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.
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