ROSE RA180

I have no idea how many unicorns they employed in the Rose’s factory, but there are very nice details to be found on this amplifier. Look at the isolation feet. Look at the pure copper Furutech IEC terminal around the back. Look at the mechanism of the volume knob and note the left to right moving volume level indicator above it. No, when you turn the RA180’s buttons, flip its switches, and slide its sliders, it does not have the real feel of Nagra’s precision or Luxman’s smoothness, but who would complain?

The amp is based on gallium nitride FETs, operates in Class D (which – in this Rose’s implementation – is nicknamed into Class AD), and consists of no less than 4 amplifier modules, each providing continuous 200 watts to both 4 and 8 ohms, at vanishingly low distortion. These are impressive specifications.

The Rose RA180 is equipped with XLR inputs (1 pair), RCA line inputs (3 pairs), a phono input (1 with selectable MM/MC and a separate phono ground for the phono cable on top of another ground post for chassis). The phono has its own two equalizer knobs to adjust for RIAA, Decca, Teldec, NAB, Columbia, and other most used standards. The signal is sent out to an array of speaker binding posts or to a subwoofer (RCA subwoofer out). This way you can use the RA180 in the integrated mode as well as a power amplifier only, in bridged BTL mode, for bi-wiring or bi-amping, you name it.