RME ADI-2 DAC Thread
Nov 26, 2020 at 1:39 AM Post #3,601 of 5,966
Thanks mate and sorry for the kafuffle . At 1.7 volts that is indeed a good safe setting to recommend . My concern was that if we talk about output settings without referencing the reference setting a possible damaging scenario arises . Lets say someone has just bought a second-hand pro unit . Since this is the most active RME thread they come here looking for a recommended setting to connect their old amp . They read volume setting 0db recommended a number of times and take that advice . If the reference setting was set to auto or +24 by the previous owner they will be selecting a 12 volt line out . Depending on the amp that may be enough for the magic smoke to escape .
You're absolutely right, and thanks for making me more aware of this. I'm not sure RME has done us a favor with having two knobs but when I set 0 dB fixed output I expected the "standard" line out of 2 volts, give or take.

I didn't touch the defaults for levels, I didn't read that section of manual, and I'm probably under-driving my amp.

In another setup recently I found that the Chord Mojo sounded significantly fuller than a new low-end R2R DAC I bought, when driving the same amp. And I tried them both with another amp and the results were the same, the Mojo was clearly better.

It turns out the line out setting on the Mojo is fairly hot (I would have to check the thread here on headfi, but I think closer to 2.7V) and the R2R is rated at the expected 2V. When I used variable output on the R2R and cranked it up a bit the bass improved, the sound got fuller and the difference between the two changed to differences in character instead of one being better than the other.

My Brooklyn is less surprising :D
 
Nov 26, 2020 at 6:17 AM Post #3,602 of 5,966
Do you see presets already setup? or also just flat free spaces?

There are no presets, just empty slots. :wink:

My Brooklyn is less surprising :D

What's you impression RME ADI 2 DAC vs Brooklyn as DACs soundwise?
RME - Corda Jazz FF - HD600 is a great setup. I'm using the same, amidst others, but with a HD660s mostly.
 
Nov 26, 2020 at 7:31 AM Post #3,603 of 5,966
What's you impression RME ADI 2 DAC vs Brooklyn as DACs soundwise?
RME - Corda Jazz FF - HD600 is a great setup. I'm using the same, amidst others, but with a HD660s mostly.

There are a lot of differences between them overall. The RME build is not impressive in terms of heft and the wall PSU. The Brooklyn feels like it costs. It's heavy and doesn't move around on my desk. The UI is beautiful, the case is beautiful, the display is beautiful and some ways even more informative than the RME's, it's a beautiful piece of hardware.

I don't compare my gear critically but I notice differences anyway. Recently, I started listening to my LCD-3F again out of the RME and Brooklyn. The RME is absolutely distinctly more musical than the Brooklyn with this combo. And that is true whether I run it out of the headphone jack on either DAC or whether I run it off the amps I have plugged into each DAC.

I have a Jazz-ff and I agree it is surprisingly good with the HD 600s, but I have it running off another system. I don't use it with my DACamps. It's killer with LCD-2C by the way, which I did not expect at all.

I use the RME either alone or into a Lyr 2 with good tubes for everything but my Sennheisers. The Sennheisers run balanced off a V280 plugged into my Brooklyn. For me there are a lot of variables and I usually don't experiment much swapping things around. It turns out the LCD-3F is more analytical than I remembered so I did spend a little time trying to see what was going on.

I had always found the RME amazingly musical and this experience really reaffirms it. On its own the impression I get of the Brooklyn is not cold or warm but rather neutral. I can definitely recommend it at twice the price of the RME if you don't need EQ and do want MQA.
 
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Nov 26, 2020 at 10:13 AM Post #3,604 of 5,966
Thanks! I share your impression the RME is slightly on the smooth and musical side of regular ds DACs. The differences are small enough though. I like it for Bass/Treble adjustment and the EQ mostly.
 
Nov 29, 2020 at 11:28 AM Post #3,605 of 5,966
Hi
I currently have a hifiman arya and fostex th900 and use them in ifi micro idsd signature.
Previously, I also had anandas that changed for arya. Anandas and fostex sound great with the ifi. Ifi moves the aryas well but their sound doesn't convince me. Almost everyone prefers aryas to anandas and they say that they have more bass and less treble than ananda. It doesn't sound like that to me at all. I have read that with the oratory eq aryas can get a lot of slam, similar to that of fostex.
So, RME adi-2 dac has eq it can be very interesting.
Do you have enough power to move the aryas?
I think that ifi ia more powerfull than adi 2 dac
Cheers
 
Dec 5, 2020 at 2:02 PM Post #3,607 of 5,966
My manual came with a page insert that mentions the new chip.

