Measurements of RME ADI-2 DAC and Headphone Amp

[frogmeat69]

Hi,

Is this better than idsd micro black label as a dac alone in terms of sound? Anyone had a chance to compare them? I'm about to pull the trigger but no idea whether it'd be reasonable since I haven't listened to it unfortunately. The dac will be a part of my Stax system (kgsshv > sr007mk2).

Feel free to suggest anything better than what I own (idsd) if you want.

It scores much better on the sinad chart than the iDSD Black Label, a 112 compared to a 93. I owned the original silver iDSD Micro, was a good performer, with ample power for pretty much any headphone, even more powerful than the RME from what I recall.
Comparing them sound wise, I can't answer that, been a while since owning the iFi, and I have different ears than you anyway. I do run the ADI-2 through my iESL and iCan Pro and can say it sounds amazing with all of my head gear, including my Massdrop Koss 95x.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Is this better than idsd micro black label as a dac alone in terms of sound? Anyone had a chance to compare them?

@amirm did. And exactly what @frogmeat69 said:
The RME gives a much cleaner performance, with 19db better SINAD and a lower distortion by 27db. Lower intermodulation distortion, flatter frequency response, with no Chanel mismatch. Even the headphone out is way better, though less powerful.
The two are not even comparable.

 

[Gnasherrr]

Was looking into buying one of these. saw a listing on headfi for $835 and while I'm asking the seller for when the unit was purchased, someone already paid. Was a bit frustrated but as it turned out. I found these available on various uk retailers(sx pro and nordaccoustics) for 699 euro. shipping is 30 euro for nordaccoustics to US and that is like $820. Also apparently RME offers 5 year warranty on these in Europe and only 2 here in the US. Imma find out if the US distributor would offer warranty repair on these if it's imported and make a call on if i am going for the import route. $820 is really tempting tho! Consider this as a PSA.

Edit: Apparently the price is in GBP instead of Euro. I got confused since they put a small currency convertor in the purchase page and the default units are Euro and USD. The price would be $911 instead of $820.

 

[MC_RME]

1. 699 Great British Pound, not Euro, and that price is excluding VAT.
2. 820 Euro, not Dollar. Equals 920 Dollar.
3. That all without import/custom tax and your local VAT which you will have to pay on import.
4. Synthax US did not earn a single cent on this purchase and wil therefore rightfully deny any warranty handling on their costs. You would have to send the unit back to England.

 

[Gnasherrr]

1. 699 Great British Pound, not Euro, and that price is excluding VAT.
2. 820 Euro, not Dollar. Equals 920 Dollar.
3. That all without import/custom tax and your local VAT which you will have to pay on import.
4. Synthax US did not earn a single cent on this purchase and wil therefore rightfully deny any warranty handling on their costs. You would have to send the unit back to England.

oh my mistake then. im not quite familiar with the euro vs pound signs. Yea i just sent an email to synthax regarding the warranty question. that would come out to be $911 and US does not always charge any VAT/import tax on products < $2500 but if yes this would be $20 ish. Also they have a 10 gbp(or $12.5) add-on to have them cover the import tax and warranty shipping apparently. so it's not a bad deal.

 

[billqs]

Hi,

Is this better than idsd micro black label as a dac alone in terms of sound? Anyone had a chance to compare them? I'm about to pull the trigger but no idea whether it'd be reasonable since I haven't listened to it unfortunately. The dac will be a part of my Stax system (kgsshv > sr007mk2).

Feel free to suggest anything better than what I own (idsd) if you want.

Hi! I have a very similar setup to yours. I have a KGsshv Carbon, SR007 mk2's as well. The RME sounds wonderful over electrostats!

 

[Sparky]

Do you guys leave the RME switched on at all times or just as and when you're using it?

Just out of curiosity...

 

[Willem]

Of course I turn it off (i.e. put it in sleep mode I suppose because the on-off button is still on). There is no point in wasting energy and contribute to unnecessary emissions, however small.

 

[soundwave76]

Turn it off of course

 

[Willem]

I have now been using my new RME ADI-2 FS for about a week and I can only say I am stunned by the quality. The sound is clean as can be, without any colouration, sonic signature or whatever. It sounds as if it does not exist, and that is how it should be, and how it was to be expected from the measurements.
What sets the ADI-2 apart from other excellent DACs is the wide range of useful options. With my previous analogue pre-amplifier I always had to use the balance control a bit, and the ADI-2 allows me to do exactly the same in the digital domain. I have now also set the variable loudness, because my wife does not like to play at higher and more realistic volume. It works fine, but I think I have to increase its action a bit more than the default, given my inefficient speakers and large listening room. The next and more laborious step will be to use the dsp parametric filters to tame low frequency peaks in the output of my Quad 2805s, but that requires measurements first. My subwoofer is equalized with an Antimode 8033 and that deals with the worst room modes, but the dsp eq of the ADI-2 will allow me to do the same for the main speakers. A measurement some years ago already showed me that there is room for improvement. I think these dsp facilities are a large part of the attraction of the unit, and I think they deserve more attention.
RME support is also excellent, and part of that is their youtube video channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/RMEAudio The unit has so many features that this help is clearly welcome, certainly for me.

