HiFi Rose RS250

@raysmtb1 Why hate to say it?  If you like it better than the DAC you were using, you can be twice as happy!  What's the DAC design in the 150?  I assume it has upgrades from the 250.  Different chips?  Balanced circuit?

Don't expect the system to sound considerably improved with the Pontus. I tried it with my Exemplar SACD player/ Van Alstine pre and couldn't hear a difference. The Pontus is a good DAC but there are better for around the same price and ultimately it depends on the rest of your equipment. The Pontus will not improve SQ much if you have all tube gear. 

I was looking to try a streamer with video capability and there are few choices.  This HiFi Rose unit seemed interesting, so I ordered one.

I had this unit for about 48 hours before returning it. 

Upon firing up the unit for the first time, it would cycle on and off.  I was unsure as to what the unit was doing, so I just left it do its thing.  After 3-4 minutes of cycling through its boot up screen, then a black screen, I rebooted the unit.  After about a minute re-boot process, it came fully alive, and I continued on the set-up process.

I could not get it to reliably connect to my WiFi by my main audio systems.  I fought for quite a bit of time as the unit would drop the connection, then I'd have to reconnect, it would drop the connection, redo the WiFi connection only to have it drop the WiFi connection yet again, etc., rinse, repeat.  The unit sat on top of an audio rack, unobstructed with nothing else electronic running in the room.

I finally moved the unit into my office and placed it about 2 feet from my router, then it connected.  Got it to finally finish the software update. I hooked it up to my inexpensive Audio Engine A2's that are located on my desk where the router is located just to test it and it sounded good, though these speakers are certainly not a good test of the unit's audio quality (3.5" two-way computer speakers).

After the setup was complete and WiFi connection seemed stable, I moved it back out to one of my systems and the issues started all over again.  At one point the unit froze up and some very odd screens appeared with odd symbols and goofy code visible.  Rose app on my phone locked up fully as well several times. 

I have zero issues with WiFi anywhere in the house with all the various PC's and devices accessing our reasonably good router.

On the plus side, it has nice weight to the unit, it's attractive looking, touch screen responds well, and the back panel seems very robust.  Unfortunately, I could not get it to play anything into my main systems, so I can't comment on sound quality.  Others that don't need the WiFi capability may not have any issues, though the unit locking up with odd screens seems, well, pretty odd for a $2500 unit.  Looks like HiFi Rose may have a few bugs to work out or I simply got a faulty one.

It's good to hear others are enjoying their units without issue and I hope my situation is isolated.  Again, it seems like a well built unit with great features.

@jheppe815 That had to be a hair-pulling exercise.  I haven't tried mine with WiFi.  I already have the ethernet cable run to where my equipment is, so I just use it.  With yours, I wonder if the firmware update process hiccuping all those times at the beginning might have left something screwed up even after it finally succeeded.  Impossible to know, obviously.  Anyway, sorry you had all that aggravation.  Hopefully my experience will stay positive. 🤞

@trentmemphis - I was using wifi.