Have not A/B'd the 2 dacs and honestly not sure I would be able to hear a difference anyway. Having said that, really enjoying the X16 so far. Not sure I can hear that "Sabre glare" people talk about when referring to older sabre chips. Streaming Tidal, I now have the benefit of MQA decoding that RME lacs. My screen set to "Auto off" just like it is on the RME. The cool thing here is when bitrate changes, the screen comes back on momentarily to show what it's at. Your ADI 2 Dac is very different beast. Such an awesome, quality amp/dac but you already know that.How would you compare this DAC to your RME? In previous generations, I liked the ESS DACs much less, and am super happy with my two RME ADI-2 FS. Needing a third DAC for the work office setup, but not needing all the features of RME, considering Gustard A16 vs A18 as economical but high quality options.
If you just want a cheep (ish) well measuring option to add to your audio equipment, I can't fault you choosing the X16.
Chibs