[Moose246]

Not to bring this back to my initial question, but I'm less interested whether there are discernable differences between DACs (I have to believe so), but rather how much sound improvement is contributed by the sea of other components. Cables, current "cleaners" (power and USB), etc. Much like DAC's where there's probably a diminishing return to cost ratio (ie spend 10x as much to get to 99% as needed to get to 90%), but I also have to believe that the cost floor would be much less to get to near perfection. Reading reviews and "comparisons" the reviewers make it seem as though there are such drastic differences....I'm not saying I'm not a believer that higher quality items (component/build/etc) can't be differentiating, and I'll gladly spend more if it's actually the case, but the scale at which people make the changes out to be is surprising to me.

For my own system I'm using a Audioquest Cinnamon USB from my desktop to the ADI-2. Not your Amazon Basics cable, but not anywhere near the top of the cable heap.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Not to bring this back to my initial question, but I'm less interested whether there are discernable differences between DACs (I have to believe so), but rather how much sound improvement is contributed by the sea of other components. Cables, current "cleaners" (power and USB), etc.

Cables don't change the sound unless they're defective. Power cleaners can work if you have noisy power. DDC is a good idea if you use a PC as a source, and even if you don't hear a difference, they offer better connectivity and protocols designed for audio. You can't run AES/EBU off a PC but you can from a DDC. So depending on your system these can be really good additions. I have a reclocker but I didn't buy it believing it would improve the sound. I bought it for the connectivity. But I'll be dipped, it does add some clarity and air despite my aversion to belief in snake oil. Good clocks are vital to digital audio.

Much like DAC's where there's probably a diminishing return to cost ratio (ie spend 10x as much to get to 99% as needed to get to 90%), but I also have to believe that the cost floor would be much less to get to near perfection. Reading reviews and "comparisons" the reviewers make it seem as though there are such drastic differences....I'm not saying I'm not a believer that higher quality items (component/build/etc) can't be differentiating, and I'll gladly spend more if it's actually the case, but the scale at which people make the changes out to be is surprising to me.

The RME is a really musical DAC with no defects in sound quality. There is no reason to feel you have to upgrade, let your ears and budget decide.

There are things I don't like about the RME having nothing to do with sound. For example I like MQA so I have some MQA DACs. I hate wallwarts, they're a really good source of noise, almost all my gear uses IEEE standard A/C input. I have gear that needs AES/EBU to get the best quality (has no USB input) but the RME nonpro doesn't have AES/EBU out. The RME doesn't have clock in. Etc. And the RME is very light so other than changing the volume, you have to use two hands. It does not stay in place on my desk. Until you start listening to it and using it, you would have no idea how good it is.

For my own system I'm using a Audioquest Cinnamon USB from my desktop to the ADI-2. Not your Amazon Basics cable, but not anywhere near the top of the cable heap.

USB cables don't make much difference. Analog cables can be worth it based on construction quality and materials and maybe even appearance, but unless there's electrical noise it doesn't make sense to me to spend on cables. I make my own from good cable stock and connectors and that's enough for me.

Nobody can decide any of this for you, nobody hears the same or wants exactly the same setup.

 

[Moose246]

Cables don't change the sound unless they're defective. Power cleaners can work if you have noisy power. DDC is a good idea if you use a PC as a source, and even if you don't hear a difference, they offer better connectivity and protocols designed for audio. You can't run AES/EBU off a PC but you can from a DDC. So depending on your system these can be really good additions. I have a reclocker but I didn't buy it believing it would improve the sound. I bought it for the connectivity. But I'll be dipped, it does add some clarity and air despite my aversion to belief in snake oil. Good clocks are vital to digital audio.


The RME is a really musical DAC with no defects in sound quality. There is no reason to feel you have to upgrade, let your ears and budget decide.

There are things I don't like about the RME having nothing to do with sound. For example I like MQA so I have some MQA DACs. I hate wallwarts, they're a really good source of noise, almost all my gear uses IEEE standard A/C input. I have gear that needs AES/EBU to get the best quality (has no USB input) but the RME nonpro doesn't have AES/EBU out. The RME doesn't have clock in. Etc.


USB cables don't make much difference. Analog cables can be worth it based on construction quality and materials and maybe even appearance, but unless there's electrical noise it doesn't make sense to me to spend on cables. I make my own from good cable stock and connectors and that's enough for me.

Nobody can decide any of this for you, nobody hears the same or wants exactly the same setup.

Thanks for the insight. Wasn't looking for a decision to be made on my behalf, just curious about others experiences with the ADI-2 specifically, since often it seems as though impact may be DAC specific.

From your experience, sounds like a reclocker would be the only consideration.

I agree that by all accounts the DAC sounds great without anything else fancy - and why I find it so hard to comprehend significant, discernible improvements with swaps in the chain.

