Rose RSA 780 Conclusion

ROSE Products
#1

After ripping around 700 CDs, there are still almost 200 left that didn’t work. In some cases, the metadata was missing or incorrect; in others, certain CDs even caused the drive to shut down.

At the moment, the drive is no longer recognized by my RS 520, and I will file a complaint with my dealer.

All in all, I’m very disappointed with the Rosé RSA 780 drive and wouldn’t buy it again. Just sharing this in case anyone else is considering getting one. If anything positive comes out of my complaint, I’ll report back.

#2

Out of curiosity… which CDs didn’t work and caused problems?

Did you try to see if it was from a specific era, manufacturer?

#3

Speaking of which, the 780/720 models look great—provided you also own a silver Rose device to go with them. To the best of my knowledge, they aren’t available in black; which is actually a bit odd, considering Rose offers both silver and black Hi-Fi components. :man_shrugging:t2:

But why spend nearly €400 when a standard CD/DVD-ROM rewriter/reader—costing just €25—rips just as well?
Since you rip everything and store it on a hard drive anyway, you don’t really need a fancy, visible CD/DVD-ROM drive, do you?

Just use some good ripping software that truly rips bit-perfectly, and you’ll be all set. The databases used by various third-party ripping programs are generally more mature and comprehensive than Rose’s own database.

I’ve even ripped some niche CDs that weren’t listed in every database.
No problem at all:
There are plenty of ways to retrieve the metadata.

For those specific CDs, I ripped them first, then used mp3Tag to automatically sync them with Discogs. If even that didn’t work, I simply entered the catalog number found on the CD (e.g., “CD 74321 12345 5”); if the album was available on Discogs, the software would automatically pull the metadata from there and write it directly into the tags for the tracks I had ripped.

#4

…mostly from 90s - early 2000.

#5

Well, I hadn’t really looked into the topic beforehand and thought it would be an easy way to digitize my collection. I also figured I could retire my CD player, but fortunately I didn’t do that, since the drive isn’t particularly convincing even for simple playback.

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#6

Are those the ones you couldn’t rip?

Could you group them by production company?
Or just random?

#7

Unless there are space considerations, don’t retire your CD player, they come in handy. And if you are in the market for a new universal disc player that plays everything I recommend the Magnetar UDP800 Mk2.

Ripping a CD collection is hard work if you care about song names, labels and artwork, etc. I could not imagine using the Rose to do it. I used my desktop Mac and the iTunes software. It pulled the song titles from the GraceNote database (which are usually correct). I do some editing and add artwork. Then I save my library to a portable SSD which can be used to transfer to the Rose internal SSD or you can transfer the music directly over your home network.

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#8

I completely agree. I also did a lot of things manually—especially editing the artwork, whenever I couldn’t find anything on… on…
:arrow_down:

Or simply a search on the web.

With full-length albums, it’s still manageable, since you only need one cover image. However, I spent a lot of time processing numerous maxi-singles and singles—so much time, in fact, that it really started eating into my life. That’s why I stopped; now, the CDs I rip from time to time simply get a cover image that is readily available in good quality. I don’t use iTunes, and I don’t pay for it—just as I don’t use Apple Music—even though I am fully immersed in the Apple ecosystem, with a MacBook Pro, the latest-generation 4K Apple TV, two iPhones, and two iPads.

That said, iTunes does offer high-quality cover art—something I frequently took advantage of in the past using a cover search engine.

:raising_hand_man:

#9

Just to shamelessly plug Apple Music for just one second… when played through the AppleTV, it has a nice and growing collection of music in Dolby Atmos if you are into that sort of thing. Since my listening room is a home theater as well, I do take advantage of it.

And I have been using iTunes (nowApple Music) for 25 years, so I have no problem with it. I use both Apple Music and Qobuz, along with Roon.

#10

It’s supposed to sound fantastic. Unfortunately, I haven’t actually gotten around to listening to it yet, as I’m strictly a two-channel listener. Whether I’ll end up setting something like that up remains completely up in the air, since I simply don’t have the space for a dedicated home theater room.

:v:t2:

#11

Yeah, I had been planning it for years, put the plans on hold for about 6 years and then came back to it a couple of years ago. I am pleased with how it turned out. I think the Pink Floyd albums, DSM, WYWH and Animals are excellent Dolby Atmos remixes. Some that I have heard are a little disappointing but all of them have something to offer.