I borrowed a HiFi Rose RS-150B to study for the weekend. The unit needs to be back in the store on Tuesday in keeping with my shorter overviews.
First things first, let's get some storage in this thing. 2TB SSD is enough to test with.
The cover screws are threaded into a relatively thin base-plate, and care should be taken not to cross-thread them—a tiny thorn.
Beauty is
in the eye of the beholder, and my eye says this is beautiful. A full
display for video playback by attaching a monitor/TV (up to 4k). And a
nicely adjustable display for Music playback. Yes, you can change the
meters! If you do not want the external display, the screen on the Rose
works well. This makes me want to get one of those Samsung Frame TVs
to replace the mirror on the wall with something active. But, the
longer I watch the still frame of an album in front of me, the more I
want it turned off. Maybe the on-screen display is enough for music.
And you can toggle the front panel display on and off from the App. The display is very bright and readable from a distance.
I
have been using both the iPhone and iPad apps to operate the unit.
With just two days to play with a complete system like this, I can only
hope to hit upon the highlights; And maybe point out some of the
anomalies.
The onscreen VU meter system might be a bit skeuomorphic for me; interestingly, it is also interactive.
Many
interesting linguistic choices are made on the user interface that can
be confusing and should be improved. Some may be placeholders that have
not been “fixed.” Again small thorns poke in you.
Visually both
the iPad and iPhone apps are pretty nice. A lot is going on there,
requiring significant software development time.
On
the “Rose Home” screen, there are several items that I am hot and cold
on. There are two sections: User Picks and Manage Friends that link to
Tidal, etc. There is also this Rose account that I do not understand
and will not investigate for now. I am not sure I am interested in a
“social account” in a brand-specific music system.
I am using my iPad mini as a control device, and the user interface fits the mini nicely:
I
need to talk about sound quality just a bit. This thing sounds very,
very good. I know that tells you nothing. Get out to a store that
sells these and listen to it. I can tell you that into my 517 speakers
over single-ended outputs. This sounds better than a couple of the
streamers via direct AES into the speakers. Not a lot, but better.
I
am trying hard not to overstate differences, and on Friday, I spent the
afternoon with a Kitsune Holo May DAC connected to my Mercury streamer;
that was the best thing I have heard in my home system. But that is
another story!
I am enamored with Raspberry Pis and the Mercury
Streamer, which are already paid for. I am having too much fun playing
with software.
