Outboard DACs

In contrast with brands aiming for a clear and readily identifiable ‘image’, HiFi Rose is playing up to its disruptor reputation by invoking multiple and distinct industrial design languages. With the amps and streamers all having their own ‘look’, this makes for an eclectic set-up when several HiFi Rose components are arranged in one system. There’s no denying that a stack of – say – the HiFi Rose RS130, RD160 and RA180 is the stylistic opposite of a family of McIntosh or Esoteric units. With the latter two brands, you often need to look very closely before working out which model you’re dealing with.

But as Sean Kim explains, the divergent HiFi Rose designs are intentional, and meant to convey the respective functionality and underlying architecture. ‘A streamer, like the RS130, is a digital device, which is why it presents as a big screen’, he says, ‘while our amps are completely analogue, and their designs with the buttons and dials express this fact. The RD160 is a bridge between these two extremes, and the new design ties analogue and digital together’. Perhaps the stacked trifecta is meant to illustrate the flow from digital to analogue? ‘Exactly’, Sean confirms.