[phthora]

It took a while to find a hard case that fits the RME  and its cables well, so I thought I'd share my find. This is the Lykus HC-3810. It's a fairly large case, but not too heavy. In the pics you can see how I went about picking and plucking the Pick and Pluck Foam. Everything's snug and secure in there, with nothing left out except the manual. Hope this helps someone else.

 

[J Ottawa]

It took a while to find a hard case that fits the RME  and its cables well, so I thought I'd share my find. This is the Lykus HC-3810. It's a fairly large case, but not too heavy. In the pics you can see how I went about picking and plucking the Pick and Pluck Foam. Everything's snug and secure in there, with nothing left out except the manual. Hope this helps someone else.

Awesome work. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Simon Patten]

Nice to hear that you heard a difference with the Excalibur, I didn't myself, but I'm an old man, and I thought it was too stiff and hard so I sold it and bought one that was easier to handle.

I'm pretty old myself (71) with damaged hearing from decades of gigs and nightclubs but the difference here was amazing so I'm sorry to hear you didn't experience the same. It certainly is thick and unwieldy but it's not something that gets moved or is visible so no problem here and well worth it for the improvement it made to my ADI-2.

There is the possibility that my old USB cable had something wrong with it, it was pretty new and the ADI-2 sounded darn good with it, the Excalibur just cleaned everything up and opened up the sound stage even more than I could have hoped for.

 

[Simon Patten]

I have a pair of Supra EFF-IX RCA cables and am waiting for an Aune S17 Pro amp to arrive later this week. Is there much difference in sound quality between the RCA and balanced outputs on the ADI-2 DAC FS? I can reuse the EFFs if necessary so is it worth getting a pair of XLR cables instead? Length is 1m although I'd buy shorter ones in this case.

One of my concerns is that it's such a big box and XLR plugs stick out so much that it will make it awkward and take up too much space. I was also looking at Van Dame cables with an angled male plug (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151581485010?var=450790907278), anyone had any experience of these?

 

[Simon Patten]

Try as I might to imagine, there was no impact to the sound quality of the RME ADI-2 DAC FS. But with my Macbook, RME + this battery pack I had a portable battery powered solution. Tonight the Modius (e) and Midgard are getting play time...as I type this.

I was interested in the idea of a battery bank powering the ADI-2, partly for a degree of portability and partly wondering if it would affect the sound quality. Turns out you were correct, I did a bit of searching and the following acticle confirms that the power side of the ADI-2 is so sophisticated that it doesn't really matter where the power comes from and that it doesn't change the sound quality (just as RME have said).
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/07/measurements-switching-power-supplies.html

A quick question though, can you use the 12v and 5v on your battery bank simultaneously?

 

[wallaby1170]

I'm getting ready to sell my ADI-2 DAC FS. I'm on a Mac and the buyer is on a PC. Do I need to put the DAC in factory settings? I'm concerned that the updated firmware that I installed on my Mac will mess up the buyer's PC. Thanks in advance.

 

[Simon Patten]

What are you replacing it with? I'm so happy with my ADI-2 that it's end-game as far as I'm concerned, I can hardly imagine anything (short of spending thousands) sounding better. As to your factory reset question, the firmware is installed on the ADI-2 and it's the same for Macs and PCs so no problem, you can happily reset it. (Edit: thought I'd clarify before I read his reply.)

 

[wallaby1170]

What are you replacing it with? I'm so happy with my ADI-2 that it's end-game as far as I'm concerned, I can hardly imagine anything (short of spending thousands) sounding better. As to your factory reset question, you installed the firmware on the ADI-2 and it's the same for Macs and PCs so no problem.

Thanks Simon. That's good to know. I bought a Ferrum Wandla DAC to complete the Ferrum stack. Haven't used it yet. I'm holding off until my birthday on Thursday.

 

[phthora]

Thanks David. That's good to know. I bought a Ferrum Wandla DAC to complete the Ferrum stack. Haven't used it yet. I'm holding off until my birthday on Thursday.

My god. The iron-clad self-control that must take to not listen to the new gear...

 

[Simon Patten]

Thanks Simon. That's good to know. I bought a Ferrum Wandla DAC to complete the Ferrum stack. Haven't used it yet. I'm holding off until my birthday on Thursday.

Nice, a big step up. Happy birthday!

My god. The iron-clad self-control that must take to not listen to the new gear...

