Rose Technics RT5000 – Super Smooth DAC and Headphone Amp

Rose Technics RT5000 is a DAC and headphone amplifier in one. It comes from a new and previously unknown Chinese manufacturer. It was offered to me for a review by the HiFiGo shop, and upon seeing its design and specs I agreed to check it out.

Build and Features

RT5000 is a sturdy-looking device that uses aluminium for the most part but adds some interesting accents. The front panel is made of wood, and the bottom and upper sides are covered by what appears to be real leather. This to my taste looks really nice and feels nice to use too. Golden volume knob and buttons feel less luxurious especially since they are plastic and shiny. But that’s a matter of taste.

On a more practical note, this device offers good connectivity, as you can see in the image of the back panel below. Take a look at the front panel and you will once again find a very decent selection of headphone outputs – 3.5mm, 6.3mm, and 4.4mm. There’s even a Bluetooth connection onboard.

When it comes to the headphone output, you can choose four different gain settings which is very convenient. First of all, it covers all possible sensitivity of headphones, from IEMs to big power-hungry cans. Given the power of up to 1600mW, this amp can surely drive plenty of models out there. Another reason four gains are useful is that you can always get out of that lower volume knob zone (up to 9 hours) that is not perfectly balanced for the left and right channels. So if you need to listen at very low volumes, just switch to a lower gain and you can have it while the volume knob is cracked above that not perfectly balanced part.

The device is built around the ES9038Pro Dual DAC setup and uses both OPA1612 in the I/V conversion and JRC MUSES 01 opamps in the input stage section.

Sound (Line Out)

Rose Technics RT5000 offers a full bassline that is also clean and well-controlled. There’s a slight warmth in the midbass and the midrange part of the spectrum. It’s the kind of warmth that doesn’t conceal fine details or dull the sound but gives them a hint of pleasant fullness. This is noticeable in all tones and vocals equally, which sound present and full-bodied. It’s something that I appreciate in the sound of a DAC. The highest frequencies are informative but not too prominent. RT5000 will never prioritize the edges of notes and their perceived sharpness. Instead, everything sounds unforced and natural at all times. If this sonic description sounds suspiciously similar to some SMSL products, it’s only like that because it’s true.

Soundstaging is as good as it gets around this price. Instruments and vocals are given plenty of room to breathe and not cause clutter. It will not match the scale of some R2R DACs closer to one thousand, like SMSL SU-10, but that’s OK. The soundstage is still noticeably roomier than what you would get a few years ago for the same price.

Finally, dynamics and microdynamics are very decent, but if you’re after the most explosive, punchy, forward, and fast-sounding DAC – you should probably look for that elsewhere. RT5000 is more of a laid-back, mild, and natural kind of performer. The one that will never grind against your ears and your brain in any uncomfortable way. That quality might not be as flashy and as impressive on the first listen, but tends to grow on you with time.

Sound (Headphone Out)

I love it when a combo unit, a DAC and a headphone amplifier in this case, is equally well done across the board. Headphone outputs have all of the same qualities just described in the previous section so I will not waste both mine and your time repeating them. The power rating is decent at 1.6 Watts at 32 Ohm so I never felt that the amplifier lacked power. That said, while dynamics are more than decent – you don’t get some kind of exciting kick and slam here. Instead, headphone output once again follows that mild and natural approach to the sound that is comparable to line outputs.

Comparisons

Chord Mojo 2 recently had a permanent price cut bringing it down to $650, which is still pricier than RT5000 by a small margin. They’re very different in form and connectivity, but I’ll leave weighing those differences and their importance to you. Here I’m going to focus on the sonic abilities only. Chord Mojo 2 when used as a DAC offers a similarly natural and mild approach to the sound, with a hint of pleasant warmth. What differentiates it from RT5000 is a richer tone timbre that’s almost seductive. RT5000 sounds a bit cleaner and more precise but not as harmonically rich. It’s a tie overall and will boil down to your own personal preference.

If you use both to drive headphones, you can notice that Mojo 2 can’t match the power of RT5000. If power-hungry headphones are going to be on the menu, RT5000 will do a better job bringing strong dynamics and making them sound alive. Mojo 2 is equally revealing of details but Rose Technics sounds more full-bodied, with weightier and more palpable tones. This one easily goes to RT5000 in my opinion.

SMSL DO400 is a very comparable product feature-wise, but slightly more affordable at $499. Oddly enough, these two share the tonality too. Thanks to that I basically copied most of the sound description from DO400 review for this one. But while in isolation we use the same adjectives to describe them – when put head to head – RT5000 is doing most of them better. For example, while both sound full-bodied when used with headphones, RT5000 sounds fuller and more dynamic. As DACs, they are both very smooth and natural with great detail retrieval but RT5000 once again sounds even cleaner and more three-dimensional. So we have two devices with the exact same tonal virtues but the more expensive one is doing it better overall. If you have one hundred US dollars to spare, I would.

Conclusion

I have to say that taking a part of the name and almost the whole logo of the established Rose HiFi was something completely unnecessary. Something that I would expect from brands that don’t possess the basic qualities needed to sell the products and want to rub off someone else’s fame. Rose Technics RT5000 is the opposite of such a product. It is a well-built and mighty good-sounding device. The price is more than right for this kind of performance and RT5000 can easily go head-to-head with some established brands and even win most of the time. Since the branding and marketing side of the equation never come into the final score of any review – it won’t happen here either. Putting that aside, we’re looking at a highly capable product that presents a fantastic value. In fact, one of the best on the market when it comes to DAC/AMP combos.