Oh thanks - that would be great to know. I found the RME to one of the few with both balanced analog out AND AES3 out . Would be really nice to know how the the two compare with the 708P. I too would want to run subs so all of that working optimally would be perfect.
Well I hooked the AES back up and... it seems to be working exactly as I'd expect. I probably need to level-match it a bit w/ my subwoofer and I need to confirm if AES-channel 1 is actually left or right, but it sounds very good. So yeah, definitely a cleaner signal path this way, but I'm not sure my ears could pick up any improvements just yet
If I had some configuration problems before, I haven't stumbled into them yet... but I've also messed w/ settings since. I'm feeding a 96khz ADAT signal + sync from an RME soundcard in this PC into a Motu LP32 mixer, then ADAT into the ADI-2..... and now, AES out to the JBLs (using the THROUGH out from the left speaker going to the right). Photos at bottom of album link below... makes my desk look really dusty too!
Headphones work as before... hold down volume button and it flips to those outputs and mutes the speakers and sub (which is still connected via the unbalanced output). I assume the parametric EQ I configured is still being applied, but this RME lets you get really granular in some of the settings, so they may be per-output. I'll have to read up on that.