Antelope Amari, Antelope Pure2, RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition or soon to be released RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE

[Rngrsn94]

Hello everyone,

New to ASR... just joined today!

I will be purchasing one of the aforementioned pieces of equipment in the near future. I mostly care about the DA section of each unit vs the AD, although nice to have as well.
The equipment will be used in a home setup, not in a studio environment. I am interested if anyone has any first hand experience with any of these units to form any comparisons. All opinions are welcome. Really only interested in sound quality comparisons between the four pieces of equipment, not feature set. Also, I am not ruling out the RME ADI-2 DAC FS either. Looking forward to everyone's thoughts.

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[DJBonoBobo]

a home setup

What setup?

Really only interested in sound quality comparisons between the four pieces of equipment, not feature set.

Sound quality of DACs is not a distinguishing criterion. It´s all about features. Most of them you maybe only miss when you don´t have them anymore.

But, to shorten things up: Just buy any RME that fits your desired feature set best and don´t worry about the DAC´s sound anymore. You can´t do wrong with them and they have all the features you don´t know you need.
The Antelopes are probably fine, too, but who knows? I don´t see measurements and subjective "first hand experience" about sound quality of DACs is worthless.

 

[kemmler3D]

RME is considered good, although overkill for even most studios.

If you don't need the features of these DACs you can probably spend 1/5 as much to get the same sound quality from Topping or whoever. Flat FR and -100dB SINAD sounds exactly the same wherever you get it. It is like asking which brand of 100% pure distilled water tastes the best. By definition, if it has a taste, something has gone wrong.

 

[sq225917]

The Antelopes have a reputation for flaky drivers

 

[VintageFlanker]

Welcome,

Really only interested in sound quality comparisons between the four pieces of equipment

Easy: none.

not feature set.

Well, you should. Because, their DSP features are precisely what that could make them sound different.

 

[kemmler3D]

The Antelopes have a reputation for flaky drivers

This is an excellent point.

As long as the DAC in question has SINAD in a range you are happy with, prioritize connectivity and DRIVER QUALITY. Driver updates in particular. I liked my Alesis interface back in the day, but had to return it because the drivers were trash. Less happy with my Mackie / Echo interface (who used Firewire even 10 years ago?) but the drivers were SOLID.

Your experience is dictated by drivers above SINAD for sure... especially if you ever intend to use the ADC.

 

[Rngrsn94]

What setup?


Sound quality of DACs is not a distinguishing criterion. It´s all about features. Most of them you maybe only miss when you don´t have them anymore.

But, to shorten things up: Just buy any RME that fits your desired feature set best and don´t worry about the DAC´s sound anymore. You can´t do wrong with them and they have all the features you don´t know you need.
The Antelopes are probably fine, too, but who knows? I don´t see measurements and subjective "first hand experience" about sound quality of DACs is worthless.

Bought my nephew an Apogee groove years ago and he noticed a nice improvement in sound quality vs his integrated Yamaha receiver using his Sennheiser HD650's. Anyway,
my current setup is very modest, built in lousy DAC of Lenovo laptop, Samsung phone and IPad pro. Tannoy Di6DC speakers, QSC CX168 amplifier and also Sennheiser HD650's.

 

[kemmler3D]

Bought my nephew an Apogee groove years ago and he noticed a nice improvement in sound quality vs his integrated Yamaha receiver using his Sennheiser HD650's. Anyway,
my current setup is very modest, built in lousy DAC of Lenovo laptop, Samsung phone and IPad pro. Tannoy Di6DC speakers, QSC CX168 amplifier and also Sennheiser HD650's.

That's believable because a throwaway headphone amp in the Yamaha unit from ages ago might have been noticeably worse than one in a new Apogee.

Analog amplifiers have more (not to say a lot, or very) noticeable differences than DACs.

In the past few years the $150-$1000 DACs have gotten to the point where it would be physically impossible for most people to distinguish them - with most content, on most speakers or headphones. The same also applies to a lot of upper-consumer-grade headphone amps. Realistically a JDS Atom setup will sound exactly (I don't mean "exactly", I mean exactly) the same for 99.9% of use cases as the RME.

Given your current setup I would strongly advise you to spend way less on the DAC and way more on speakers, unless you also have a healthy speaker budget we're not yet aware of. In terms of sound quality improvements in 2022, pretty much all the action is in the speaker or headphone.

However, I used to use the headphone output on a Lenovo laptop and it was horrible, so I think there's a chance you'll hear real gains regardless of what you end up with.

Oh and welcome to ASR! It's sometimes no fun to hear your plans for new gear are considered pointless, but at the end of the day this site mostly exists to help people spend their money on what matters. If you look at the SINAD charts and consider that anything under -80dB is really hard to hear and anything under -120dB is verging on "has never been heard even in a laboratory" you will realize why we are trying to steer you away from the expensive DACs.

e: further explanation: The RME costs what it costs in part because of high quality ADCs, in part because of nice features, and in part because it's well supported by the manufacturer, and in part because it's considered pro gear. The smallest part of that cost is probably the DA performance. You don't need all that to get good sound quality output. That is not to say it's not worth paying for, but you said your priority is sound quality.

 

[Yuhasz01]

Bought my nephew an Apogee groove years ago and he noticed a nice improvement in sound quality vs his integrated Yamaha receiver using his Sennheiser HD650's. Anyway,
my current setup is very modest, built in lousy DAC of Lenovo laptop, Samsung phone and IPad pro. Tannoy Di6DC speakers, QSC CX168 amplifier and also Sennheiser HD650's.

