Streamers — HiFi Rose RS130

The RS130 is a network transport from the South Korean maker HiFi Rose. Lacking an internal DAC stage, it exists to hand a clean digital stream to whichever outboard DAC the owner chooses. The unit runs a customised Android 7.1 operating system, is finished in silver or black, and is priced at USD 5,895.

Key specs that matter

A 15.4-inch TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen fills the entire front of the case. Digital audio leaves through optical, coaxial, AES/EBU and HDMI I2S sockets, plus a dedicated USB-DAC port and a fibre USB 3.0 link, while two further USB 3.0 ports take external drives. Playback reaches PCM at 32 bit and 768 kHz and native DSD512, with MQA, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, DSF and DFF files handled. A separate HDMI 2.0 socket carries video at up to 3840 x 2160 and 60 Hz. Processing runs on a dual-core Cortex-A72 and quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU with its own NEON coprocessor, a Mali-T860 MP4 graphics chip and 4 GB of LPDDR4 memory, and a 256 GB NVMe SSD works as a low-latency cache. An internal bay accepts a storage drive of up to 4 TB. The chassis is 430 mm wide, 317 mm deep and 125 mm high and weighs 12 kg.

Engineering and use context

Network data arrives through an SFP port that takes copper gigabit Ethernet or the supplied fibre transceiver, and the fibre USB output follows the same idea - light instead of copper, so electrical noise from routers or computers has no path into the connected converter. Timing is handled by an OCXO, a crystal held inside a heated oven so its frequency does not drift with temperature and jitter stays low, and BNC inputs at 50 and 75 ohm accept a 10 MHz external master clock. Power comes from a linear stage backed by a large supercapacitor that behaves like a charged battery, protected by a 6 A thermal circuit breaker and accepting 100 to 240 V mains. The aluminium casework is designed to resist vibration, and a vent in the top panel is cut in the shape of the HiFi Rose logo. In software the owner can upsample to a chosen PCM rate, send DSD natively, as DoP or converted to PCM, and bypass the digital volume control. The screen can also show VU meters or a virtual FM tuner.

Pairing

Any converter with an I2S over HDMI, AES/EBU, coaxial or USB input can sit after the RS130, and a master clock can be added through the BNC inputs. The ROSE Connect app gives access to TIDAL, Qobuz, Apple Music and internet radio, and the RS130 is also Roon Ready with AirPlay, DLNA and Spotify Connect support. Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.2 come through USB dongles.

Alternatives

The HiFi Rose RS150B is a network streamer with its own ESS ES9038PRO converter for systems that will not use a separate DAC.