HiFi Rose RA180

Name: HiFi Rose RA180 Reference Integrated Amplifier
Brand: HiFi Rose
SKU: HIFIROSE:RA180
Price: 6995.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Reference Integrated Amplifier and Preamp w/ GaN FET Class AD topology, Balanced Power Supply, MM/MC Phono stages Built-in, Variable EQ Tone Control, Level Meters, Motorized Remote Control via IR, Subwoofer Out & Active Crossover

Item #HIFIROSE:RA180

Top view of the HiFi Rose RA180 Reference Integrated Amplifier.

Close up front view of the HiFi Rose RA180 Reference Integrated Amplifier.

Side angled view of the HiFi Rose RA180 Reference Integrated Amplifier.

Front view of the HiFi Rose RA180 Reference Integrated Amplifier with feature descriptions of each button and knob.

Rear view of the HiFi Rose RA180 Reference Integrated Amplifier.

Item # HFRRA180SLV

HiFi Rose RA180

$6,995.00

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Overview

HiFi Rose RA180 is a state-of-the-art integrated amplifier that uses the latest innovations in Class AD amplification tech to go way beyond the limits of traditional amplifiers. Power damping and dead times were reduced to 1/10th or less. Linearity was dramatically improved to create a near-perfect sound that transcends the boundaries between digital and analog. Enjoy the pure sound of nature provided by the RA180.

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The HiFi Rose RA180 is a reference-grade integrated amplifier with 800 watts of Class D amplification that will pair with any of the HiFi Rose DAC/streamers in this lineup. It has a similar high-purity aluminum silver finish as HiFi Rose’s top-of-the-line DAC/streamers. However, the RA180 uses a next-gen advanced Class D design developed in-house to take the acoustic performance of traditional Class D amps to a higher level.

Class D has a higher efficiency, and output with lower noise and ultra-low distortion compared to traditional Class AB designs. Over the years, some Class D amps have received a bad reputation for having a sound that doesn’t come across naturally due to limitations in the digital circuitry. However, HiFi Rose’s Advanced Class D design resolves these problems with new, innovative materials.

The RA180 uses a GaN Advanced Class D amplifier that was developed by HiFi ROSE. Instead of Silicon FET technology, HiFi Rose used Gallium Nitride FETs— the result is a fast, highly-accurate amplification stage with almost no dead time—enabling it to perform naturally—more like a pure analog amplifier.

The unit’s dimensions are proportional with the RS150 DAC/streamer—spanning almost 17-inches wide, a little over 13.5-inches across, and slightly under 4.5-inches tall—so they look fantastic paired together. The chassis weighs slightly over 36.5 lbs, which is about 8 lbs heavier than the RS150, helping them minimize acoustic vibrations even further when stacked together.

On the steampunk-looking front panel, there are a host of traditional tone controls powered by an op-amp instead of passive components that will let you control the treble, bass and balance. There are also variable EQ rotary controls that will let you tune the low-frequency turnover and high-frequency roll-off of the built-in MM/MC phono stage—plus, a plethora of switches for toggling between various modes are also accessible from the font panel.

At Audio Advice, our favorite feature in the user experience was remote controlling the geared volume rotary and source selector dials to physically turn right from our seating position with the HiFi Rose app on our tablet or with the bluetooth remote control. Super cool!

On the rear panel, there is one balanced XLR input, three unbalanced RCA Line-in inputs plus one unbalanced RCA input for the built-in phono stage. There is also a subwoofer output, a trigger connection, two grounding points, and 16 speaker output terminals, so you can connect and A/B test two pairs of stereo speakers. HiFi Rose also developed a special stable power supply exclusively for the RA180 that responds to the power demands of the system, so the amp always sounds as clean and as natural as possible.

The RA180 is also a sophisticated bi-amplification system. It has two 200W amplifier modules per channel with one amp that is optimized to deliver stable mid-bass and balance, while the other is designed to deliver smooth, clean power to the higher frequencies—up into the “super tweeter” area beyond 20kHz.

When the two modules per channel are connected separately to a speaker’s high and low-frequency input, the signal to the speaker will be clean, controlled and absent of interference. The two amplifier modules per channel can also be set to a Bridge Tied Loads mode (BTL), which allows you to connect a single pair of speaker cables to each speaker and still benefit from 400W of balanced sound.

The RA180’s front panel doesn’t look like any other integrated amp out today. At Audio Advice, we love the analog-style left & right speaker level meters! The industrial appearance reminds us of the cool, retro all-silver Japanese receivers from the 1980s, or even something out of a steampunk novel by Jules Verne or H.G Wells!

