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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@rman9 - Congrats on the RS150B! I read from a HiFi Rose dealer that when doing critical listening it sounds significantly better if you turn off the display as well as disabling any unused inputs. You could give it a try to see what you think.

@bill_k thank you!! Yeah, I'd seen that in a youtube video. And I tried that, turning off the display. I can't say I am able to notice any difference. I have not tried disabling the unused inputs. I'll give it a try and see what happens and report back.. Thanks for the input.. 

I just got one and love the ease of changing inputs and outputs with the touch screen. Just touch the panel to switch from arc to another input or change outputs. My problem, and I hope it has a software fix, is that audio through the hdmi arc from tv and Roku  drops out periodically.  Sometimes it switches back to internal tv speakers on its own. Also it is set up for both Tidal and Qobuz. Only have Tidal right now.

I I've had the 150b for about three weeks and loving it although it provides more options that I'll ever use.  I originally had a Sonos Port which was only intended to get experience streaming in my 2 channeI set up anyway.  The service I used was Napster.  I also looked at Cambridge Audio, and listened to the Meitner.  The 150b  allowed me balanced in/out which was important.  To date I've only used Qobuz, Rose FM, and Rose Radio.  All sound great coming out of my Maggies.  I was also able to retire Napster, and my Benchmark DAC 1.  I have had issues with the hand held remote.  The original/replacement are not working.  The fact that they are not necessary isn't the point though.  This thing is a keeper  

Hi all, I currently have an Innuos Zenith MK3 + Innuos Phoenix USB running as Roon Core in my stereo system. I use the one from my Esoteric K01XD via USB cable as an external DAC. As a result of a test that I did placing a Roon Ready device (a discontinued Esoteric N05) I realized that a Roon Ready device greatly benefits the final SQ. One device I'm considering is the Rose 150.
For this reason, I would appreciate any comparison that they have been able to make with the 150 (only as a streamer) with other devices and brands, and see which is the best option for SQ quality. The environment to follow would be through Roon Labs.