hi I was just wondering why the hifi rose rs130 will not stream lossless tracks from spotify
and will if ever be possbile in the furtue
This has been discussed here for a while. Apparently there are no plans to add native support for it (or Tidal Connect, or…).
There was promised an external device that one could plug into a Rose for Spotify Lossless etc. support, but other than that it should have been released about now, not much information had materialized about it.
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Thank you for this info it’s. Shame really I would have thought that would have been integrated asap , there are other streamers out there that do support lossless Spotify so they potentially have a competitive edge
Indeed, but unfortunately they do not seem to have either the required programming expertise or willingness to license a third-party toolkit for all the devices already sold.
From a short term dollars and cents perspective it is logical that Rose would not want to pay Spotify for the license to update all the machines that are already in the field given that many have been decommissioned (or are about to be) and that many users are not interested in using Spotify lossless.
But for a company that markets $12K transport / DAC separates and a $6K streamer / DAC, advertises heavily in high-end magazines and aspires to be get reviewed there, I think they should take a more long term view of the business. In fact Stereophile just published a nice review of the RD160 DAC this month. I think the folks who read this review and use it to make a purchase decision might be put off by this short termer strategy.
I read so many comments from members who have problems with the software that I wonder if Rose should run it through Claude or some other AI tool to fix some of the glitches. There are so many glitches. and new ones arise every day, that it appears to me that the programming team could use some help.
I am not even sure that this would be a license to Spotify. More likely to one of the few vendors that do have a proper working SDK that works with it (and Tidal Connect etc.).
But as much as I do not care for Spotify in any shape or form, there’s a reason they are the most popular streaming provider. Not supporting it is a major drawback to product’s marketability.
One would not expect out of production products to get support for something entirely new, but serious companies that are serious about staying in business (again, just look at Bluesound or EverSolo even on the lower end of the market) at least do fix bugs and keep adveertised services supported as long as feasible.
Then, of course, I’ve had Powernodes as long as I’ve had Roses, and N330 has been out of production for a while. In that time Bluesound (but again, Lenbrook is a serious company) had added more features to it than Rose has altogether. Even a proper room correction as of last week.
This seems to me to be a rather self-defeating choice on Rose’s part.
Have you ever seen Stereophool publishing a bad review of any advertiser? That’s not what they are for.
This might be that rare edge case where AI might actually be an improvement 
I am aware that Stereophile’s reviews are uniformly positive. One has to read very carefully to find a hint of negativity, usually it is in the measurements section or in the comparison to other products. I would like to think they would not publish the review of a product that they was trash and that those get weeded out before the reviewer even starts typing. Also I am pretty sure that any review sample they send to Stereophile or TAS has been pretty well sorted.
But they do all the time, just look at some of the speakers they gush about.
I would not even trust their comparisons too much since they are firmly in the “the more expensiver the better” camp.
Dear HiFi Rose customers,
Thank you for your continued support and for using HiFi Rose products.
For years, HiFi Rose has participated directly in the Spotify Developer Program and utilized the official Android NDK–based SDK to independently develop and maintain Spotify Connect, ensuring the highest possible sound quality.
Unlike many other brands that rely on third-party solutions, this approach allowed us to deliver HiFi Rose’s unique audio processing technologies and an enhanced user experience.
However, with the recent launch of Spotify’s new HD service, Spotify has officially announced that the Android NDK–based Spotify Connect SDK is no longer available and that the new HD service cannot be supported through this method.
In other words, Spotify now requires manufacturers—including HiFi Rose—to support Spotify Connect (including HD) only through designated third-party system integrators.
Currently, no third-party provider exists that offers the updated Spotify Connect SDK for Android NDK devices.
This situation also applies to Tidal Connect, which follows a similar policy structure.
Due to these changes, it is unfortunately not possible to support Spotify Connect HD through a simple software update at this time. We kindly ask for your understanding.