Seeing this next to a very modern-looking piece such as an RS150 DAC/streamer with it’s super-wide touch capacity display was a striking match. We were blown away by the side-by-side aesthetic—especially when we stacked the RA180 integrated amp underneath an RS150 DAC/streamer. Even though the contrast was starkly different—clearly, these two pieces belong together.

We tested the RA180 in our showroom with a pair of Sonus Faber Olympica Nova IIIs and the HiFi Rose reference-class RS150 DAC/streamer. This is a speaker that will certainly reveal any shortcomings of the system driving it. We were excited to put HiFi Rose’s Class AD tech to the test and see if it really sounded as good as class AB but with the benefits of Class D efficiency. We went to one of our favorite tracks, Lay Me Down by Crosby & Nash to see how well it performed presenting vocals in the midrange. Right away, you can tell the RA180 isn’t trying to do anything over the top to the sound it was presenting. Instead, it leaves it alone with a rather transparent, smooth, and natural feel to it. The harmonies in this song floated beautifully in the center of a big soundstage that again felt very natural.

Next, we wanted to play something with some excitement behind it so we picked the classic, “You Shook Me All Night Long,” by AC/DC. It was full and rich and had smooth, natural vocals and tight punchy bass. There was not a trace of digital edge we were expecting to hear, but on the other hand, it does not seem to add any warmth either just letting the sound flow unaltered.

Here at Audio Advice, we think the tech HiFi Rose has put into their Class AD amp is truly outstanding we love to see companies pushing the limits of what’s possible in the industry.

Details & Specs

Reference Integrated Amplification Evolved

New Concept Advanced Class D Amplifier

Amplifiers have changed from Class A to AB and Class D. The high heat and low efficiency of Class A required a new design, so Class AB was developed. However, Class D has even higher efficiency and higher output than Class AB.

It also has dramatically improved the Signal-to-Noise ratio and Total Harmonic Distortion Characteristics over Class A and AB.

However, despite these advantages, due to the limitations of digital circuits, the sound quality has been evaluated as poor compared to A/AB.

The GaN (Gallium Nitride) Advanced Class D amplifier developed by HiFi ROSE is an innovative new product. Dramatically improving on the problems of Class D. Harmonized Design by upper-class frame consists of an aluminum body with corner volume knob, power button, and wide view touch screen makes its whole shape exceptional.

Close up shot of the front panel of HiFi Rose RA180 Reference Integrated Amplifier

Next-gen GaN FET Advanced Class D Amp

Class D amplifiers are theoretically completely linear at 0% distortion and 100% power efficient. It is a topology that provides the output, and to implement it, speed and accuracy must be a prerequisite. However, previous products exhibited non-linearity due to the limitation of the switching element (Silicon FET).

It was weak compared to Class A/AB in this area, which produced a soft and natural sound. It was a costly limitation.

In the HiFi ROSE RA180, this problem has been solved by new materials. Instead of low-quality Silicon FET chips, the Dead-Time was improved to 10 by applying Gallium Nitride FET chips.

This linearity pushes the limit of Class D while being soft and producing a natural sound.

Multi-Output Configuration

Each channel of the RA180 amplifier is equipped with an AMP module specialized for stable bass and balance and a module specialized for soft treble and super tweeter area with 2 modules.

Each AMP module supports 200W (8 Ohms) and can output up to 400W per channel. There are 2 independent modules that divide the high and low frequencies respectively, so that the speaker and, when connected, Bi-Amping has a driving force that is increased without being affected by the back electromotive force.

BTL Mode combines the output of two independent modules to produce a thicker and more balanced sound.

Top-end Designed to Sing

The human hearing range is known to have an upper limit of 15 - 20KHz. So why would it be necessary to build an amp with a higher range?

Using modern research and experience it's now perhaps a good time to question this belief. Temporary high treble can extend well beyond 20KHz. For example, the trumpet has a frequency response that expands up to 100KHz.

The ROSE RA180 has an output range of 20Hz - 50Khz, 100Khz@-3dB, 200KHz @-6dB. The frequency response range is designed to be wide so that your high-resolution sources are not filtered out. While this range may in fact be beyond our range of human hearing, RA180 faithfully reproduces the subtle nuances of human voices and other instruments. The depth and width of the RA180's sound and the realism will contribute to the emotional expressions of the artists.

Close up shot of the internal components inside the HiFi Rose RA180 Reference Integrated Amplifier and Preamp.

