After talking about it at the Munich High-End show, Hifi Rose has officially announced a new flagship network transport in the form of the RS130 . This is not a streaming DAC. The multiple RS130 digital outputs must be connected to an external converter: TOSLINK, coaxial, AES/EBU, HDMI I2S and optically isolated USB. The Ethernet input is also optically isolated. All streams support NVME SSD memory caching and are synchronized using OXCO, which HiFi Rose says is the most stable and accurate available today.
To combat electrical noise, the RS130 uses a linear power supply whose supercapacitors are said to reduce noise “to battery levels” and a machined aluminum housing that reduces the negative impact of microphonics on the signal path.
But the Korean manufacturer made its way into the audiophile community not only thanks to this. Like many of its streaming siblings, the RS130’s 15-inch full-color touchscreen spans the entire width of the front panel. I still can’t believe that you can watch YouTube videos on a 1920 x 382px screen. This is made possible thanks to the highly customized Android 7.1 OS and the accompanying RoseTube application. However, the HDMI 4K output allows us to transfer what is happening on the device screen to an external display.
I suspect the RS130’s dedicated Apple Music app, delivering high-resolution, bit-perfect content, will be the big draw. Apps for Tidal and Qobuz, as well as support for AirPlay, Roon Ready, Spotify Connect and Bluetooth are also included in the feature set.
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