HiFi Rose RA180

Whatever industrial design eccentricities HiFi Rose might embrace, the brand is all about offering a multitude of features and functions. However, with its £5,500 price tag, the RA180 also marks a significant move upmarket for the company.

It's also offering something 'different' by housing no fewer than four GaN (gallium nitride) transistor-based Class D amp modules under its precision-milled bonnet. The higher switching speed and power handling of these new transistors improves the linearity of HiFi Rose's homebrew modules, a claim further reinforced by its invention of the term 'Class AD' operation. Class A distortion at low levels with the efficiency of Class D? At least that seems to be what the creative licence would suggest.

A typical stereo amplifier features four loudspeaker terminals. The RA180 has 16. There are four identical amplifier modules under the hood for a claimed total of 4x 200W. But you'll only use the four together when utilising one of its specialised speaker modes, either to bi-amp a pair of speakers (two amplifiers per channel) or bridging each pair into a higher-powered stereo configuration where the claimed output becomes a whopping 2x 400W.