RME DAC also has a very good headphone amplifier and PEQ capacity as well.

 

[Rngrsn94]

The Antelopes have a reputation for flaky drivers

I have heard that.

 

[kemmler3D]

RME DAC also has a very good headphone amplifier and PEQ capacity as well.

Yes, among DACs in the >$1K range RME are the ones that are least often considered a ripoff, for these reasons among others.

But you could get a modest yet mighty Topping or Schiit or JDS (or whatever brand you like) setup and some Audeze LCD-XC cans and still have money left for dinner instead of the RME, and you would not miss any sound quality, the differences in which would be mostly theoretical at best. Just saying.

 

[Doodski]

For sure on the budget plain jane DAC with great specs. I bought the JDS Labs Atom DAC+ for USD $109

Atom DAC+ _ Shop JDS LABS

Atom DAC+ is built to pair with the enormously popular JDS Labs Atom Amp, now with even higher performance, both USB and TOSLINK inputs, and our latest upgradeable XMOS based firmware with UAC2 support and UAC1 fallback*. Atom DAC+'s subtle light ring glows when in use, automatically powers down...

jdslabs.com

JDS Labs Atom DAC+ Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the JDS Labs Atom DAC+ desktop USB DAC. It was sent to me by the company and is an early production sample. The product was just announced at a retail cost of US $109. I accepted the sample in the interest of getting this information to you early...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[kemmler3D]

For sure on the budget plain jane DAC with great specs. I bought the JDS Labs Atom DAC+ for USD $109

Atom DAC+ _ Shop JDS LABS

Atom DAC+ is built to pair with the enormously popular JDS Labs Atom Amp, now with even higher performance, both USB and TOSLINK inputs, and our latest upgradeable XMOS based firmware with UAC2 support and UAC1 fallback*. Atom DAC+'s subtle light ring glows when in use, automatically powers down...

jdslabs.com

JDS Labs Atom DAC+ Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the JDS Labs Atom DAC+ desktop USB DAC. It was sent to me by the company and is an early production sample. The product was just announced at a retail cost of US $109. I accepted the sample in the interest of getting this information to you early...

www.audiosciencereview.com

I personally run an Atom amp from a MOTU M2 (wanted to have an ADC handy) for my Focal Elex cans, with EQ... zero complaints, clean as you please.

 

[Doodski]

I personally run an Atom amp from a MOTU M2 (wanted to have an ADC handy) for my Focal Elex cans, with EQ... zero complaints, clean as you please.

For 2 reasons bought a Schiit Heresy headphone amp. First I wanted to see what the customer service is like for both JDS and Schiit. Secondly the Heresy has 2x the power output at the sacrifice of distortion. The customer service with international shipping to Canada was exemplary and 4 days over a weekend for both companies.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Do you really have a use for the ADC?

None of the DACs will have an issue for sound quality. Antelope has had some issues for flaky software support. They've been better the last couple of years. RME is the standard of good long term support in the industry. They have up to date drivers for their gear over a decade old.

I have an RME Babyface Pro FS and Antelope Zen Tour device. Not those you are considering. Both are good pieces of gear, but for the money you are putting in I'd go RME. Although that Amari is a pretty bit of kit.

You could have the sonic equivalent for less money, but might need two or three boxes instead of one. Maybe one box is important to you. It is more convenient for sure.

 

[DJBonoBobo]

Bought my nephew an Apogee groove years ago and he noticed a nice improvement in sound quality vs his integrated Yamaha receiver using his Sennheiser HD650's. Anyway,

I did not say you cannot hear a difference between some headphone amps. Maybe the Yamaha did have a high output impedance that could alter the sound on a HD650. But any difference he was hearing - given it was real - was most probably not due to the DAC (itself) involved.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

I mostly care about the DA section of each unit vs the AD, although nice to have as well

Adding an ADC will add cost. Most people don't need an ADC, because they are not turning analogue sources (such as microphones, LPs etc) into Digital bitstreams or files. So there's not the demand-volume driving down costs, unlike DACs. If you want to see the widest choice of options and costs, excluding the ADC makes sense.

 

[Sokel]

Adding an ADC will add cost. Most people don't need an ADC,

A nice ADC along with an application like Multitone can help you setup your gear and know where you stand and what your real life performance of your gear is.
There a ton of things you can measure and optimize your system.

 

[kemmler3D]

I think the RME is considered a performer beyond just sheer audio fidelity and is therefore arguably worth the money, it's well liked here and apparently with reason.

That said, OP stated their current setup has speakers that go for $120 used, and $400 cans, and they're looking for better sound. If the whole budget goes to the DAC, or even the majority of the budget, IMO big improvements in sound quality will be missed. In this situation I'd rather spend $200 on a DAC and $1800 on speakers than the other way around. If OP has another $5K that can go to speakers then I would not feel the need to comment further.

 

[Rngrsn94]

What setup?


Sound quality of DACs is not a distinguishing criterion. It´s all about features. Most of them you maybe only miss when you don´t have them anymore.

But, to shorten things up: Just buy any RME that fits your desired feature set best and don´t worry about the DAC´s sound anymore. You can´t do wrong with them and they have all the features you don´t know you need.
The Antelopes are probably fine, too, but who knows? I don´t see measurements and subjective "first hand experience" about sound quality of DACs is worthless.

Thanks for your reply, would love it if ASR would do a review on Antelope equipment!