[arielext]

The ADI-2 DAC fs is perhaps the best device I ever bought. From all the things I have in my audio chain this is my end-game DAC. I still don't use half the features it offers and do not see any reason to change DAC any time, soon or late.

 

[oqvist]

The ADI-2 DAC fs is perhaps the best device I ever bought. From all the things I have in my audio chain this is my end-game DAC. I still don't use half the features it offers and do not see any reason to change DAC any time, soon or late.

Seeing your sig have by by any chance listened to the gjallarhorn as well on it?

I came here to ask though anymore find the powersupply adapter making a poor connection or something? I need to rotate it and fiddle with it like quite a bit before it powers. But then it never disconnects or anything. Not sure what is going on if it´s a bad connection or if there is some power regulation that make it not get powered the first seconds or so unless you rotate it? It was this when new and now I relocated it a few times and every time it´s like it don´t get a solid connection unless I twist it around a bit. But then it works without a hitch.

 

[arielext]

Seeing your sig have by by any chance listened to the gjallarhorn as well on it?

I came here to ask though anymore find the powersupply adapter making a poor connection or something? I need to rotate it and fiddle with it like quite a bit before it powers. But then it never disconnects or anything. Not sure what is going on if it´s a bad connection or if there is some power regulation that make it not get powered the first seconds or so unless you rotate it? It was this when new and now I relocated it a few times and every time it´s like it don´t get a solid connection unless I twist it around a bit. But then it works without a hitch.

I did but my Gjallarhorn was messed up during transit. Magni and Vali like the neutral RME as well. One day I know if Thror or Thekk feel the same

 

[Lolito]

Then go buy something cheaper.

You are right to a certain extent in that a DAC, at least a modern one, is likely to have the least effect on your system compare to headphones, speakers, or less significantly amps.

I bought the RME because it offered the features that I needed, as well as a good sound quality. I needed a DAC that would act as a pre-amp with USB, optical and coaxial digital inputs, with balanced XLR connections for my monitors. It does the job perfectly, in fact more than perfectly. and this is the older version with the 4490 chip.

With DACs these days the feature set is honestly more important that any slight, and I mean slight, differences in sound signatures.

I can certainly agree with that. One question; if you play DSD via the RME and studio monitor speakers, the volume knob still works or it's fixed at max volume with DSD on the RME? thanks!!

 

[oqvist]

I did but my Gjallarhorn was messed up during transit. Magni and Vali like the neutral RME as well. One day I know if Thror or Thekk feel the same

Ah yes I read about that. Do you have a new one on the way or are you saving up for the Thror or Thekk

 

[frogmeat69]

Seeing your sig have by by any chance listened to the gjallarhorn as well on it?

I came here to ask though anymore find the powersupply adapter making a poor connection or something? I need to rotate it and fiddle with it like quite a bit before it powers. But then it never disconnects or anything. Not sure what is going on if it´s a bad connection or if there is some power regulation that make it not get powered the first seconds or so unless you rotate it? It was this when new and now I relocated it a few times and every time it´s like it don´t get a solid connection unless I twist it around a bit. But then it works without a hitch.

The adapter is a locking plug, you push and turn it to lock it into the back of the RME, and it will not come out.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I can certainly agree with that. One question; if you play DSD via the RME and studio monitor speakers, the volume knob still works or it's fixed at max volume with DSD on the RME? thanks!!

Two choices:

1. Pure DSD mode. It's fixed output mode at 0 dB. You will need to turn the speakers all the way down and use their volume control.
2. DSD => PCM mode. You can control the volume at the DAC and you have EQ and other options.

 

[oqvist]

The adapter is a locking plug, you push and turn it to lock it into the back of the RME, and it will not come out.

Hmm have not manage to lock mine. It goes all the way in so how is that possible?

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Just look at the plug. If it has a lug you're not using it correctly.

If it doesn't have a lug then either RME changed the plug or you're using the wrong A/C adapter.

 

[oqvist]

Just look at the plug. If it has a lug you're not using it correctly.

If it doesn't have a lug then either RME changed the plug or you're using the wrong A/C adapter.

Ah yes that is why you have to rotate it lol never seen those as they are in the same color

 

[Lolito]

Two choices:

1. Pure DSD mode. It's fixed output mode at 0 dB. You will need to turn the speakers all the way down and use their volume control.
2. DSD => PCM mode. You can control the volume at the DAC and you have EQ and other options.

