[CaptainFantastic]

@elmoe What I am saying is make the difference between the unit (yours) and the model (all units). Has anyone else reported USB connection failure like this? I have not seen it in the past 80 pages here. So it is safe to assume that this is an isolated incident. Remember that RME does not manufacture all components from scratch. One of the widgets from a supplier might have malfunctioned. If your unit worked fine for two months, how would their QC have caught it? And since this has not been reported by others, it does seem that they use quality parts/suppliers, but nothing is 100% all the time.

What I am saying is - if you liked the RME ADI-2 DAC, keep the replacement if that's what it comes down to. Don't overreact and conclude that will fail too. Mine has been running flawlessly since December.

 

[talmadge]

I agree. I don’t think RME has a quality control problem. You just got an unlucky break. It happens with everybody’s products.

 

[elmoe]

@elmoe What I am saying is make the difference between the unit (yours) and the model (all units). Has anyone else reported USB connection failure like this? I have not seen it in the past 80 pages here. So it is safe to assume that this is an isolated incident. Remember that RME does not manufacture all components from scratch. One of the widgets from a supplier might have malfunctioned. If your unit worked fine for two months, how would their QC have caught it? And since this has not been reported by others, it does seem that they use quality parts/suppliers, but nothing is 100% all the time.

What I am saying is - if you liked the RME ADI-2 DAC, keep the replacement if that's what it comes down to. Don't overreact and conclude that will fail too. Mine has been running flawlessly since December.

I am not concluding the replacement will fail, just that the first one dying is cause for concern. QC is not just plugging it in and checking it works, and USB interfaces don't just die for no reason.

Certainly, I hope I caught an unlucky break and this is one out of a thousand, that being said it does not give me confidence in RME products to have the USB interface die after 2 months of normal operation. If the whole unit had died I would feel differently, since a power surge etc could be the issue, but for the USB interface only to die out is definitely cause for concern.

Keep in mind this model has not been out very long either. They could have a problem they don't know about yet.

It's perfectly OK if you feel differently. Just giving my opinion as a QA engineer myself.

 

[technobear]

I am not concluding the replacement will fail, just that the first one dying is cause for concern. QC is not just plugging it in and checking it works, and USB interfaces don't just die for no reason.

Certainly, I hope I caught an unlucky break and this is one out of a thousand, that being said it does not give me confidence in RME products to have the USB interface die after 2 months of normal operation. If the whole unit had died I would feel differently, since a power surge etc could be the issue, but for the USB interface only to die out is definitely cause for concern.

Keep in mind this model has not been out very long either. They could have a problem they don't know about yet.

It's perfectly OK if you feel differently. Just giving my opinion as a QA engineer myself.

Did you install the RME USB driver on the other PCs before attempting to connect it?

Are you trying to use WASAPI? Use ASIO.

Have you set the USB driver to a higher frequency than 192k? If so, Windows won't see it.

 

[elmoe]

Did you install the RME USB driver on the other PCs before attempting to connect it?

Are you trying to use WASAPI? Use ASIO.

Have you set the USB driver to a higher frequency than 192k? If so, Windows won't see it.

RME driver is for ASIO only, you don't need a driver installed for WASAPI, though I installed just in case.

The unit is not detected by the PC, nor detecting a USB connection, so there is no setting sampling rates.

 

[butch111]

Well my ADI-2 "died" last night. No longer recognizes a USB connection, with 2 different cables, on 3 different computers. Optical in works fine, USB shows disconnected no matter what I try.

Good thing I bought this new. Needless to say I am thinking about selling the replacement as soon as I get it or ask for a refund and move on to something with a little better build quality...

mmd )

please tell us what you going to buy then.

 

[butch111]

I moved it from one PC to another, looks like it wasn't happy with that. I upgraded the FW first thing when I got it ~2 months ago to v25, but yeah it needs USB for FW upgrades so I am stuck.

No it definitely wasn't overheating, it wasn't even in use when the USB died.