Hehe, I know. I'm a believer in burn-in and it's excruciating waiting until there's 100 hours on the device before using it.

 

[J Ottawa]

I was interested in the idea of a battery bank powering the ADI-2, partly for a degree of portability and partly wondering if it would affect the sound quality. Turns out you were correct, I did a bit of searching and the following acticle confirms that the power side of the ADI-2 is so sophisticated that it doesn't really matter where the power comes from and that it doesn't change the sound quality (just as RME have said).
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/07/measurements-switching-power-supplies.html

A quick question though, can you use the 12v and 5v on your battery bank simultaneously?

I don't know, but I would imagine so. It will just drain the battery faster!

 

[J Ottawa]

I have a pair of Supra EFF-IX RCA cables and am waiting for an Aune S17 Pro amp to arrive later this week. Is there much difference in sound quality between the RCA and balanced outputs on the ADI-2 DAC FS? I can reuse the EFFs if necessary so is it worth getting a pair of XLR cables instead? Length is 1m although I'd buy shorter ones in this case.

One of my concerns is that it's such a big box and XLR plugs stick out so much that it will make it awkward and take up too much space. I was also looking at Van Dame cables with an angled male plug (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151581485010?var=450790907278), anyone had any experience of these?

I just finished a test with Modius + Midgard where going balance was better than S.E. (RCA).
As I also own the RME ADI-2 DAC FS, I am planning to test the balance vs RCA outs. Stay tuned!

 

[zephyrstar]

I just updated the firmware and installed the ADI-Remote software and man what fantastic update! Makes me feel like I have a whole new DAC! It's so nice to be able to just lie in bed or on the couch listening to music and be able to tweak things right from my Mac. Kudos to the RME team!!!!

 

[J Ottawa]

Subjective update on RME ADI-2 DAC FS (AKM 4493 unit tonight) feeding Midgard in S.E. and Balanced mode simultaneously.
I switch between the two inputs on the Midgard. The challenge is the volume levels that I must compensate for between the two modes with my brain, my ears and my synapse. It really is not easy. I really have to give S.E. a fighting chance.
Headphones used are my Neumann NDH-30 plugged into the quarter inch input of the Midgard. Halo testing will come in the New Year.
Settings on the RME were flat save for 'Crossfeed' set to "1" and I'm using the NOS filter with a bit of + EQ compensation at 14.3 kHz.
Of course listening to music louder on the balance inputs just gives me more of everything, so I had to listen to the same tracks tonight multiple times going back between S.E. and Balanced.
On my previous comparison of RME vs Modius (E), I was very impressed with the RME; and I was very impressed with the Modius for different reasons (in Balance Mode).

As far as I can tell, RME, in either S.E. or Balanced Mode sounds identical once I compensate for the volume levels. I'll always pick balanced mode first as the higher volumes yields a bigger, clearer soundstage with little volume setting. Upping the volume in S.E. mode leaves me with the same impression.
By the tips of my fingers it feels effortless in Balance Mode, but I just twist the volume dial higher and S.E. mode springs to life.

Conclusion. I'm a Balance Mode audio junky, just because.
An example of my justification is that Modius (E) sounds better in Balance Mode. But this review is about the RME ADI-2 DAC.
RME sounds great in Balance Mode...but wait a sec: I'm gonna play another track in S.E. mode just to be sure (timer starts).
Ok. RME sounds great in S.E. Mode.
Bottom line for the Conclusion: Midgard scales nicely with the gear you throw at it and will reveal bottlenecks in your system.
Praise indeed for a $229 Headphone amp + Pre.
I prefer the headphone output of the Midgard over the RME, but using the Crossfeed (set to 1 or 2) feature gets the RME very close to the Midgard.
Either way you can't go wrong.
And that as they say, is that, but just one opinion.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I just updated the firmware and installed the ADI-Remote software and man what fantastic update! Makes me feel like I have a whole new DAC! It's so nice to be able to just lie in bed or on the couch listening to music and be able to tweak things right from my Mac. Kudos to the RME team!!!!

I also just noticed the update with ADI-remote, very useful. I especially find it beneficial to quickly being able to either share EQ settings easily between users if they happen to have same setups or being able to quickly A&B different EQ settings with that instant change when fine-tuning things. Already made a small improvement to my favorite headphones with the setting I thought was ideal that I kept using for over a year already. Using the interface on the DAC can be quite tedious, with this software it's very convenient to setup.