Great, thanks a lot for your help, this means that to hear DSD properly, you need a preamp for my actieve speakers, meaning a headphone amp with pre amp would be required in this case, would be a great solution for this, meaning, the headphone amp+dac advantages are gone for DSD playback... meaning a headphone amp+dac loose interested for my case since will need a pre amp, meaning, bye bye RME or dx7 pro, hello Denafrips Ares2 with an A90 for example, of keep the atom meanwhile...

You can learn a lot by researching here before spending the money, it's very expensive to learn first hand, much better price to learn second hand, from other people experience. If you wait and research, you save a lot of money. I would be already in my 4th dac if it wasn't for the internet.

 

[Lolito]

The ADI-2 DAC fs is perhaps the best device I ever bought. From all the things I have in my audio chain this is my end-game DAC. I still don't use half the features it offers and do not see any reason to change DAC any time, soon or late.

Well, try DSD, you will like it even more, but then again, you can't adjust volume, quite a facepalm really if you ask me. But apparently all dacs have thsi problem, you need a preamp, even with headphone amps+DACS... Thing is, headphone amp+dacs, have just one volume knob, and that volume knob is not a potentiometer, it's a digital volume rocker, great, digital is more precise, no channel unbalance... but the problem is that with dsd digital volume is disabled in all dacs, you need an analog volume knob, and all (most) headphone amp+dac have a digital knob... Shame... I was hopping to have my powered speakers connected straight to a dac like this, now gotta run cables to a preamp and then to the speakers, that takes away transparency in the sound...

any affordable dac+headphoen amp with analog volume knob, or hybrid, or mixed or two volume knobs??

 

[ok computer]

You can use the digital volume control in HQplayer to control the volume for dsd direct playback.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Great, thanks a lot for your help, this means that to hear DSD properly, you need a preamp for my actieve speakers, meaning a headphone amp with pre amp would be required in this case, would be a great solution for this, meaning, the headphone amp+dac advantages are gone for DSD playback... meaning a headphone amp+dac loose interested for my case since will need a pre amp, meaning, bye bye RME or dx7 pro, hello Denafrips Ares2 with an A90 for example, of keep the atom meanwhile...

You can learn a lot by researching here before spending the money, it's very expensive to learn first hand, much better price to learn second hand, from other people experience. If you wait and research, you save a lot of money. I would be already in my 4th dac if it wasn't for the internet.

One of the big problems of DSD is that it has to be decoded to do anything with it. This is because of DSD, not because of the RME DAC. Any DAC that supports DSD direct will have this issue. So most DACs today (btw including R2R) convert DSD to PCM. There is a conversion, yes, it is not ideal. But is there a loss of quality? It's not so easy to know.
I'm not sure the Aeres II is any different. I see it says native decoding but the RME also has native decoding.

Well, try DSD, you will like it even more, but then again, you can't adjust volume, quite a facepalm really if you ask me. But apparently all dacs have thsi problem, you need a preamp, even with headphone amps+DACS... Thing is, headphone amp+dacs, have just one volume knob, and that volume knob is not a potentiometer, it's a digital volume rocker, great, digital is more precise, no channel unbalance... but the problem is that with dsd digital volume is disabled in all dacs, you need an analog volume knob, and all (most) headphone amp+dac have a digital knob... Shame... I was hopping to have my powered speakers connected straight to a dac like this, now gotta run cables to a preamp and then to the speakers, that takes away transparency in the sound...

any affordable dac+headphoen amp with analog volume knob, or hybrid, or mixed or two volume knobs??

Well the easy answer is to get powered speakers with volume control or use a preamp in the middle as you said.

 

[Slaphead]

I can certainly agree with that. One question; if you play DSD via the RME and studio monitor speakers, the volume knob still works or it's fixed at max volume with DSD on the RME? thanks!!

Nope, not if you play pure DSD. To be able to use the volume control the DSD will need to be internally converted to PCM . But I have to ask why the hell anybody would want to playback DSD - it's a terrible playback format. It's absolutely fantastic as an archive format as it can withstand quite a bit of data loss without the sound quality being perceptibly affected whereas PCM can't. However as a playback format it sucks big time.

If you want to keep your music as pristine as possible then by all means convert it to DSD as a backup and then if your PCM file suffers a glitch you can always convert back from the DSD copy.

Unless you have some rare acoustic recording where everything was captured direct to DSD via an analog mixing desk, then you're listening to PCM, even if it's in a DSD format.