[greyscale75]

I’m not buying the new one though. MY next upgrade will probably be the next RME ADI-2 Pro so i can get balance phones.

On sale @ B&H $1499.00

 

[bryceu]

Sweetwater and several other retailers as well. As someone else said it looks like the ADI-2 PRO FS may be getting the same internal DAC chip refresh soon, hence why they are offering it for $500 off.

 

[oqvist]

Anyone here using tidal hifi? I am trying to get cd quqlity but my rme say 96 as clock when it should be 44?

 

[CaptainFantastic]

Somewhat interesting on Thomann the price for the old version was always 969 euro. Then the new version appeared as available for 979 euro and the old one disappeared for 1-2 weeks. Then the old one reappeared at 969 euro and finally the new one is also down to 969 euro. So now both versions are available for the same price.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

At least on the Thomann.de international site for EU, they're both at the same price but the new model is out of stock. When the new model comes back in stock the price will go up

That is, they're priced the same buy you can't buy the new one at that price since they don't have it. Or maybe you can buy it but you're not getting it right away.

 

[bryceu]

Or they will reduce the price of the old revision once the new revision is available.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

No, if the price is 969 then it's because it's priced the same as the old model. Before the new one went out of stock it was 999 Euros. It has been in and out of stock several times and the price when new and available has not changed.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

I think the prices differ from EU country to EU country because of VAT. On mine it has always been 969.

 

[bryceu]

I'm in the US so I'm out of the loop, but the view websites I looked at showed 969 as well.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Anyone here using tidal hifi? I am trying to get cd quqlity but my rme say 96 as clock when it should be 44?

Yeah this is a known issue. I don't exactly understand the details but I was told if you install the ASIO drivers then since Tidal etc. use another interface, the sample rate doesn't get updated when you change from an ASIO source to a non ASIO source.

The options seem to be keep the ASIO driver for best quality with foobar2000 etc. and live with the annoying sample rate stuff for apps that don't do ASIO, or uninstall the ASIO driver and everybody uses the same interface to the RME and the sample rate should be ok. I'm keeping the ASIO driver and planning to buy a(nother) MQA DAC.

I listened to some DSD256 and 352.80 PCM samples last night from the RME into my HD 25s. I could not believe what I was hearing. It was like the el cheapo Sennies turned into a pair of high end Sennheisers. This DAC is beyond superb.

 

[oqvist]

Yeah this is a known issue. I don't exactly understand the details but I was told if you install the ASIO drivers then since Tidal etc. use another interface, the sample rate doesn't get updated when you change from an ASIO source to a non ASIO source.

The options seem to be keep the ASIO driver for best quality with foobar2000 etc. and live with the annoying sample rate stuff for apps that don't do ASIO, or uninstall the ASIO driver and everybody uses the same interface to the RME and the sample rate should be ok. I'm keeping the ASIO driver and planning to buy a(nother) MQA DAC.

I listened to some DSD256 and 352.80 PCM samples last night from the RME into my HD 25s. I could not believe what I was hearing. It was like the el cheapo Sennies turned into a pair of high end Sennheisers. This DAC is beyond superb.

I am using the win 10 drivers havent installed any third party. Kind of disappointed streaming 2019 is nowhere cd quality. Installing asio would only help cd and not tidal? But cd shows as 44 so win 10 has its own asio?

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I am using the win 10 drivers havent installed any third party. Kind of disappointed streaming 2019 is nowhere cd quality. Installing asio would only help cd and not tidal? But cd shows as 44 so win 10 has its own asio?

If you are saying you didn't install the RME drivers then I have no explanation for why the bitrate doesn't get updated. The streaming apps don't use ASIO as far as I know but you're still getting good quality sound. It's CD quality for sure. ASIO is just the first way Windows apps could get the best latency. Now they have kernel streaming also.

I installed the RME drivers because foobar2000 can exploit them. I don't play CDs on a PC so I have no idea what Windows does.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Stream_Input/Output

Tidal Masters generally sound superb over an MQA DAC. I would not use the RME for Tidal Hifi.

 

[oqvist]

Yes rme drivers is installed.

Are you getting cd quality with mqa? Is there some dirt cheap mqa players?

 

[MagnusH]

You need to update the firmware, the older version had some issues with Windows and sample rates.
Here is the latest: https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=29439

Btw, lots of other nice improvements in the firmware update

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Yes rme drivers is installed.

Are you getting cd quality with mqa? Is there some dirt cheap mqa players?

I don't know what the theoretical limits of MQA are. Most of the Tidal Masters I play over my Oppo 205 show either 24/96 or 24/192. I have seen other rates.

CD is 16 bit depth, 44.1 KHz. MQA on Tidal is better than CD.

The cheapest MQA DACs I know of are the SMSL 500, Project Pre Box S2, and Bluesound Node 2i. I have a Bluesound, I have not seen the other two. Project Pre Box S2 is around 320 euros on ebay, the Node 2i costs 549 Euros factory direct. The Bluesound is very nice and I have not seen anybody criticize the sound quality.

If you have Windows, you can install foobar2000 to play CDs through your RME via ASIO which would be as good as you can get.

You need to update the firmware, the older version had some issues with Windows and sample rates.
Here is the latest: https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=29439

Btw, lots of other nice improvements in the firmware update

I am running the latest and the issue with the wrong sample rate still happens when the app doesn't use the RME ASIO driver