TECHWEEK
Class AD, (Advanced Class D), is how Hifi Rose presents its RA180 integrated amplifier. Hifi Rose’s breakthrough to the market came with the RS201E and RS250 streaming systems with full face panel touch screens. With the RA180, the concept has changed radically.
Let’s start with the fact that GaNFET assemblies are used in the final stages of the RA180 – with gallium nitride-based field devices with ultra-high response speed, as in Peachtree Audio models . And the Hifi Rose RA180 has not two, but four such terminals. In BTL (Bridge Tied Loads) bridge mode, the device will output up to 400 watts to each of the two stereo speakers.
At the same time, the speaker cable terminals on the rear panel provide, for example, band-by-band amplification, and with a super-tweeter crossover, with a cutoff from 600 Hz to 6 kHz (upwards the frequency response of the novelty extends up to 100 kHz).
If we take into account the possibility of working on 2 zones, then there are 16 terminals on the rear panel. Among the analog inputs is the connection of a built-in phono stage with MM/MC support. The switching provides for the HT Bypass mode, when the signal from the third line input goes directly to the final amplifiers.
The front panel of the RA180 is devoid of newfangled touchscreens – on the contrary, it is a system of mechanical encoders in the spirit of steampunk, “gears out”. These gears, when adjusted from the remote control, turn the built-in electric motor, making volume adjustment a little spectacle.
The Rose RA180 Integrated HiFi Amplifier is priced at £5,500 in the UK.
