backups. I know exactly how a FLAC audio file works and that they’re lossless, as long as they’re set up correctly. I can assure you that my audio files aren’t corrupted in the slightest. After the countless updates I performed on my RS250A, I used a Direstraits disc in SACD ISO format to see if anything changed after the update, something I did again when updating the RS151, otherwise I wouldn’t be complaining.
My ears are all I need to know that something about the RS151’s audio has changed since the update. Before the update, it was wonderful; after the update, it’s crap.
But you can’t even set up FLAC to be lossy… If you are backing those WAVs up from your main to backup drives, how do you know that they are uncorrupted though? If you had generated checksums in advance it could work, but otherwise there’s no way to know.
Boris.
I understand your point and know where you’re going. I have all three hard drives in perfect condition and working. The data is intact because I regularly check the status of all three hard drives with Easy US Partition Master. All three drives are defragmented and error-free. The music is fine; the problem was the update.
Regarding FLAC files, I don’t like them, I don’t trust them (knowing how they work and that they take up less space). I prefer to download a full CD with Exact Audio Copy in WAV format rather than FLAC. The same goes for my SACDs. I prefer to make an ISO and play it from the RS151.
It’s like asking someone if they hear Laurel, or Yanny, from that old meme, then claiming anyone whom says the opposite of what you hear is wrong. Human hearing doesn’t work like that. It’s subjective due to a variety of factors, including things you can’t control like aging.
We know now that part of the distinction involves how high of a frequency you can hear. Those that hear yanny have higher frequencies of hearing still, but if you go listen to music a bit too loud for a bit, those frequencies are temporarily diminished due the protective mechanisms in our ear. Even someone whom started off before the listening session hearing yanny will hear Laurel if the listening session was loud enough.
This maybe what causes people to think solid state amps or other equipment may “warm up” when others will say the equipment doesn’t. Hard to know for certain.
As for them just changing the names, there are now seven filters, before hand there were six. So they definitely did more than change the names. Also, a simple Google search will tell you the “alternate” names of the Super Slow Roll Off, and it isn’t listed. The names we do have are also well accounted for filter names.