[musicmaker]

Oh man, good points you guys. Thank you ! Thinking I should just get the Pro and use its amp and forget about the V281. Do you guys find the sound of the built in amp cold/analytical in any way ? I value neutral but like it to be on the full bodied detailed side. If that makes sense.

 

[justb2]

Hey everyone! I'm kinda late to the party but have had one of these badboys with me for 5 months now and can't get enough of it! As of late, however, I've been in the mood for a bit of tube therapy and am looking to get a nice tube amp to be fed from my ADI2 Pro. Is anyone here doing this currently? Any insights you feel you could share?

Thanks!

 

[NickedWicked]

Looking at picking one of these up. Am I correct in saying that the only thing that's different between the anniversary version and non is cosmetics. A ~$300 difference.

I did try a Hugo 2 and liked it. I hope this will be on par if not surpass it. Really looking forward running this balanced with a Violectric v281 feeding my Fostex TH900 m2 and Sony Z1R.

Interesting, I can get a Violectric V281 for very cheap, heard stunning things about it. Just wondering about the DAC, maybe an ADI-2 DAC like Luckbad said, I doubt there are cleaner ones for the price.

Found the issue of the of the pop it seems to be heat, or rather warmed up electronics. Cold the ADI-2 Pro has a extremely silent pop but after a good 20 minutes its quite a loud one, not annoying really just need to stop the music and switch the filter. Needless to say I really like the NOS + loudness combo with my HD 650's, it sounds like another headphone, especially the loudness works wonders in terms of veil and bass and the NOS option just makes the sound slightly warmer and fuller to my ears.

Today a Mytek Brooklyn+ as well as a LCD-X Creators Edition should be arriving so I'm very excited to test the two.

 

[Mart]

My cables arrived (New Dyson balanced cable adapter and GLS Audio RCA to Dual 1/4" TS cable) so now the Clear is balanced and my mic is connected. Can't stop playing with it!

 

[musicmaker]

I'm torn between the ADI-2-* vs Schiit Yggdrasil vs Holo Spring Level 3 Kitsune. Tough decision. Anyone heard either the SY or Holo and compared with RME ?

 

[rumina]

@musicmaker

I have the Yggdrasil and the ADI-2 Pro. It's not a fair comparsion, the Yggdrail is more expensive and "only" a dac. Short said as dac the Yggdrasil is better by a good margin, better music flow, better soundstage, very natural smooth but detailed presentation. For the price a outstanding product, but only dac, no amp, no eq, no different filters.

The ADI-2 Pro benefits a lot of the balanced mode (as dual mono dac) and a good power source (better regulated power brick or battery power), in this configuration the performace is similar to a Hugo 2, price vice a very solid and good performer. The amp in the ADI-2 Pro is very nice with a tad warm touch in contrast to the more neutral (but not cold) Hugo 2. As the Yggdrasil you get a lot for the money, a very fair priced product. I like the endless configuration possibilitys of the ADI-2 Pro, nice for a small desktop or holiday setup. Negativ is that you can only drive balanced amps to the full potential of the ADI-2 Pro, amps with shared ground (singel ended) can only be driven via the singel ended (thus 1 x ak4490 dac) output.

The Yggdrasil and the ADI-2 Pro are both very fair priced performers, you need some nice (and often expensive) headphones (and amps for the Yggdrasil) to outperform them.

The ADI-2 Pro is for me more a single unit connected to a pc or streamer, the Yggdrasil for a big desktop setup with streamer,dac, eq and amplifier.

 

[musicmaker]

@rumina, thank you !

 

[dcguy73]

Is anyone else using a Hifiman Edition X V2 with the RME ADI-2 Pro as DAC + amp? I get better sound through the ADI-2 Pro than I do through my iCan Pro amp, but I'm still not that impressed with the combination of X V2 and ADI-2 Pro.

 

[NickedWicked]

Oh my, was fiddling a bit with the ADI for more bassy tracks like hip-hop and house and some DnB decided to bump up the low end to up to 12+ DB(!) and a small bump for the mid range and the high end on a LCD-X what an experience. Absolutely earth shattering bass yet very controlled but still with plenty of detail in the mids and highs and then that impact... Christ. No noticeable distortion as well, bass heaven for sure!

 

[dcguy73]

Oh my, was fiddling a bit with the ADI for more bassy tracks like hip-hop and house and some DnB decided to bump up the low end to up to 12+ DB(!) and a small bump for the mid range and the high end on a LCD-X what an experience. Absolutely earth shattering bass yet very controlled but still with plenty of detail in the mids and highs and then that impact... Christ. No noticeable distortion as well, bass heaven for sure!

That's great! I think that the ADI-2 Pro has great bass even without boosting. Nice and deep, but very controlled (as you said).

 

[Soundwave76]

Do you use the loudness feature and if so, with what parameters? It clearly improves the sound on low volume levels and one can't live without it anymore, but I wonder should it be on or not, when I listen at normal volume - when it's not too loud, nor quiet?

P.S. I also got my balanced cable plugin today and hooked it up with the Sennheiser CH 650 S cable, which I found at a local shop's outlet for 59€ / 3m.

 

[lowvolume]

The Loudness setup is more flexible than the manual explains. Example: you can set the Low Volume Ref Level to whatever value you like. The manual says set it to your typical low volume 'dB' value. But if you (for example) set it intentionally 10 dB lower, the 20 dB range that is fixed in this function is shifted more low, which means already at 10 dB above your typical low volume 'dB' value Loudness is completely inactive.

Of course that means that at your typical low volume listening setting you are limited to half of the bass and treble gain that this function provides. One can compensate that a bit by cranking the gains to the full +10 dB, so you get +5 dB (instead of the default +7 dB) at low volume listening.

I found the +7 dB that RME suggests are good for me. Just needed to play with the Low Volume Ref Level a bit. This setting is totally individual, nobody can recommend anything.

 

[NickedWicked]

Anyone know if USB can be used while in pre-amp mode? The manual says:

Preamp: Analog in to Analog out. This mode is active when no digital input signal and no USB is detected.

But I need USB to send sound from my PC to the ADI-2 Pro like I do now on a Babyface Pro, but i'd rather not mess my monitors up with unexpected behavior such as pops etc.

 

[lowvolume]

Set the unit manually to basic mode AD/DA, then you can change the source for Main out (and Phones) from any input, including USB.

 

[alex-headfi]

Does any one knows, why ADI2-Pro becomes really hot after 30min of work? Is it normal?