1607194920857.png
 
Dec 7, 2020 at 1:47 AM Post #3,610 of 5,966
Updated manuals! Another great thing about RME :)
 
Dec 10, 2020 at 5:16 PM Post #3,611 of 5,966
I am looking at getting an RME ADI-2? (is this the right DAC for me?)
I have for Cans:
Abyss Diana Phi
ZMF Verite C
Audeze LCD-X

I am wondering what would be a good amp pairing to go after the RME ADI-2?
I am looking for a transparent SS amp for mastering that can handle these cans.
I am also looking for a tube amp (willing to roll a bit) for those softer listening days.
I currently own a WA11 but i'm looking for something a little more beefy and desktop oriented.
My budget per amp is less than $5000

Could anyone help me out with this?
Cheers
 
Dec 11, 2020 at 12:12 AM Post #3,612 of 5,966
I am looking at getting an RME ADI-2? (is this the right DAC for me?)
I have for Cans:
Abyss Diana Phi
ZMF Verite C
Audeze LCD-X

I am wondering what would be a good amp pairing to go after the RME ADI-2?
I am looking for a transparent SS amp for mastering that can handle these cans.
I am also looking for a tube amp (willing to roll a bit) for those softer listening days.
I currently own a WA11 but i'm looking for something a little more beefy and desktop oriented.
My budget per amp is less than $5000

Could anyone help me out with this?
Cheers

If you're looking for a transparent amp for mastering, the inbuilt amp on the ADI-2 DAC is easily enough for the headphones you have there. It'll put 1.5W into your lower impedance planars and 300mW into the Verite, enough to make your ears bleed. From an objective standpoint, the inbuilt amp on the ADI-2 actually outperforms the inbuilt DAC, so you will only add noise/distortion by using an external amp. I have been told this directly by RME's Founder Matthias Carstens the specs on the internal amp as that is not something that can be measured otherwise. The DSP also allows you to equalise your headphones to whatever target curve you prefer, which is very useful for mastering. You can look at "oratory1990's EQ presets" on reddit for your headphones to match the harman target curve, which is proven to be what the average user prefers and is therefore great for mastering.

If you subscribe to subjective differences in solid state amps, I can't really help you there. But the world of tube amps is fun, I'd recommend looking at ones with adjustable gain and output impedance as that's where most of the tube warmth comes from, though that won't affect your planars. Maybe have a look at the Cayin HA-1A? It's a fun, relatively cheap tube amp that has five steps of output impedance and a preamp for tube goodness on external speakers. Also looks lovely which I think is important for tube amps :)
 
Dec 11, 2020 at 12:19 AM Post #3,613 of 5,966
If you're looking for a transparent amp for mastering, the inbuilt amp on the ADI-2 DAC is easily enough for the headphones you have there. It'll put 1.5W into your lower impedance planars and 300mW into the Verite, enough to make your ears bleed. From an objective standpoint, the inbuilt amp on the ADI-2 actually outperforms the inbuilt DAC, so you will only add noise/distortion by using an external amp. I have been told this directly by RME's Founder Matthias Carstens the specs on the internal amp as that is not something that can be measured otherwise. The DSP also allows you to equalise your headphones to whatever target curve you prefer, which is very useful for mastering. You can look at "oratory1990's EQ presets" on reddit for your headphones to match the harman target curve, which is proven to be what the average user prefers and is therefore great for mastering.

If you subscribe to subjective differences in solid state amps, I can't really help you there. But the world of tube amps is fun, I'd recommend looking at ones with adjustable gain and output impedance as that's where most of the tube warmth comes from, though that won't affect your planars. Maybe have a look at the Cayin HA-1A? It's a fun, relatively cheap tube amp that has five steps of output impedance and a preamp for tube goodness on external speakers. Also looks lovely which I think is important for tube amps :)

The headphone outputs on the RME ADI-2 aren't balanced though, do you think this would have a major impact on the sound living in a dense downtown area?
 
Dec 11, 2020 at 12:35 AM Post #3,614 of 5,966
The headphone outputs on the RME ADI-2 aren't balanced though, do you think this would have a major impact on the sound living in a dense downtown area?
Balanced output is mainly better because it puts out much more power. It won't make it any clearer or different in other ways. But there is already enough power in the headphone amp for what you are using, the single-ended output on the ADI-2 DAC puts out 10v which is more than some more basic balanced amps. If you want something balanced, you can get the ADI-2 Pro Fs R which is the higher end model which allows you to run balanced with an adaptor. This means it would put out more than twice the power, but you won't have it turned up high enough for that to be an issue unless you want to cause hearing loss!

I use an ADI-2 Pro Fs Black Edition personally, mainly because I use HE6se headphones which benefit from the 3w balanced output. They are unique in how much power they require, and no other headphone comes close. I previously used a variety of solid state amplifiers, including the Drop 789 which puts out 6w into the same headphones, and I went back to just using the inbuilt amp as it is much more convenient and I actually found it better because it has digitally controlled volume which means perfect channel matching. With most amps that use analog volume control you will get channel imbalance at low volumes. It's very useful that with the inbuilt amp you can set it to a precise level within 0.5dB over 120dB!
 
Dec 11, 2020 at 1:35 AM Post #3,615 of 5,966
I am looking at getting an RME ADI-2? (is this the right DAC for me?)
I have for Cans:
Abyss Diana Phi
ZMF Verite C
Audeze LCD-X

I am wondering what would be a good amp pairing to go after the RME ADI-2?
I am looking for a transparent SS amp for mastering that can handle these cans.
I am also looking for a tube amp (willing to roll a bit) for those softer listening days.
I currently own a WA11 but i'm looking for something a little more beefy and desktop oriented.
My budget per amp is less than $5000

Could anyone help me out with this?
Cheers
The RME does not do a good job with 300 ohm dynamics. Since you're in Canada you could look at Bryston, the headamp and other gear have a lot of fans. Other choices are Violectric/Nimbus and GSX-Mini. If you want really transparent look at the Benchmark HPA-4.
 

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