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Specifications
Dual Sabre ES9038 Pro
If visually keen to my eyes, I’m more interested by the Rose RT-5000 inner beauty, and circuitry.
Advertised as a “One-stop professional-grade electroacoustic processing center”, the brand packed the DAC with all of the best chip they could grab, and master. At the heart of the device, you’ll find a set of two top-of-the-line ESS ES9038 Pro chip, the same DAC found in high-end DAP like the FiiO M17. A popular chip but not seen in many devices, for two reasons.
First, this is a top-of-the-line chip, costing more than its usual Q2M counterpart, usually found on DAP or portable DAC (like the M11S for example).
Second, this is a heavily taxing DAC, that needs a very solid supply-line upfront to be correctly used. Which explains why you’ll mostly see this chip in desktop gears, like SACD/Blu-Ray players or home-theatre processors, or the RT-5000 in our case.
It offers every high-end feature you’d expect, namely:
- full high-resolution PCM decoding, up to 32bit/769kHz
- native DSD support up to DSD1024 and DSD256 via Dop
- extended DSP options (roll-off, soft mute,…) and fully programmable FIR filter with 7 presets
- an astoundingly high Signal-to-noise Ratio, up to 140dB
- full I2S/DoP/DSD/SPDIF input + 8-channel audio mapping
As usual, you can top that with 32-bit HyperStream II architecture, Time Domain Jitter Eliminator and a mono mode for those who seek the highest performance, in a multi-channel system, or a dual-mono setup like in our case.
Texas Instruments OPA1612 + Muses 01 J-FET
Downstream, the RT-5000 uses no less than eight TI OPA1612 amps for I/V circuitry and two of them as Low Pass Filter op-amps, so that the amp can “restore true sound and create mesmerizing HiFi sound quality”. Thanks to that, the Rose supports 4-step gain adjustment, adding a “super-gain” mode to the usual Low/Medium/High levels.
But, the true highlight here, comes from the JRC’s MUSES01 J-FET, flagship J-Fet dual audio operational amplifier specially designed for high-end audio gear. Paired with “power tubes”, they shall deliver a warmer sound, with that organic touch, minus the issues you could have with classical amplifiers – high distortion, channel imbalance, etc.
Numbers? With a 32 ohm Load, the Rose RT-5000 signal harmonic distortion reaches 0.0005% while maintaining a very good signal-to-noise ratio (125dB). Power wise, the amp should be able to deliver up to 1600mW through its balanced output, and half of that with the single-ended one (800mW)
Qualcomm QCC5125 + Kalimba DSP
Finally, let’s talk about the Bluetooth chip.
Embedded inside the Rose is a Qualcomm QCC5125 chipset, a Bluetooth 5.1 chip that might appear a bit old when everyone is now using 5.3 chips. But, thankfully, this one comes with a Kalimba 120Mhz programmable DSP, compatible with all of the high-resolution streams available: LDAC, aptX, aptX Low-Latency, aptX Adpative and the classic SBC/AAC.
I did use the RT-5000 in Bluetooth and was quite surprised by how stable the connection was, even in LDAC with a FiiO streamer. Good job!
For the nerdiest ones, here is the full technical data, for the rest, you can go to the next page already.
Technical Data
- Model: Rose RT-5000
- Type: Digital Audio Converter + Desktop amplifier
- Sampling rate PCM : up to 32bit / 384kHz
- Sampling rate DSD : up to DSD 256
- DAC: 2x ESS Sabre ES9038 Pro
- Headphone amp: 2x MUSES01
- I/V Op-Amp: 8x TI OPA 1612
- LPF Op-Amp: 2x TI OPA1612
- Outputs : RCA, XLR, 4.4mm Pentaconn, 6.35mm Jack, 3.5mm Jack
- Input: USB, Optical, Coaxial, Bluetooth,
- SNR: > 125 dB
- Output power: 1600 mW @ 32 ohms (Balanced) / 800mW @ 32ohms (unbalanced)
- Bluetooth chip: QCC 5125
- Bluetooth: SBC / AAC / aptX / aptX HD / aptX LL / aptX Adaptive / LDAC
- Size : 191mm x 144,5mm x 40mm
- Weight: 822,5g
- Price : $599
The review continues on Page four, after the click HERE or by using the jump below.
Page 1: Design & Build Quality
Page 2: UI & Usage
Page 3: Specifications, Bundle
Page 4: Sound performances
