HiFi Rose 150 is an amazing streamer and my first unit owned at this level. I have auditioned several options, some more and some less expensive, but nothing compares, the 150 I am very impressed with DAC and ease of use and enjoyment with balanced out Analysis Plus Apex Silver XLR's out to amps and Analysis Plus Apex Silver speaker cabling.
PrimaLuna 400's offer up some dark warm sound of the Rose 150, rolling some tubes for the preamp section with 12AU7, added 16 GL KT88's which did indeed warm up the sound or so I have convinced myself. the sound from the Kanta's is excellent at 4 ohms. Zero noise. Added Sopra 3's and now I have to say, impressed in the music delivery, and sonics even in a crude room.
I realize this room is not worth much but sold home and building new home with a dedicated audio room. This is my 6th fresh system in 42 years of audio, they have all been great but this one is so simple, and so little cabling. My AR preamp was $8k and I fussed around with a McIntosh then a DAC, sorry to say there was no bump. Scratching my hear but I think things are changing.
Prima Luna EVO 400 Amplifiers - Mono Blocks EVO 400 Amplifiers - Mono Blocks
Winter Amps, KT88's and a few NOS tubes to play with but dead quiet and excellent match to the Sopra 3 to move air at low volume levels., but they do run a little warm for the desert in June - September so ended up with a summer amp set up.
Isotek EV03 Sigmas
EVO3 Sigmas Power Conditioner with Isotek Premier C19 Power Cable, is what it is and does what it promises. For sure never an exciting expenditure butrequired IMHO, if you're running something less, you will hear the difference.
Focal Sopra 3
Added a little bass, did not want to add subs to Kanta's for a larger room in the works yet Kanta's are an amazing speakers. Building new room hope to have it finished sometime in 2023, yes this one sucks.
Running the DAC in the Rose 150, I will experiment with outboard DAC as I finish off the system but the idea was a modern minimalist system with fewwe cables and boxes. Currently only running two XLR to amps and two speaker cables. I will update next week,