 

[jjss]

//6. Power Supply
In order to make operating the ADI-2 Pro as flexible as possible, the unit has a universal DC input socket, accepting voltages from 9.5 Volts up to 15 Volts. An internal switching regulator of the latest technology with high efficiency (> 90%) prevents internal hum noise by operating above audible frequencies. Internally the switching regulator is followed by standard linear regulators, followed by super low-noise linear regulators. Therefore the ADI-2 Pro achieves its technical specs even with less optimal power supplies. Or in other words: the choice of power supply is not critical.
Still the unit includes a high-quality switching power supply, 12 V / 2 A, which not only accepts any mains voltage between 100 V and 240 V (usable world-wide), but is also fully regulated against voltage fluctuations and suppresses line noise. Additionally it only weights 150 g in spite of its high power of 24 Watts.
The DC input of the ADI-2 Pro also allows for the use of a rechargeable lead-battery or LiPo instead of a power supply, for completely independent mobile operation and ground isolation. A matching connection cable (power jack 5.5 x 2.1 mm to terminals 6.3 mm) should be available from various sources. Special power banks in the range of 10,000 mAh and up can be found equipped with a 12 V output. These offer a perfect solution for mobility as well as ground isolated operation, for small money.//

Above is direct extract from latest ADI-2 Pro manual, and clearly states that the choice of power supply is not critical. So I would imagine that unless there's unstable / very dirty power supply in your area, the unit works just perfect with no external LPS, conditioners added on ..

 

[Andrew Sedgwick]

Sorry dumb question - just got my ADI-2 DAC yesterday and playing with the EQ feature. I have manually input a couple EQs (which seem good) - how do I save these to the presets ? At the moment they sit in the Manual & Temp settings in EQ. I want to save them to preset (1-20) but cannot work out how at the moment. Any help would be much appreciated

 

[Tano]

Sorry dumb question - just got my ADI-2 DAC yesterday and playing with the EQ feature. I have manually input a couple EQs (which seem good) - how do I save these to the presets ? At the moment they sit in the Manual & Temp settings in EQ. I want to save them to preset (1-20) but cannot work out how at the moment. Any help would be much appreciated

Go to the EQ menu (press EQ button), name the EQ and press button 2 a few seconds until it saves it.
If you still don't get it, take a look at this video

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Thanks for the insight. Wasn't looking for a decision to be made on my behalf, just curious about others experiences with the ADI-2 specifically, since often it seems as though impact may be DAC specific.

From your experience, sounds like a reclocker would be the only consideration.

There are advantages to a DDC even without reclocking. I would say if you're happy with the sound, and most of us are, you're done. I don't have anything ahead of my RME, I just run it over USB. If you feel there is noise coming from your USB connection, next step is to try to narrow that down. If you want other connectivity, you could run a DDC off the USB and that is likely to eliminate all possible noise from the USB source. If you feel the sound isn't as clear as you would like then you could look into a reclocker.

I agree that by all accounts the DAC sounds great without anything else fancy - and why I find it so hard to comprehend significant, discernible improvements with swaps in the chain

I think there not significant changes possible with this DAC, but I believe there are discernible ones. And given how good the RME is from end to end, incremental improvements are likely to cost a lot of money and not be a good return on investment in most cases.

 

[Andrew Sedgwick]

Go to the EQ menu (press EQ button), name the EQ and press button 2 a few seconds until it saves it.
If you still don't get it, take a look at this video

I was pressing button 1 rather button 2 to save it - all good now - many thanks for your help.

 

[arielext]

Oh folks, I got a post for y'all that is just great fun. On a Polish forum, a guy A/B tested the RME ADI-2 vs a dCS Debussy, which is a >$10k DAC, and was not able to discern them. Here is the translation: https://www-audiostereo-pl.translat..._x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp#comment-5101836

such a "message" means I don't even bother to read the "news" anymore. Block my content please, no harm is done.
I opened the devtools and removed the popup from the DOM and removed the overflow:hidden CSS rule




and I read nothing new...

 

[galveston22]

Sold my RME. Great sound and stellar headphone amp built in but the interface was not intuitive and ultimately troublesome.

 

[Another Audiophile]

Question for anyone who might be able to help. Is it OK if I connect from the RCA a headphone amplifier and then use the amplifier's pass through to connect a second headphone amplifier? Will be using one or the other and that just to avoid swapping cables.

 

[NickT23]

Sold my RME. Great sound and stellar headphone amp built in but the interface was not intuitive and ultimately troublesome.

What are you getting instead ? You could have just use it as an amp/dac and fancy screen look. Thats all.

 

[dangusyra]

Sold my RME. Great sound and stellar headphone amp built in but the interface was not intuitive and ultimately troublesome.

I agree that the user interface takes some getting used to. However, once you have made a change to the settings (if necessary), you usually don't have to go back there again

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Question for anyone who might be able to help. Is it OK if I connect from the RCA a headphone amplifier and then use the amplifier's pass through to connect a second headphone amplifier? Will be using one or the other and that just to avoid swapping cables.

It is probably better to use the outputs (RCA or XLR, whatever your headamp can use as input) and set those to fixed output.

That way, when you plug headphones into your RME, the fixed output is muted, no signal is sent to the amp. When headphones are not plugged in, the output is sent to the amp.

In fact, this is the way a lot of us use the RME. For headphones that I like out of the RME (Fostex, HD 25, LCD-2C) I use the headphone jack. For headphones that are harder to drive, I use a separate headamp. I never have to change cables

 

[Another Audiophile]

It is probably better to use the outputs (RCA or XLR, whatever your headamp can use as input) and set those to fixed output.

That way, when you plug headphones into your RME, the fixed output is muted, no signal is sent to the amp. When headphones are not plugged in, the output is sent to the amp.

In fact, this is the way a lot of us use the RME. For headphones that I like out of the RME (Fostex, HD 25, LCD-2C) I use the headphone jack. For headphones that are harder to drive, I use a separate headamp. I never have to change cables

Thanks but my question was more if I can use two amps in series configuration. RME RCA out to TXHAAA 789 and from the thx’s pass through to another amplifier.