Eversolo v. HiFi Rose

I’m a little surprised about the app comments.

I had a 250B loaner inhouse last month and the Android app worked flawlessly -- even with Tidal. (The HDMI video out was also pretty terrific, even with a vanilla HDMI cable; although if I bought another HFR, I’d shell out the money for 4K video out.)

What in particular did I miss?

dandion, I agree that the RS130 looks pretty impressive. First hands-on reviews report sound quality clearly superior to that of the 150B (which costs a little more but includes a DAC). For one thing, the 130 accepts external-clock input.

Nonetheless, I think it’s too soon to form a solid opinion. We’ll see.

dandion: I"m not sure what your remark 1) means, but if Tidal connect is something of importance to some users, I’m not one of them. Maybe you could explain a little more about why I might enjoy using it.

As I mentioned, when I played Tidal through the Rose 250, it did everything I’d hoped for. So I guess we have different requirements. That doesn’t make the RS250 intrinsically good or bad. Just -- as with almost any component -- a better fit for some applications than others.

For me, the streaming interface was easily the best fit I know of. And being software-driven is just icing, when it comes to upgrades & bug fixes. I think tonyptony is right on the money in this regard.

After speaking to a fellow familiar with both Eversolo & HFR, I don't think any Eversolo products would meet my needs, regardless of their low, low prices.

So at this point I’m trying to decide between the RS250 and the new RS130. $1000-1500 difference, but the more expensive transport-only model has a couple of key features Ithat might justify the cost, like a temperature-adaptive high-resolution crystal, an external clock input, and 4K video export. Hard to find all that in any other $5K streamer..

tonyptony: Well, that’s exactly the question I"m looking at. And I'll likely be using a Charlie Hansen-designed Ayre DAC.  But it's more complicated than that.

For one thing, there's the difference between spending $2600 for the DAC/streamer and $5100 for the streaming transport (plus the cost of the external DAC). But balancing that is the fact that the more expensive option is likely to provide better sonics, as well as additional features like 4K video streaming.

So I don’t think you can reduce the decision to mere "DAC or no DAC" functionality.

Using the RS250 with an external DAC can certainly make sense -- despite wasting money on a DAC you’ll never use -- if one isn’t ready to shell out thousands of bucks extra to get a better streamer.

Actually, it’s getting even more complicated. Other Audiogon members have suggested that I look at Lyngdorf & Novation Cocktail streaming devices I wasn't aware of, both of which offer ostensibly more mature HiFi Rose-like graphical interfaces: .

I have to admit that they do look impressive, but they're complex multifunction Swiss-army-knife components.  So this may take a little bit of research.

After already spending a month sorting out a way to insert new amplification, DAC, and streamer into a multi-channel system, I’m ready to take a break.

Big difference between the RS130 and the RS150’s streamer. And the RS130’s $5200 price tag doesn’t seem all that outrageous for a DAC-less streamer that seems to be designed to work with $3-10,000 external clocks, like the Esoterics.

Nonetheless, I think it’s too soon to know whether it’s in a class with other streamers in its price range. Initial reviews are enthusiastic, but honestly, how many reviewers are qualified to evaluate a product category as (sorry!) esoteric as a standalone streaming transport?