Considering I bought it brand new 2 months ago and it worked fine until now, yes, I can safely conclude this is a QC/QA issue. The USB input basically died on me out of the blue. On a $1000 unit that's pretty much brand new, that's definitely a concern. I take extremely good care of my gear and still have the first DAC I ever bought 15 years ago (Benchmark DAC1) which still works great

ok...after that post i dont need to know what you are going to buy next.

 

[elmoe]

Well, I haven't settled on not keeping the replacement yet, but if I don't, then a Dangerous Music Convert-2 more than likely.

 

[elmoe]

ok...after that post i dont need to know what you are going to buy next.

Fanboi level over 9000.

Sorry you feel attacked by my lack of confidence in a DAC that died after 2 months of use. I'm sure RME is very thankful for your faith in them.

In the meantime, I will keep on raising concerns on gear that tends to crap out before its time.

 

[Overclocked11]

Have you set the USB driver to a higher frequency than 192k? If so, Windows won't see it.

This is actually not true on my case.. I can set to 384khz and windows sees it and plays it fine, but that is it's limit. Any higher and Windows won't detect it as an audio device any longer.

This is on the latest version of Windows 10 btw.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

Fanboi level over 9000.

Sorry you feel attacked by my lack of confidence in a DAC that died after 2 months of use. I'm sure RME is very thankful for your faith in them.

In the meantime, I will keep on raising concerns on gear that tends to crap out before its time.

Unfair to call him, or us fanboys, for pointing out that you are over reacting and generalizing based on one single unit. Slow down please. This problem, as far as we know, has only happened with your unit. Re-read your original post. It reads like somebody shooting from the hip, not thinking, accusing an entire product line based on what, on one failure. Just... slow down.

 

[Luckbad]

Strange to hear that the USB died. In the pro world, RME is notoriously reliable. I get the desire to check out the Dangerous Music Convert-2, though. If it wasn't so costly, I'd have tried it out by now.

 

[elmoe]

Strange to hear that the USB died. In the pro world, RME is notoriously reliable. I get the desire to check out the Dangerous Music Convert-2, though. If it wasn't so costly, I'd have tried it out by now.

I actually considered it before the RME but ended up going with the cheaper option. I'm very surprised also, this is the kind of failure that typically gets caught by QC, and as you said RME has a reputation for reliability, though their FireWire interface has been known to crap out on people in the past.

Unfair to call him, or us fanboys, for pointing out that you are over reacting and generalizing based on one single unit. Slow down please. This problem, as far as we know, has only happened with your unit. Re-read your original post. It reads like somebody shooting from the hip, not thinking, accusing an entire product line based on what, on one failure. Just... slow down.

Slow down there. I realize some feelings are getting hurt over my opinion, but it remains just my opinion. My losing confidence in this particular model doesn't mean you should if your experience has been positive so far. That being said, if you buy a car and it breaks down on you soon after, you tend to move on and buy a different one and not get the same model. There's no overreaction from this line of thinking, I think it's a pretty reasonable assumption that if an implementation fails by itself, it could very well be related to how the USB was implemented (circuit design) rather than faulty hardware.

If it was faulty hardware, then QC should've caught it. If it wasn't, then it's likely the circuit design is at fault and that doesn't give me confidence to keep a replacement that has the potential to die within a few months.

Again, nobody has been using this DAC for more than a little over a year. If we were talking about a unit that was known to have no issue for a decade of use, there would be less concern.

Regardless, I am just sharing my experience. It's OK to disagree and I hope all your units give you listening pleasure for many years to come.

 

[elmoe]

Looks like I'm not the only one:

https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=28321

https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=27786

Didn't look through every thread but that's at least 2 other units displaying the same symptoms as mine.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

@elmoe Fair enough, good find. Sounds like particular issues in the setups of the people experiencing the problem. On the one side the manufacturer is saying thousands have no issues, on the other side the users are fairly saying why is it only this DAC that has an issue in my system. Based on this, it looks like you really should change from the ADI-2. It doesn't like your system unfortunately.