Absolute Pure Sound.

Balanced Power Supply

The power supply circuit was developed exclusively for the RA180. It was designed with 4th generation SiC FET technology to provide high performance and high efficiency compared to typical Si FET.

In addition, ROSE has developed a 2.5 KW Power Factor Circuit (PFC) and a large-capacity capacitor. This is designed to allow the unit to be unaffected by sudden load fluctuations. The power unit is developed to support a damping factor of 200 and a total of 1000W of power.

As the heart of the amplifier, it is designed to produce powerful bass and soft treble faithfully.

Phono Amp with Variable EQ

The Phono amplifier section on the RA180 has the goal of accurately reproducing the intent of the artist.

It is designed to support a variety of record players with mid and low-frequency bass turnover and high-frequency roll-off adjustment.

Amplification of the very weak audio signal is captured from the cartridge and processed without coloring and faithfully keeping to the original sound.

Front panel of HiFi Rose RA180 Reference Integrated Amp with all the features spelled out on each button and knob.

Explanation of each control on the RA180 Reference Integrated Amplifier

Rear view of the back panel on the RA180 Reference Integrated Amplifier

Explanation of specs for HiFi Rose RA180 Reference Integrated Amp with all the features spelled out on each button and knob.

POWER:

OUTPUT: SMPS (800W) ( Maximum Power: 1,100W )
VOLTAGE: AC100-240V, 50/60Hz (Standby Mode Power Consumption <0.5W)

AMPLIFIER OUTPUT:

4 Ω: 200W x 4ch (800W)
8 Ω: 200W x 4ch (880W)
BTL Mode On: 400W x 2ch (400W)

INPUT SENSITIVITY:

BALANCE INPUT: 2,000mV (200W x 4ch)
UNBALANCED (Lline 1,2,3) INPUT: 1,000mV ( 200W x 4ch)
PHONO (MM/MC) INPUT: 5mV / 0.5mV (200W x 4ch )

IMPEDANCE INPUT:

BALANCE INPUT: 44kΩ
UNBALANCE (Line 1,2,3) INPUT: 47kΩ
PHONO (MM/MC) INPUT: 47kΩ

IMPEDANCE OUTPUT:

SPEAKER OUTPUT: 53MΩ ( 200W X 4ch )

BANDWIDTH (0dBr+/-3dB/8Ω):

SPEAKER OUTPUT: 10HZ - 100KHZ ( 100W X 2ch )
H/F SPEAKER OUTPUT: 10HZ - 100KHZ ( 100W X 2ch )

FREQUENCY RESPONSE (1W, 0+/-1dB/8Ω):

SPEAKER OUTPUT: 10HZ - 100KHZ ( 100W X 2ch )
H/F SPEAKER OUTPUT: 10HZ - 100KHZ ( 100W X 2ch )

TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION:

BALANCED & UNBALANCED (Line 1,2,3) INPUT: 0.006%(50W) ( 200W X 4ch)

SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO:

BALANCED, UNBALANCED / PHONO MM: 108dB / 106dB / 79dB (MM) ( 200W x 4ch )

DAMPING FACTOR:

SPEAKER & H/F SPEAKER OUTPUT: >150 ( 200W X 2ch )

SUBSONIC FILTER WITH ON/OFF SWITCH:

3dB: 50Hz 9 ( 1W x 4ch )

TONE CONTROL WITH ON/OFF SWITCH:

BASS (100Hz) / TREBLE (10KHz):+/-15dB ( 1W x 2ch [Speaker Output] )

X-OVER WITH ON/OFF SWITCH:

HPF (-3dB): 600Hz - 6KHz ( 1W x 2ch [H/F Speaker Output] )

ANALOG AUDIO INPUTS:

1 x PHONO Unbalanced RCA
3 x LINE Unbalanced RCA
1 x Balanced XLR

ANALOG AUDIO OUTPUTS:

1 x SUBWOOFER OUT

PHONO: MM/MC with variable EQ

TURNOVER (FLAT):
- 300Hz (+7.7dB@100Hz)
- 400Hz (+11.7DB@100HZ)
- 500Hz (+13dB@100Hz) [RIAA]
- 700Hz (+14.5dB@100Hz)
ROLL-OFF (FLAT):
- 1.6KHz (-16dB@10kHz)
- 2.1KHz (-13.7dB@10kHz) [RIAA]
- 3.18KHz (-11dB@10kHz)
- 3.4KHz (-8dB@10kHz)
- 6.36KHz (-5dB@10kHz)