The young South Korean company HiFi ROSE has just demonstrated once again its renowned creativity with the market launch of the exquisite RS451 network music player. Equipped with a compact and stylish aesthetic, this next-generation electronics benefits from the sophisticated architecture of HiFi ROSE’s flagship in digital sources, the celebrated RS151, while offering versatility and ease of use that allows it to be part of a very wide spectrum of audio configurations. Equipped with two premium 8-channel D/A converters and 32-bit arithmetic ES9027PRO from the American ESS Technology, each with its dedicated power supply, it uses one of them “chips” for the pre-output and another for the headphone output, bringing a refined and agile sound to every listening environment. Specifically, the pre-amplified output section includes high-precision DAC circuitry to integrate seamlessly into the most demanding music playback systems, while its headphone counterpart, based on the so-called HP Amp Architecture, is combined with four premium amplifiers to achieve optimal impedance matching, extremely low noise level and high dynamic capacity.
Going deeper into the details, the ES9027PRO should be noted that it is capable of exhibiting, thanks to its configuration in a 4-channel parallel structure for stereo, a dynamic range greater than 124 dB and virtually imperceptible background noise, while its compatibility with PCM files up to 32 bits/768 kHz and DSD up to DSD512 allows it to unleash the latest in high-resolution recordings. Likewise, its seven internal digital filters mean that the user is able to fine-tune the sound signature and adjust it to their preferences. Particularly significant is the RS451’s headphone section, composed of four individually driven amplifiers that provide a robust and stable output (maximum available power is 2,700 mW at 16 ohms with XLR connector) even with “difficult” impedance headphones. In this sense, the completely isolated design of its power supply subsystem helps to suppress crosstalk, while the ultra-quiet audio circuitry itself maintains a linear response throughout the entire frequency range.
This conception guarantees, backed by a spectacular “slew rate” of 1,300 V/us, sensational performance in terms of response speed and power delivery capacity, as well as outstanding transparency and tonal balance, whatever the complexity of the musical content reproduced. In the field of digital transmission, the ROSE DPC module stands out, imported from the RD160 “transport” for streaming and which ensures synchronism with unprecedented precision, in the order of femtoseconds and the perfect alignment of the I2S wave trains. As in the RS151, the analog stage of the RS451 incorporates HiFi ROSE’s innovative NRA (“Noise Reduction Analog”) filter, which eliminates noise and guarantees a flat response curve in the lower octave of the spectrum. Let us highlight that this exquisite “streamer” is managed by a latest generation RK3588 8-core processor, which, compared to its predecessor, multiplies the information processing performance by four and the graphics processing performance by eight. In parallel, the DRAM memory capacity has been increased from 4 GB to 8 GB, while the storage via eMMC has been expanded from 8 GB to 42 GB, enabling fluid restitution of video files with 4K and HDR resolution. The new HiFi ROSE is topped by a front panel that houses an 8.8” (223.52 mm) screen with a resolution of 1,920×480 pixels, three headphone outputs for different connectors (XLR, 4.4 mm and 6.5 mm) selectable and a practical multifunction control.
