Alas – I was obliged to return my 2-week old RS130 to Crutchfield. It wouldn’t start – just clicked when you pressed the power button, even after unplugging/plugging it in and even holding the power button for a while.
So I’m back to using a Bluesound Node in digital passthrough mode. Maybe the joke’s on me: I can’t hear the slightest difference between the Bluesound and the RS130, despite the latter costing $5000.00 more.
I’m very sorry that you had to return the device after only two weeks of use. But don’t mislead people, the difference between the two devices is fundamental. Look for the reason why they sound the same to you elsewhere.
The reason is very simple – they both send out the same data to the DAC, which generates the same sound from that data. The only difference exists between the (golden) ears of people who listen with their wallets.
Although I am not one of those people with wallets, I will tell you that you are very far from the truth. The lack of experience, a sufficiently good system and even more so the lack of an acoustically treated listening room lead to such inadequate statements. The bad thing is that somewhere there are people who do not understand anything, but by reading posts like yours they are actually misled into making wrong decisions. In some other life I will also explain to you about digital pulses and how they are extracted and transmitted and why there is a huge difference between the devices. Thanks, next time get yourself a Raspberry Pi and enjoy life.
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.
Wow, what empty words, typical of a fool. I will ask the administrators of this forum to take action, because no one needs to waste time and nerves dealing with degraded half-idiots, and half-because they still managed to press a few keys in a row. I am very outraged.
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.
Yup. But look how confident they are promising to explain, one day, the REAL TRUTH about “digital pulses” (whatever those are) and how sweet, sweet $$$'s make them flow so much better.
@BorisM Wrong. My RS130 is a component level upgrade to my very resolving system. It makes all previous streamers I’ve owned (and there were many) sound identical to a Raspberry Pi. Upgrade your system dude.
If you think that any streamer, whether RS-130, or a Pi, sounds any differently from any other streamer, you should lay off drugs and try reading some textbooks.
Since “resolving system” always means something with more noise than a stone quarry on a busy day, and more distortion than NPR reporting from Breitbart headquarters (or vice versa) I can’t “upgrade” to anything like that. Poking some holes in my speakers with a nail might bring me close though.
I encountered the same issue with three RS-130 units I purchased from Rose. Unfortunately, despite reaching out several times, I didn’t receive a response, and some of my posts were removed. Eventually, I decided to trade in the machines. While the RS-130 has many great qualities, I’m currently exploring other options. There are comparable products on the market that offer strong performance along with responsive customer support and a clear commitment to their customers.
I have iFi streamer, PC with HQ Player as streaming sources feeding into my T+A Dac 200. The difference that RS130 makes over them is huge. It is bigger than my upgrade from Ygddrasil to T+A Dac 200. Or my upgrade from Denon amp to a krell amp. Without RS130, sound is bit more harsh. The staging and separation is not that refined. It is one of the best investment i have done in my journey.
ah yes those famous audiophile words that can not be refuted. Because they are absolutely meaningless and don’t signify anything
Inasmuch as they mean something, none of them can be possibly affected by a digital transport, only by the DAC, and even something as crappy as iFi does not make any difference. Of course, having spend about 20 times what a vastly superior in any respect PC used as a transport would cost (with working software, to boot) you have to justify it to yourself and convince yourself of some nonexistent “harshness.”
Please don’t remind me that I should be using my Mac as a digital front end. I have never had a problem with the software and navigation.
Sorry!
I am using an all-in-one mini PC with a built-in touchscreen for one of my systems, and even on Windows it does everything that a 130 would, with a higher resolution screen, you can attach a real keyboard to it, run full Roon (or Qobuz, or Tidal, etc. etc.) client on it, do room correction, upsample to DSD1024 with HQPlayer, if one is so inclined, and then some.
It’s much more simple than that @BorisM. The answer to, if you think there’s no difference in sound between a Raspberry Pi and a HiFi Rose, you need to get your hearing checked, or get better gear. Most likely both.
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.
The quality of timing, noise floor, and signal integrity differs drastically. With resolving DACs and amps, the RS130 will feed a cleaner, more stable signal, and that does translate into audible improvements in dynamics, imaging, and tonal purity. Bits are bits, until jitter, EMI, PSU noise, and clock stability walk into the room. Then suddenly the cheap streamer shows its price tag.
But if they all sound the same, then I guess all wine tastes the same once it’s in the glass.
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.
You’ve been on this forum for months, and the pattern never changes:
Someone shares their experience.
You show up, declare them wrong, and sprinkle in some insults about wallets, monkeys, and how physics is apparently on your side.
The funny thing is, none of that changes the reality that people here actually listen to their gear. They don’t sit behind a keyboard trying to convince themselves that music only exists if it passes their personal purity test.
Your whole stance boils down to this: “Everything sounds the same, unless it’s cheap enough for me to approve.” That’s not science, that’s just insecurity dressed up with equations.
If the RS130 really is nothing more than a waste of money, then why spend so much time arguing with people who enjoy it? If you’re right, then it should be the easiest thing in the world to ignore us and enjoy your Node or Wiim.
But you don’t. You keep circling back, post after post, hammering the same lines, as if repeating “the DAC fixes everything” often enough will finally make you feel like you’ve won the debate.
Here’s the difference between you and the people you’re mocking: we actually sit down, play music, and listen. That’s why we bought the gear in the first place. You can keep trying to talk people out of hearing what they hear, but it only makes your posts sound more jitter, ahum excuse me, bitter, than any DAC I’ve ever owned.