[musicisthekey]

I have rather an unusual question. Other than output power, how would you compare RME's headphone out sound signature in comparison to something like SP1K/SP2K or WM1A/WM1Z in terms of treble, mids, bass and soundstage? Is it a musical/engaging listen?

 

[Karister]

I would say it is neutral and does not boost or cut any part of frequency response. There is no tube sound magic or musicality in RME. I would say it might be described as engaging due to faithful sound reproduction. But if you want to make it more warm or analytic sounding, it's built in PEQ will do that. To some extent but this is definitely much more flexible and capable of adjusting sound signature than changing DACs, AMPs and cables. I never regretted buying RME due to sound signature. I tweaked HiFiMAN Arya, Audiotechnica ATH ADX-5000, Focal Utopia and Final Audio D8000 Pro with it's PEQ and it did wonderful job for all of them.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I'm convinced this DAC is the best thousand euros|dollars anybody will ever spend on audio gear.

 

[musicisthekey]

I would say it is neutral and does not boost or cut any part of frequency response. There is no tube sound magic or musicality in RME. I would say it might be described as engaging due to faithful sound reproduction. But if you want to make it more warm or analytic sounding, it's built in PEQ will do that. To some extent but this is definitely much more flexible and capable of adjusting sound signature than changing DACs, AMPs and cables. I never regretted buying RME due to sound signature. I tweaked HiFiMAN Arya, Audiotechnica ATH ADX-5000, Focal Utopia and Final Audio D8000 Pro with it's PEQ and it did wonderful job for all of them.

From reading reviews, it's the feeling that I got. Musicality is very important to me. Unfortunately, I don't like using EQ. Thanks for your insight.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

It is extremely musical without any EQ. The stock sound just nails it. Glorious!

 

[technobear]

From reading reviews, it's the feeling that I got. Musicality is very important to me. Unfortunately, I don't like using EQ. Thanks for your insight.

Chord Qutest.

 

[sabloke]

Silly question: can I use the ADI-2 DAC to output to an active subwoofer via RCA while simultaneously feeding a pair of active monitors on XLR? I have read somewhere that the two outputs are running concurrently, but I am not sure actually OK to use the DAC like that.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Silly question: can I use the ADI-2 DAC to output to an active subwoofer via RCA while simultaneously feeding a pair of active monitors on XLR? I have read somewhere that the two outputs are running concurrently, but I am not sure actually OK to use the DAC like that.

Yes, all outputs are active.

 

[sabloke]

Sweet! I am getting a M&K V-76 Subwoofer to test, hope it sound decent paired with my Focal Shape 65 active monitors. Lucky I can adjust the low pass filter on the monitors to send all lows to that borg cube to to the work. That thing is huge!

 

[SLMStyles]

It is extremely musical without any EQ. The stock sound just nails it. Glorious!

Absolutely agree. Prior to the RME, I had 2x Hugo 2’s, a Mojo, and the Sony WM1A + TA-ZH1ES combo. All of which are considered very musical. I loved all that gear, but also enjoy trying new things.
The RME doesn’t disappoint at all, and is shockingly clear and pleasing to listen to.

 

[Slaphead]

From reading reviews, it's the feeling that I got. Musicality is very important to me. Unfortunately, I don't like using EQ. Thanks for your insight.

Ok, you haven't said why you don't like using EQ, and honestly I tend not to EQ either, but trust me when I say that pretty much everything we listen to these days has had the crap EQ'd out of it in the production stage already. So adding a little of your own to taste is no big sin.

However I do find the ADI 2 to be very musical right out of the box, but I tend to find slightly analytical to be more musical than the warmer tube like signatures which, invoking the use of onomatopoeia, sound somewhat "muffy" to me.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I think maybe it's easy to miss the point and think the RME DAC is gimmicky. It's not. It's a piece of pro gear from a pro audio company that thought they could sell to the hifi crowd. I'm pretty sure they had no idea how successful it would be. The RME DAC is absolutely not about encouraging you to spend all your time twisting knobs and pushing buttons although you could. It's about a serious, amazing piece of hardware with a lot of design and engineering that *also* lets you fix sonic problems with a very well thought out parametric EQ facility and a spectrum display and other features that let you understand what the input looks like.

I need the EQ for two headphones I have which I would otherwise not listen to much. I don't use the EQ at all for any of my other headphones. And I'm really glad it's parametric EQ and not graphic. That's the first, best sign it's not a feature for playing games or making tweaks. Parametric EQ is all about solving specific sonic problems. If you don't have any, leave it alone. It doesn't need any EQ to sound amazing.

 

[bagno]

So now I also have ADI DAC

https://zapodaj.net/images/8b71d0606088a.jpg

 

[jshaevitz]

I think maybe it's easy to miss the point and think the RME DAC is gimmicky. It's not. It's a piece of pro gear from a pro audio company that thought they could sell to the hifi crowd. I'm pretty sure they had no idea how successful it would be. The RME DAC is absolutely not about encouraging you to spend all your time twisting knobs and pushing buttons although you could. It's about a serious, amazing piece of hardware with a lot of design and engineering that *also* lets you fix sonic problems with a very well thought out parametric EQ facility and a spectrum display and other features that let you understand what the input looks like.

I need the EQ for two headphones I have which I would otherwise not listen to much. I don't use the EQ at all for any of my other headphones. And I'm really glad it's parametric EQ and not graphic. That's the first, best sign it's not a feature for playing games or making tweaks. Parametric EQ is all about solving specific sonic problems. If you don't have any, leave it alone. It doesn't need any EQ to sound amazing.

I agree with all of these points. The manual states their philosophy quite well. EQ to fix inherent problems in cans/speaker/room, loudness to recover accurate presentation at lower listening levels, and bass/treble adjust if YOU decide a certain mix needs it it. It makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[Duncan_McCloud]

Downsizing went very good (not for the wallet I guess)