[technobear]

You can reference the manual and also read up on minimum phase (slow) and linear phase (sharp) filters.

You could also read up on minimum phase (fast/sharp) and linear phase (slow) filters.

Yep, no relationship exists between fast vs. slow roll-off and linear vs. minimum phase. Completely different topics.

 

[bflat]

You could also read up on minimum phase (fast/sharp) and linear phase (slow) filters.

Yep, no relationship exists between fast vs. slow roll-off and linear vs. minimum phase. Completely different topics.

Right. I also misquoted the manual. It should be minimum phase (SD) and linear phase (Sharp/Slow).

 

[wormsdriver]

Hey guys, when using usb on a Windows 10 pc, how do you set it up in order for tidal (master/hifi) to automatically use the correct bit rate?

 

[Gww1]

Hey guys, when using usb on a Windows 10 pc, how do you set it up in order for tidal (master/hifi) to automatically use the correct bit rate?

I don't believe it can be done, the RME drivers don't support multiple bitrates in WASAPI and although the standard windows driver 'should' support it, it doesn't in Tidal for whatever reason.
I just use optical output from my PC when using Tidal.
The other option is to use Roon or Audirvana which support Tidal and use ASIO which supports bitrate switching.

 

[wormsdriver]

I don't believe it can be done, the RME drivers don't support multiple bitrates in WASAPI and although the standard windows driver 'should' support it, it doesn't in Tidal for whatever reason.
I just use optical output from my PC when using Tidal.
The other option is to use Roon or Audirvana which support Tidal and use ASIO which supports bitrate switching.

Thanks for that, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.
I've had this dac for a few months now and also started using my older Sony laptop with it since it has optical out, however I recently tried the sun input again and for some reason I thought it sounded a bit better.
I don't know man but I am using a cheap ass optical cable so maybe I'll try another one see if that helps. Lol

 

[Allanmarcus]

Following up again with a slightly revised opinion of the ADI-2 DAC (amp portion) vs the THX 789. After doing some more listening with my various headphones plus my newly re-acquired Andromeda. To summarize it as easily and simply as I can, the ADI-2 has more body while the 789 has greater stage size, speed, and dynamics. In my earlier comparison I don't feel like I gave the ADI-2's amp as much credit as it deserves as it does quite a nice job. But with that said the 789 the increased speed and room to work within the stage creates an airy and large sound that I appreciate, despite it running a tad lean.

Good thing you can just bump up the bass a little when feeding the THX from the RME and get the best of both worlds.

 

[Docharsha89]

Hello fellow Head-fiers. I'm new to Head-fi and this is my first post here. I use an RME ADI-2 DAC with AQ Nighthawk Carbon and HD650 Headphones. After reading a lot of Rave reviews about the product, I ended up getting it. I have a few issues which need your help, to sort out. The first being Sound settings : There are a plethora of options to tweak and adjust, which even after having a brief read of the manual, I cant seem to get right. I have a Chord Mojo, which I used before and I grew to like the Chord tonality of sound. Now moving to RME, it sounds a bit analytical and at times sibilant, even after manually reducing treble. Can someone, please help me by providing the settings used for open back headphones ?

 

[kdickin2]

Hello fellow Head-fiers. I'm new to Head-fi and this is my first post here. I use an RME ADI-2 DAC with AQ Nighthawk Carbon and HD650 Headphones. After reading a lot of Rave reviews about the product, I ended up getting it. I have a few issues which need your help, to sort out. The first being Sound settings : There are a plethora of options to tweak and adjust, which even after having a brief read of the manual, I cant seem to get right. I have a Chord Mojo, which I used before and I grew to like the Chord tonality of sound. Now moving to RME, it sounds a bit analytical and at times sibilant, even after manually reducing treble. Can someone, please help me by providing the settings used for open back headphones ?

I also just received the ADI-2. In all honesty, I think the RME's headphone amplifier sounds pretty terrible with my HD600s, at least compared to my Bottlehead Crack. Hell, even my original Schiit Magni sounded better. The RME sounds thin, hollow, and coarse. I've activated high power mode and played with the filters, and neither fixed the issues I'm hearing with the headphone amplifier. It's possible that the EQ and crossfeed settings could help, but I'm not too interested in tinkering with those. I didn't buy the RME to function as a headphone amp. I bought it to serve as a DAC, and as a DAC, it's phenomenal.

 

[Arniesb]

I also just received the ADI-2. In all honesty, I think the RME's headphone amplifier sounds pretty terrible with my HD600s, at least compared to my Bottlehead Crack. Hell, even my original Schiit Magni sounded better. The RME sounds thin, hollow, and coarse. I've activated high power mode and played with the filters, and neither fixed the issues I'm hearing with the headphone amplifier. It's possible that the EQ and crossfeed settings could help, but I'm not too interested in tinkering with those. I didn't buy the RME to function as a headphone amp. I bought it to serve as a DAC, and as a DAC, it's phenomenal.

Have you seen any half decent amplifier with switched power supply? Cuz i have not.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

I also just received the ADI-2. In all honesty, I think the RME's headphone amplifier sounds pretty terrible with my HD600s, at least compared to my Bottlehead Crack. Hell, even my original Schiit Magni sounded better. The RME sounds thin, hollow, and coarse. I've activated high power mode and played with the filters, and neither fixed the issues I'm hearing with the headphone amplifier. It's possible that the EQ and crossfeed settings could help, but I'm not too interested in tinkering with those. I didn't buy the RME to function as a headphone amp. I bought it to serve as a DAC, and as a DAC, it's phenomenal.

