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RME ADI-2?

Nov 5, 2004 at 12:39 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 22
thefinder

thefinder

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Anyone has experiences or more information ragarding this AD/DA converter? How does it compare to, say, DAC1 or Mini-DAC? Is its DAC jitter-insensitive? At price of US$640, would it be a good candidate for computer soundcard--> external DAC kind of setup? Thanks for any input.
 
Nov 11, 2004 at 9:06 AM Post #3 of 22
Quote:

Originally Posted by thefinder
Anyone has experiences or more information ragarding this AD/DA converter? How does it compare to, say, DAC1 or Mini-DAC? Is its DAC jitter-insensitive? At price of US$640, would it be a good candidate for computer soundcard--> external DAC kind of setup? Thanks for any input.


The $27 Chaintech AV-710 is as expensive as any DAC requires (since bit accuracy is all that matters). The only advantage to more expensive soundcards in this instance is the software dsp's that come with them (which *do* make a big difference). That's the only part of your post I can answer
 
Nov 11, 2004 at 9:37 AM Post #4 of 22
Quote:

Originally Posted by Distroyed
The $27 Chaintech AV-710 is as expensive as any DAC requires (since bit accuracy is all that matters). The only advantage to more expensive soundcards in this instance is the software dsp's that come with them (which *do* make a big difference). That's the only part of your post I can answer


It's a DAC/ADC the question is how does it compete against some of the nicer DACs out there such as the Benchmark DAC1 or Bel Canto DAC2.
 
Nov 29, 2004 at 2:21 AM Post #6 of 22
Quote:

Originally Posted by Distroyed
The $27 Chaintech AV-710 is as expensive as any DAC requires (since bit accuracy is all that matters). The only advantage to more expensive soundcards in this instance is the software dsp's that come with them (which *do* make a big difference). That's the only part of your post I can answer


This isn't true. Not only does bit-perfect output matter, but so do the jitter specs, and the Chaintech isn't anything special in that reguard. Jitter isn't an issue with some DACs but can matter a lot with others. The cards from EMU OTOH I believe Stereophile measure to have very good jitter specs.
 
Nov 29, 2004 at 1:37 PM Post #7 of 22
Quote:

Originally Posted by Daroid
Any news ?

It is based on the AK4395 DAC FWIW...


Thanks for the info. I also e-mailed RME weeks ago and got the same answer. Other than that, couldn't find any reviews yet.
 
Nov 30, 2004 at 12:52 AM Post #9 of 22
Yes it probably has the same sound signature (or some of it)

Here's some thoughts in German:
http://www.musiker-board.de/vb/showthread.php?t=24385
Chris Thompson writes that the English version will come later, but i can't find it anywhere on the board - but I guess his native language is English.

Firstly: I think he may be biased - but I am not fully sure, so take it with a grain of salt.

Here's a short summary in English of what he thinks of it:

He couldn't believe that this device only sell for a mere 599 euros, he is the type of high-end audiophile person who spend that much on cables/interconnects alone (as people on the board should know). He called Synthax AG (Distributor of RME in Germany) and talked to Mr. Mallmann in order to request a test sample ADI-2 for a review. Mallmann gladly sent one to him and his friends to test.
He connected it to his 5000 euro Teac CD player which uses highest grade BurrBrown DACs. the Teac was connected to his ASR Emitter 2 HD amplifier using Oehlbach XXL cinch cables. The ADI-2 was hooked up to his amplifier with the "cheap line" Monitor XLR cables.
He was amazed from the first note from the ADI-2, his impression was that it brought the music alive and gave it substance and space, a shocking improvement. It made the Teac CD player sound like a toy (translation edit: probably the analog out of it?). He was amazed with the detailed sound which was hidden by his Teac.
He called Harry from the club (????) and he came over to hear it. To him the ADI-2 was shockingly good, it was almost possible to hear the movements of the singer's lips. Regardles of music genres the ADI-2 was the best sounding. It also made an astounding difference to the output of his DVD player (Panasonic), the sound nearly brought tears to his eyes. A replacement high-grade power cable improved results, but power conditioning/filtering stand-alone devices made no difference.

He also took some pics of it: http://groups.msn.com/ASREmitterUniv...errmeadi2.msnw

"Larry Fricke" who is the last poster in the thread has also briefly tried the ADI-2 and has compared it to the Marco of the Unicorn/MOTU HD192 which he thought sounded very good, but found the ADI-2 to sound better, more emotional - hard to describe in terms.
 
Nov 30, 2004 at 11:54 AM Post #11 of 22
Quote:

Originally Posted by Daroid
Yes it probably has the same sound signature (or some of it)

Here's some thoughts in German:
http://www.musiker-board.de/vb/showthread.php?t=24385
Chris Thompson writes that the English version will come later, but i can't find it anywhere on the board - but I guess his native language is English.


The guy who wrote the review is definitely a native German or at least fully bilingual.
In addition to Daroids summary:
The reviewer reports that he has tested the ADI-2 for transport dependancy and he found that it's quite jitter immune.
Yesterday I've read some comments of another german ADI-2 user.
He too is absolutely blown away by the SQ, but he doesn't like the integrated headamp.Well, he doesn't like dynamic headphones anyway, he's a Stax guy, but he mentioned in a PM that he has listened through better amps for dynamic headphones.
 
Jan 30, 2005 at 3:01 AM Post #14 of 22
If you head over to gearslutz.com, there are some threads discussing different pro DACs -- Benchmark, Lavry Blue, Apogee, and RME among them -- and the pro guys definitely preferred the lavry over the other three. Do a search for "RME" on their boards and you will find more info.
 
Jan 30, 2005 at 1:01 PM Post #15 of 22
Good board, that Gearslutz one
smily_headphones1.gif
Of course Lavry Blue was the best... it better be at that asking price. It's around $4000 for the 8 channel D/A ?

Sounds good, the terabyte
smily_headphones1.gif


If somebody could just find a place to try out different DACs... the RMA ADI-2 is unavailable in denmark, so can't do that shoot-out
frown.gif
 
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