One feature that I liked about the rose, (I don't own one) is that it had analog inputs. For people who combine the 2 channel audio with their home theater due to space or other restraints, it seems that the rose can then accept either R/L analog input from the home theater receiver and then output those to the amp and then the R/L channel speakers for movies or sports, OR stream to the rose, then to amp and then to R/L channel speakers for high quality 2 channel. The audio quality, balanced connections, and this feature made the rose seem interesting to me. I don't know of too many other streamers that have that feature.
My thoughts on the HiFi Rose 150B
Well, after the honeymoon wore off I ended sending the HiFiRose 150 back. It boiled down to how I’d use it and it just wasn’t 3k better than my Auralic Aries G1. The Rose is a great piece with tons of features and it sounded great. The video features (RoseTube, Tidal music videos) is certainly cool along with the display and all the other things it can do but streaming Qobuz and Tidal it did one thing noticeably better and that was MQA which I figured it would. My Anthem isn’t MQA certified so using my Auralic USB into it doesn’t give me the full MQA experience but listening to Tidal SD and Qobuz HD/SD it was pretty close. I could have added a TV to my music room to fully enjoy what the Rose does but I have a great movie/video system so it’s not something I was ultimately willing to do. So in the end, I don’t have anything bad to say about the 150, it’s built really well, sounds great and has tons of features but it doesn’t fit my needs.
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A couple of things many are ignoring about the RS150 vs other options like Cambridge and NAD. The DAC is the RS150 is substantially better than the DACs in other devices and is also better than the DAC in the RS250! The Rose products do a lot of ‘tricks’ but in the case of the RS150, it is first a truly highend audio device, and then a good value for those wanting a fuller experience beyond sound quality. If you aren’t able to hear the difference, it’s the rest of your system that needs attention. 😉 |
@boostedis completely agree. Streamer capabilities....RS250 = RS150b Audio performance from the 150b is definitely better. I have had both... |
I demoed the 150 for about a week a couple of months back. I think that some of the assertions that the sound quality is on a par with cheaper options (that don't have all the bells and whistles) is just not true. I thought the 150 sounded a lot better than most of the cheaper options I heard and is actually a screaming bargain. Lots of folks rave about the Matrix audio units, but I head for the HiFi Rose RS150 every day over those. Sound quality+fit and finish+feature set is really hard to beat. If those features are not important to you, then try other things but this is a really nice unit. |
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