Greetings. I’ve had my black RD160 for about six weeks now and enjoy listening to it.
However, the display seems VERY dim. Especially when it switches to the spectrum screen, sitting below the RS130, it’s very dim. I have to set the RS130 to display level 1 or 2 to match the brightness of the RD160, which is tough to see.
Do I have a defective unit, or is there a new FW coming that will adjust the screen brightness? Please help.
We will not be increasing or decreasing the brightness of the RD160 any further.
If set to a higher brightness, it may affect the durability of the LCD or OLED display, so we have not configured it to the hardware maximum.
At this time, the current level is the maximum we officially support, and we kindly ask for your understanding.
I was under the impression that the parent company specializes in displays. What went wrong here? This product needs to go back to the engineering department. It is a little nervy to ask the customer for understanding after he laid out $6,000 for a DAC, especially when part of the lure is the display.
Which specific aspect would you like us to send back to the engineering team for further review?
Regarding the RD160, increasing the maximum brightness beyond the current level may affect the durability of the LCD or OLED display. For that reason, we have not set it to the hardware’s maximum capability.
Good morning.
Why, then, did you decide to go with OLED during the development of the 160?
I’m referring to options such as Apple’s Retina display, LCD, Mini-LED, or the relatively new Micro-LED technology.
After all, you are display specialists; furthermore—during the testing phase of the 160’s development—surely you should have noticed that the OLED display is far too dim in rooms with even moderate ambient lighting. Surely, a matter like this should have been subjected to meticulous testing across a multitude of scenarios—covering everything from placement configurations to visual aesthetics.
“Far too dim”—that is the feedback coming from members of the forum!
It seems like customers are complaining about the readability of the display, apparently because it is not bright enough. The RD160 certainly has a unique and appealing look to it, but if the display is not bright enough to see under typical conditions then the aesthetic appeal is lost and all that is going for it is the sound quality. You admit that Rose can turn up the brightness but choose not to because of possible display failure.
So what do i recommend? 1) Make the current display more robust such that it can be made brighter without risk of failure; 2) Bring the look or appearance of the 160 in line with the 130 and 151 (among others) where users have no complaints about the brightness or readability and actually commend the appearance and functionality.
Thank you very much for your valuable suggestions.
We will share your feedback with both our hardware and development teams for internal review. We will also take your comments into consideration for future product design and production improvements.
We truly appreciate your input and support.
I agree with the comments above, especially the comment regarding engineering’s likely awareness during development. Given the attention paid in delivering a great display for your reference RS130, I cannot imagine how this dim display output was not observed for your reference DAC. I hate to suggest possible reasons, but, did you have to make a last minute change due to supply issues? If so could you consider an upgrade option for the display 
I like what I’m hearing from the RD160 and enjoy interacting with it, but every time I do I have to ignore the display. Not quite the ‘reference’ experience I was hoping for.
Hello,
I’m also experiencing the issue of the display being much too dark.
After many weeks, HiFi Rose responded that this is simply how it is. The display cannot be made any brighter. This issue could have been easily identified during the design and prototyping phase. Unfortunately, this clearly did not happen.
In doing so, HiFi Rose admits that there is clearly a serious construction/design flaw here, which in the automotive industry would lead to a recall.
Unfortunately, it is certain that HiFi Rose is not interested in its existing customers and is not proposing a solution.
It goes without saying that these dissatisfied customers will not purchase any further HiFi Rose devices (at least, that is my personal decision).
I am an extremely dissatisfied customer.
It doesn’t matter that the DAC’s actual performance is very good.
For well over 5,000 euros, a device simply has to be satisfactory in every respect.
Fortunately, there are many other, better-designed products on the market.
May the engineers at Rose, especially the display developers, stone me for my statement or assumption!
OLEDs—Organic Light-Emitting Diodes—are susceptible to “burn-in” because they utilize organic materials.
My LG OLED panel is rated for 50,000 to 100,000 hours of operation. However, if I recall correctly, the display on the 160 model is monochrome.
If you do the math, 100,000 hours translates to a lifespan of roughly 11.5 years for the OLED panel before the colors begin to fade. Who keeps a DAC for 11 years?
But that is not the decisive argument!
What truly matters is that I can clearly see everything on the display—even under normal room lighting—from a distance of at least three meters, right from the moment of purchase!
Although I am no display engineer, I would have chosen a different type of panel—such as a QLED—which does not suffer from burn-in. Furthermore, the display’s brightness could have been boosted via software calibration. The dimming function is already available, so if a buyer found it too bright, they could simply dim the display.