I bought a Wi-Fi–connected Slim Devices Squeezebox at the beginning of 2006, to experiment with streaming. When Slim Devices released the high-performance Transporter, I was sufficiently impressed that I purchased the review sample after measuring it for Wes Phillips's review in the February 2007 issue. I used the…
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In the summer of 2021, MoFi Distribution's Jonathan Derda emailed me about the South Korean HiFi Rose brand. "This brand strikes me as being the spiritual successor to the original SlimDevices Transporter and Squeezebox Touch," he wrote. "We're all really excited about it."
The last setup step I performed was to select the blue "Micintosh style" [sic] illumination for the front-panel VU meters. Three things I didn't try: the RoseFM tuner function and playing back and ripping CDs. (Both of these require an external CD-ROM drive to be attached.) I also didn't try connecting the RS250's HDMI output to an external monitor, as there was no room on my equipment rack.
Listening
For my first listening session, I selected the HiFi Rose RS250's network connection as Roon's active Audio Zone and played files from the internal hard drive I had fitted to my…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Roon Ready music streamer/digital processor, with ES9038Q2M DAC, dual-core Cortex-A72 processor up to 1.8GHz, and quad-core Cortex-A53 up to 1.4GHz, running Android 7.1 and compatible with Airplay, DLNA, Roon, Spotify Connect, Tidal, Qobuz, Bugs, Internet Radio, RoseTube (YouTube), and RosePodcast. Display: 8.8" TFT LCD & capacitive touchscreen (MIPI-DSI). Digital audio inputs: one each coaxial S/ PDIF, TosLink S/PDIF, USB, Ethernet network port; USB ports. Analog inputs: 1 pair single-ended on RCA jacks. Digital audio outputs: USB, S/PDIF…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Roon Nucleus+ music server; MBL N31 CD player/DAC; Ayre Acoustics QB-9 Twenty D/A processor.
Power amplifiers: Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: GoldenEar BRX, PSB Synchrony T600.
Headphones: Audeze LCD-X, Sennheiser HD-650, AudioQuest NightHawk.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Vodka (Ethernet), AudioQuest OptiLink 5 (TosLink). Interconnect: AudioQuest Wild Blue (balanced) & Fire (single-ended). Speaker: AudioQuest Robin Hood. Headphone: Nordost Heimdall with Audeze LCD-X. AC: AudioQuest Dragon Source &…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the HiFi Rose RS250 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 As We See It), repeating some tests with the magazine's more recent Audio Precision APx500 analyzer.
I first looked at the RS250's performance as a D/A processor. Apple's USB Prober utility identified the HiFi Rose as "RS250-DAC" from "HiFi ROSE." The USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode, and Apple's AudioMIDI utility revealed that the RS250 accepted 16-, 24-, and 32-bit integer data via USB sampled at all rates from 44.1kHz to 768kHz. The…
John Atkinson wrote about the Ayre EX-8 2.0 in December 2021 (Vol.44 No.12):
When I examined the Ayre Acoustics EX-8 2.0's performance on the test bench, to accompany Ken Micallef's review in the November 2021 issue, the two channels behaved somewhat differently. The right channel's output impedance was higher than that of the left—0.525 ohm vs 0.35 ohm, which resulted in a level imbalance of 0.2dB into 8 ohms—and while the distortion was predominantly third-harmonic in the left channel, it was predominantly second-harmonic in the right channel.
Ayre Vice President & CTO Ariel…
Jason Victor Serinus returned to the Accuphase DG-68 in December 2021 (Vol.44 No.12):
There was nothing equivocal in my August 2021 review of the Accuphase DG-68 Digital Voicing Equalizer ($24,000). Calling it "among the most enlightening and consequential" audio products I've spent time with, I affirmed that it "enriched my experience of reproduced music far more than I could have imagined." I found it a transformational product that performed "flawlessly, to oft-astounding effect."
For better or worse, forces cosmic and otherwise left insufficient time to explore all the DG-68's…
Stereophile often subjects products that have been reviewed to further coverage: sometimes because there was an aspect of performance that needed further investigation; other times because there was a controversial finding. Three recent followups concerned the Ayre Acoustics EX-8 2.0 Integrated Hub amplifier that Ken Micallef reviewed in the November 2021 issue; the Accuphase DG-68 Digital Voicing Equalizer that Jason Victor Serinus reviewed in August 2021; and the Zesto Leto Ultra II line preamplifier that Ken Micallef reviewed in February 2021.
When I measured the sample of the Ayre EX-…
So glad to be back in business with superclean electricity! Especially having spent the last few weeks listening to the remarkably pure-sounding Analog Relax EX1000 cartridge ($16,000).
The brochure asks, "Have you heard of YAKUSUGI Cedar?" No. I had never heard of Analog Relax, either. If you have heard of it, you're at least one step ahead of me.
Analog Relax, the brochure says, is produced by ZOOT Communication (footnote 1). On the company's website I learned that in Japanese "zoot" means "always." ZOOT Communication President Yasushi Yurugi is also a big Zoot Sims fan. He…
As I prepared to run the Audio Relax EX1000 into the Arion Mk.II, I was thinking that it might be too much of a good thing—that the velvety-sounding EX1000 and the sweet-sounding, electronic texture–free Arion might produce an additive muddle. It didn't.
The Audio Relax EX1000 (on the Schröder arm, with the OMA K3 arm/turntable) feeding the Arion Mk.II—even loaded at 100 ohms (the cartridge's 15 ohm internal impedance would suggest at least a 150 ohm load)—produced a dazzling presentation that enhanced and intensified the best qualities of both to produce among the most enticing vinyl-…