Interesting. I have been using the ADI-2 with the HD-600s for months now and I think they pair very well. I use the SD Slow or Slow filters and sometimes apply EQ, sometimes I don't. I compared to what it sounds like through the Grace Design m900 DAC/AMP and the ADI-2 DAC + Gilmore Lite Mk2 amp and I prefer the ADI-2 by itself.

If it would sound terrible, I would put the HD-600s away quickly after switching from the LCD MX4.

 

[MikeW]

Well coming from a bottlehead, there will be a drastic difference here. Apples and oranges, clearly you've forgotten, or never knew what "Flat" sounded like. You'd need to listen to the ADI-2 for an extended period of time to reset your expectation. Many have listened to the amp and compared it to other 300-500$ solid state amps and found it better then or as good. You really need to spend well over 500$ in an amp only to significantly better it. There are plenty of amp's that use Switch mode power supplies that sound great btw. My Liquid Platinum has a SMPS and sounds fantastic with the ADI-2. As does the ever popular Mass Drop THX 789, which is barely an improvement, if any on the ADI's amp btw. You can pretty much make the ADI-2's headphone amp sound like anything you want with the excellent built in parametric eq that you refuse to fiddle with. About the only thing you can't replicate is tube distortion.

It is possible to implement a SMPS into a high end design, and is gaining popularity. It presents unique engineering challenges, but so does linear PSU. You can't just say "XXX product uses SMPS, it's garbage"...

 

[Docharsha89]

Well coming from a bottlehead, there will be a drastic difference here. Apples and oranges, clearly you've forgotten, or never knew what "Flat" sounded like. You'd need to listen to the ADI-2 for an extended period of time to reset your expectation. Many have listened to the amp and compared it to other 300-500$ solid state amps and found it better then or as good. You really need to spend well over 500$ in an amp only to significantly better it. There are plenty of amp's that use Switch mode power supplies that sound great btw. My Liquid Platinum has a SMPS and sounds fantastic with the ADI-2. As does the ever popular Mass Drop THX 789, which is barely an improvement, if any on the ADI's amp btw. You can pretty much make the ADI-2's headphone amp sound like anything you want with the excellent built in parametric eq that you refuse to fiddle with. About the only thing you can't replicate is tube distortion.

It is possible to implement a SMPS into a high end design, and is gaining popularity. It presents unique engineering challenges, but so does linear PSU. You can't just say "XXX product uses SMPS, it's garbage"...

Could you suggest an eq setting for the Audioquest NH ? Also what other changes have you made to the sound settings ? I'm really clueless regarding tweaking the settings. I was hoping it would easy, but it doesn't seem to be so at all.

 

[Docharsha89]

The typical Chord sound could be described as effortless and holographic without even a tiny hint of sibilance, but having a very well extended treble at the same time with near perfect bass and mids. I was wondering If my RME could emulate such a sound/better it.

 

[MikeW]

Parametric EQ takes a bit of practice. The User interface of the ADI-2 is pretty good, but not very discoverable, or particularly intuitive. So if your having issue's with that i'd suggest hitting up youtube and finding the manufacturer created tutorials. It's not too bad once you have a grasp of how the interface works. You will need to read some guides on what a parametric EQ is, and how to adjust it. You will need to learn what frequency ranges effect things like sibilance, and bass response, warmth and tonality. It's best that you find a guide/tutorial on EQ's and frequencies, then us try to explain it here.

You also really need to give it a little more time. If you've been listening to something for a long time and then suddenly switch to something else. Particularly two excellent devices like Chord and RME, you need to adjust.

My profile for the EQ on my HD650 is a big bass boost +8DB at 44 hz. a slight 1db boost at 120 hz, a 3.5 boost at 1.2k, followed by a sharp -6db cut at 8k.. well let me just make it easy for you.

Exact settings in the parametric EQ: Specific for HD650

RED band
B1 G+8.0 F44 Q 0.5

YELLOW band
B2 G+1.0 F120 Q.05

GREEN band
B3 G+3.5 F1.20k Q0.5

LIGHT BLUE
B4 G-6.0 F8.0k Q5.0

DARK BLUE
B5 G+0.0 F14.0k Q2.7 - last little line is a down curve, this causes a huge spike at the end of the FR range.

Come to think of it, I was using a bit of a different profile back when I was using the ADI-2 as my AMP. I don't recall the exact settings, you will have to fiddle. The above is my preferred profile with my Liquid Platinum. What is universal, with HD650 is a strong bass boost and cut to 8k. everything else is up for debate. You may start with a +6 DB boost at 44 HZ, and a -5 cut at 8k and see how that sounds before moving forward.

 

[adeseaso]

The typical Chord sound could be described as effortless and holographic without even a tiny hint of sibilance, but having a very well extended treble at the same time with near perfect bass and mids. I was wondering If my RME could emulate such a sound/better it.

Do note that the Mojo is rolled off by design to allow use of less than great sources and headphones on the go without sibilance. It's smooth compared to just about any other DAC you'll pit it against. It's how its maker intended for it to sound.