Alternative Solution in Development
HiFi Rose places the highest priority on customer experience, and we are actively preparing the following solution:
- Development of an External Connect Module
• We are developing an external module designed to provide stable support for Spotify Connect HD and Tidal Connect.
• This module will connect to existing HiFi Rose devices and is planned to support both Spotify Connect HD and Tidal Connect.
• The product will be offered at a reasonable price while incorporating high-quality circuit design that meets HiFi Rose’s audio standards.
- Release Schedule
• Detailed specifications and features will be announced soon through our official channels.
• The external module is planned for release early next year.
HiFi Rose remains committed to delivering the highest quality streaming experience.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by recent changes in the service environment and will continue doing our best to provide better technology and products.
Thank you.
It is not a problem for Rose, it is a problem for all streaming devices and fault of Spotify. Spotify was never written correctly at the lowest level to provide a raw lossless audio connect option. This means it would need a significant update to the “kernel” of Spotify to implement this before any hardware manufacture provide the firmware update to read this - quite a trivial job for Cambridge audio/Rose/etc streamers to add.
It is up to Spotify to provide this and fix the problem. Since they are doing adverts, I am not sure that many hifi enthusiasts would have much interest in using Spotify as a sole source of hight quality music anyway.
Funny how e.g. BluOS supported Lossless even before Spotify rolled it out then…
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Funny, but sometimes it’s really irritating that a €200 Wiim box makes it possible to use AirPlay, Chromecast, Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect, Roon and so on, while here you have such a monster device and you still have to rely on some little external box for that… that’s not very audiophile :-).
On the other hand, this clearly doesn’t prevent HiFi Rose devices from occupying racks at almost every major High End show around the world. Maybe someone has noticed this? If you don’t attend these shows, just watch videos from them on YouTube. Every third setup seems to be equipped with some kind of HiFi Rose device.
It’s quite remarkable how they managed to capture the market like that.
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I think you can tell from that which company employs engineers and which one employs marketers!
Of course shows are for, well, show and Rose box (which has the same accurate transparent audio output as… well, anything else from Wiim to some $30K Metronome) definitely looks fetching wit hits big screen.
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And I still don’t understand why none of the competitors, for example the Chinese brands, has made a streamer with such a large display and a full set of features. What do you think? Maybe they’re just being kind and don’t want to kill them off? 
Who knows… Could be that Citech (which is a large display panel company after all) has a stranglehold on appropriate panels?
Another reason though might be more practical – Rose’s aspect ratio makes it very hard, even though it runs Android, to run regular Play Store apps. Even if you could sideload e.g. Spotify onto it (which is probably possible if one tinkers enough with it; my cat can get into RS-520’s bootloader quite easily) 5:1 aspect ratio would make it unusable most likely. And chances of Spotify (Roon, Tidal, Qobuz, etc., etc.) bothering to write a custom resolution version of their apps are rather slim.
As @TomOOO mentioned above, we would also like to support Spotify Lossless.
However, Spotify has not yet provided the Lossless feature on their side.
Therefore, we have developed a module that includes an app capable of supporting Spotify Lossless, and it is planned to be released soon.
In the future, we are also considering installing this module inside our streamer products.
So that module is another computer that runs something capable of running Spotify. Could you tell what is in it that isn’t in the existing Rose streamers? And I think what everybody has been curious about – eill the module actually integrate with Rose UI and remote control, or will it be just another digital source?
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The module is not another computer. It is a small rectangular device that connects to the USB port on the rear of a Rose device.
The specifications and release schedule for the RW800 will be announced soon. Please check the details once they are officially released.
Finally, when the RW800 is connected to a Rose streamer, it will operate integrated with the Rose UI and the remote control.
That’s good news. Will it be capable of supporting other streaming services in the future?
At the moment, there are no plans for that. However, if the RW800 module is applied to future new products, it may be possible for Rose devices to support the features available on the RW800.
This is our goal, but it has not been finalized yet.