[MikeW]

I installed the drivers immediately as you’re required to do update the firmware of the device I don’t recall trying it out with the native driver I can test it out for you

 

[Gww1]

I installed the drivers immediately as you’re required to do update the firmware of the device I don’t recall trying it out with the native driver I can test it out for you

Thanks, I really appreciate it!

 

[MikeW]

Ok did a little testing for you. I no longer have a tidal membership so I can't test that for you. I make no guarantee of success. You may want to ask around a bit more. Here's what I did tonight:

Uninstalled the RME drivers and Madiface USB, rebooted and let the windows native driver take over.

Then I opend Qobuz and changed the sound interface to Wasapi (Exclusive), I then started playing random tracks of differing bit rate. Once songs were playing I attempted to move the windows volume slider around to verify that we were in fact bypassing the mixer.

The result of this test was, the windows mixer was bypassed as expected, and the bit-rate changed quickly and without error. In fact, it worked a little better then the Madiface driver, as that sometimes would interrupt the begining of a track as the sampling rate switched, I saw none of this behavior with the native windows driver, just smooth and instant bit-rate changes.

I then tested foobar, and something unexpected happend. When selecting output mode Wasapi (Event) the audio was distorted and unlistenable. I did find that odd, so I selected Wasapi (Push) and the problems went away, everything worked as expected. I then switched back to Wasapi (event) and noticed the same unexpected behavior.

with these mixed results I cannot say if wasapi (exclusive) functions properly though the device for Tidal. I will be leaving the windows native driver installed however, as I do like the better functionality with Qobuz. I recently had Tidal, with the device, and chose to just use the "hi fi " setting, which automatically only sends lossless 44.1, i've since moved on to Qobuz.

Edit: one thing that was unexpected and a nice surprise with the ASIO driver was, you could do bit-perfect, windows mixer bypassed music, and also play windows sounds, and youtube video's etc. Wasapi Exclusive blocks all other sounds. I still likely won't be going back to the Asio driver, the stuttering caused by bit rate swap in Qobuz is cured and it was a little annoying.

I don't think there any any drawbacks to not using the official driver if your only using the device in a non-pro, consumption manner, as most in these forums are. I'll update if I notice any odd behavior.

Edit: update, it looks like there is still the occasional hiccup on Qobuz when switching bit-rate, but it's alot quicker and less annoying, and happens less frequently with the native drivers.

 

[Phoniac]

"WASAPI Event would be the correct way to use it. But you are right, that only works with 44.1 kHz, at 48 kHz it is distorted. This is clearly a bug in Foobar or the WASAPI component, as it also happens with a different third party DAC, and does not happen in Roon."

https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?pid=136274#p136274

 

[MikeW]

The thread Phoniac linked to also contains more information, specifically with Tidal not working correctly with the RME-ADI 2. So YMMV..

 

[Gww1]

Thanks both, that's really helpful!

 

[geniekid]

Question for those who own the RME Adi dac 2 . It seems to be a perfect AIO for me, that is because I have a hearing loss on the left side , about 30 dB above 4 kHz. Next to this my age is 67 so above 10kHz I don’t hear a lot..... So an AIO WITH an Equalizer in which I can correct my left ear, perfect!
Now I use an iFi nano Bl as headphone amplifier for my MrSpeakers Aeon; has anyone tried the RME with these headphones, enough power ?

The ADI-2 DAC/Pro can definitely drive MrSpeakers Aeons - I was doing ADI-2 Pro -> AFOs for a little while.

That said, I don't believe you can specify an EQ profile for just the left/right channel and not the other.

 

[wakajazz]

The ADI-2 DAC/Pro can definitely drive MrSpeakers Aeons - I was doing ADI-2 Pro -> AFOs for a little while.

That said, I don't believe you can specify an EQ profile for just the left/right channel and not the other.

The ADI-2 DAC has an option called Dual EQ which allows for independent EQ adjustment of the left and right channels.

 

[Rienm]

The ADI-2 DAC/Pro can definitely drive MrSpeakers Aeons - I was doing ADI-2 Pro -> AFOs for a little while.

That said, I don't believe you can specify an EQ profile for just the left/right channel and not the other.

Thanks for your reply ; in the meantime I bought the ADI-2 , I am very satisfied and, yes, you can set the EQ for each channel !

 

[Gradius]

I think I'll get one too.

Cannot imagine something this good for $1099.

 

[technobear]

I have just kicked the sound quaility of my ADI2-DAC up a notch by setting the filter to NOS and upsampling on the PC instead. I'm using Resampler-V plugin for foobar2000 (which also requires the VST wrapper). I'm upsampling 8x (44.1k --> 352.8k, 48k --> 384k), linear phase, SoX, 91% passband, 109%stop band - so a slightly slow filter rather than a brick wall. I am getting a smoother more natural sound with greater transparency but still with great musicality. I guess on-chip sample rate conversion still has room for improvement.

The same trick improves my iDAC2 and Shanling M0 also (though the latter is limited to 192k on USB DAC dutiy).

 

[BrainFood]

I'm upsampling 8x (44.1k --> 352.8k, 48k --> 384k), linear phase, SoX, 91% passband, 109%stop band

Thanks for posting that. Would you use the same settings for x4?

 

[technobear]

Thanks for posting that. Would you use the same settings for x4?

Yes. That is what I tried first and it also sounded good.

The PC is a 3 GHz Core i5 so I may try 16x when I get a minute.

The laptop is only a quad core Pentium but is not having any difficulty with 8x oversampling while surfing the web. No glitches so far.

 

[Mr B1]

Hi all. New RME user here (Adam A5X monitors, AFC headphones, LCD2C on order, sold PM3 and HE4XX, considering adding the Headamp Gilmore Lite Mk2).

I've been using it for 2 weeks now. Very happy with this DAC and extremely impressed how easy it is to use once the navigation structure 'clicks'. Also, the ability to EQ a headphone with from what I can hear no loss to quality, the auto-switch of EQ profile when going to line-out..it's all extremely well thought out and it's smarts seem to never interfere with listening. It has all the hallmarks of having being programmed by people who use what they make.

On the auto switching in Tidal under Windows (Mac has no issues)... from what I understand the USB input seems to require the RME's internal clock.
With Madiface drivers from RME you can set the sample rate to whatever you like, but personally I find that's just annoying switching manually IMO.

I now started using the optical input with my PC, and no issues. It's happily auto-switching between 44.1 and 96Khz for MQA tracks. You can still leave the USB connected if you like.

 

[lithrai]

How do you like AFC with ADI 2 DAC internal amp?