+1 for the HiFi Rose section.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on a HiFi Rose RS250. Very impressed so far. Sounds much cleaner and have more resolution than my PC as a streamer. I was shocked to hear some micro details in the music that I had never heard before.
It’s mesmerizing to watch the music playback screen (most beautiful playback screen I have ever seen) and listen to music. The VU meters look good too, very realistic and could pass as real mechanical meters at first glance.
Software side HiFi Rose is not as good as Roon (no surprise here), and it has glitches such as not showing album covers in its stock app. Other than that it is fully functional and integrates streaming services well. Also it is very convenient to change all the settings in the mobile app, you could even turn the unit off and on without touching the unit itself. The included Bluetooth remote is nice to have but not really necessary.
When using RS250 as an Roon endpoint it works flawlessly as expected. It was immediately recognized by Roon and streaming music in no time. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that HiFi Rose stock app showed what was playing in Roon and I could even use the supplied remote control to operate (next song, previous song, play/pause, etc.)
Now let’s see for how many years I can resist upgrading to their flagship RS150 (or its successor) 