New- HiFi ROSE RS130 Ultimate Network Transport

but as an EE he's very technically inclined and said it has a lot of settings that are less than intuitive to use. Took him over a month to figure out many features
 

I was an EE before I retired, and also own an RS130. It’s not that hard. 🙂 Yes the manual could be better, but as with anything technical nowadays, a little searching on the maker’s forum and a question here and there can sort things out quickly enough. 

I just recently bought an RS130 after reading all the positive reviews. I already own a Lumin U2 and a Silent Angel Munich M1T. I did some A/B testing between the 3 and tested the RS130 with 3 DACs - an Audio Mirror Toubadour V, an Okto Research DAC8 Stereo, and a Schiit Yggdrasil OG version. I also use a Denafrips GAIA DDC. Preamp is a Pathos Synapse, amps are Pathos Adrenalin monoblocks and speakers are Dali Epicon 8s.

I heard no discernible difference between the RS130 and the Lumin U2, they perform basically the same when paired with the AM Toubadour V and the Okto DAC8, but with the Yggy the RS130 sounded slightly more fleshed out. No enough to be a huge difference though.

Both the RS130 and the Lumin U2 have the edge over the Silent Angel Munich M1T.

Where the RS130 has the edge - the screen is great, the fake VU meters look cool. It’s more aesthetically pleasing in my main living room with the other gear.

Severe disadvantage of RS130 vs the Lumin U2 -
This one I think is the biggest disadvantage for me - when you plug the USB output the RS130 "recognizes" the DAC it’s connected to and allows you to active the USB input. When you plug the GAIA DDC in between, the RS130 does not recognize it as a DAC and won’t allow you to activate the input. The same goes for the I2S HDMI input. The only way you can put the DDC in between the RS130 and the DAC is if using AES/EBU or the other connections but you cannot do it with USB or HDMI I2S, at least not yet. I hope this is an easy firmware fix in the future.

The Lumin U2 has no such problem.

This is important to me because I clear a hear improvement when the DDC is paired with any of the DACs I have, and I don’t like that I can’t run USB or I2S just because the RS130 doesn’t "recognize" the machine. What if it’s a brand new DAC in the market that the RS130 doesn’t recognize? will that cause similar problems? I don’t know.

Second (minor) disadvantage -
I was considering purchasing the Cen.Grand DCDAC Deluxe but I’m afraid that the Cen.Grand’s all DSD design may not be a great pair with the RS130 all PCM design, considering I will not be able to do a direct DSD source to DAC.
This would also apply to other DSD designed DACs like the Meitner MA3. This forces me to reconsider my next DAC purchase and perhaps consider the new Merason DAC1 in the near future.

I’m still keeping the RS130 and I’m happy with it otherwise. I will move the Lumin U2 to my second system and use the GAIA DDC there with the Okto DAC8 going through a Hifi Rose RA180 and Focal Diablo Utopia standmounts. Toubadour V will stay with the RS130 in the main system.

I just received a new RS130 a few days ago so here are my impressions.

First off, this thing is very cool. I’ve made many upgrades to my system over the years and all for better sound. This is the first “upgrade” I made for something fun/interesting and the RS130 delivers in that regard. The front face can be changed from Now Playing to a dozen different VU meters, a dozen clocks with/without weather, an old school Receiver, etc. The HDMI out to my TV is really cool, and although the YT audio isn’t up to the level of Qobuz or local files it’s good enough and there is an endless supply of videos, very enjoyable to watch.

I’ll reserve judgement on the sound for now except to say it is certainly not worse than my Innuos Zen MK 3. After a few more days of running it in I will compare to the Zen directly.
I’ve used several different software interfaces over the years:

Roon is far and away the best I have used.
Innuos Sense is next best, and I used that because it was free and because it sounded better than Roon (that was several years ago)
I put the Rose Connect app in the same category as WiiM, Spotify, Qobuz; Somewhat cumbersome and takes some getting used to but in each I can get the software to do pretty much everything I need it to do. I was playing music 10 minutes after opening the box. 

I upgraded from an Innuos Zenith mk2 and Phoenix USB to the Rose 130. The Innuos has a bottom up sound while the 130 is more neutral. One thing that stands out is the 130 does a great job with imaging. 

I heard no discernible difference between the RS130 and the Lumin U2, they perform basically the same when paired with the AM Toubadour V and the Okto DAC8

I've read the RS130 caches the file for playback. I would imagine that it would be more immune to the network?