 

[soundwave76]

My ADI-2 DAC arrived. I do miss the transparent top plate of the Pro Anniversary Edition I had about a year ago, but this looks cleaner and the menus are indeed simpler.

QUESTION: Coax or USB input?

I use Matrix X-SPDIF to feed AES signal to my digital Genelecs. Matrix has also Coax out and this would be quite a simple and handy solution for me -> I just turn the ADI-2 on and the headphones work automatically. If I were to use USB, I would have to switch outputs from Tidal every time I switch between headphones and speakers.

Is USB superior to Coax or are the differences minimal / non-existent?

 

[VintageFlanker]

Is USB superior to Coax or are the differences minimal / non-existent?

If you're asking about audibility: Absolutely non-existant, to my knowledge.

 

[soundwave76]

I recall some tests have had SINAD differences between USB and Coax... was it for example Khadas that scored better in Coax over USB if I remember correctly. I would appreciated @amirm thoughts on this?

 

[VintageFlanker]

I would appreciated @amirm thoughts on this?

He already measured it. Previous ADI-2 DAC review was mostly tested with SPDIF, with also excellent results:

https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements-of-rme-adi-2-dac.2582/

 

[soundwave76]

Aah, brilliant. Thanks!!

 

[LTig]

Do you guys leave the RME switched on at all times or just as and when you're using it?

Just out of curiosity...

My ADI-2 PRO fs is always switched off, via a switchable power strip. It gets quite warm in use.

 

[mcgo]

Summer is here and so are my results... Using a handheld laser to read the average temp of the top case, the two copper heatsinks dropped the temperature of the unit by 5 deg. F., measured after 3 hours (which is my usual listening session). The DAC was playing a looped track.

The fans, however, are total overkill! They are 3000RPM... 300 would be better! For the fan test, I placed them on the right hand side, evacuating air. They chill for sure and are about as noisy as my computers fan... I greedily got two - one for the dac and one for the headamp. I may consider something else (like using PWM to slow them down or even dropping their voltage) but for now I’m happy with the copper win!

UPDATE: I picked up a cheap $6 fan controller (amzn: B07Q1HDG3T) which works great! It has a knob to dial in exactly the speed I want. The fans are in place and I now consider the cooling project complete.

 

[Alan S]

金少刚，Chief Audio Engineer of Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Chief Audio Engineer of The Voice of China,
with ADI-2 DAC

 

[hadadzhi]

Hi! After searching for a modern audio interface with a good headphone amp and a parametric EQ, I settled on the ADI-2 DAC. Just wanted to share some of my impressions and experiences:

1. "Driverless" operation is still clunky on Windows 10 1809 even with the latest firmware 26/30. Windows' sound control panel disallows sample rate/format selection, locked at 44.1 KHz and 32 bits. DirectSound works, but "exclusive mode" aka WASAPI is clunky: Foobar2000 in WASAPI mode produces various clicking and beeping noises, and sometimes either errors out with "unsupported format" when switching to tracks with different sample rate, or "successfully" changes the sample rate (as confimed by the ADI-2 DAC display) but produces heavily distorted sound. MPC-HC, on the other hand, works OK in "exclusive" (aka WASAPI) mode, changes the sample rate and all, but when it enters said "exclusive" mode, all other applications that were producing sound at that moment crash or display error messages. While I'm hoping this is all just Windows being Windows, and not a problem with the ADI-2 DAC, still it is a bit disappointing

2. Keeping the above in mind, after installing the official RME drivers, everything works great through either DirectSound or ASIO, albeit WASAPI stops working completely. I guess I can live with that, as long as RME continue providing their drivers for all the new Windows versions that Microsoft pushes every six months

3. One other thing that was not clear to me from all the reviews and product descriptions, is that the ADI-2 DAC can't use all of its outputs independently. It only toggles between them, either manually or automatically. Furthermore, the "phones" and "IEM" outputs are not separated -- they are both active at the same time and share volume control. This is not a huge problem for me personally, though something to keep in mind if you're considering this device and want to use all outputs independently and at the same time.

4. The controls are very responsive, the display is a fairly high-resolution IPS panel. The UI probably could be a bit more easy to navigate, but it's fully functional, fast enough to navigate, and far from "horrible" like some reviews say.

So far, when it does work as expected, there are no audible sound quality problems

 

[JohnYang1997]

Hi! After searching for a modern audio interface with a good headphone amp and a parametric EQ, I settled on the ADI-2 DAC. Just wanted to share some of my impressions and experiences:

1. "Driverless" operation is still clunky on Windows 10 1809 even with the latest firmware 26/30. Windows' sound control panel disallows sample rate/format selection, locked at 44.1 KHz and 32 bits. DirectSound works, but "exclusive mode" aka WASAPI is clunky: Foobar2000 in WASAPI mode produces various clicking and beeping noises, and sometimes either errors out with "unsupported format" when switching to tracks with different sample rate, or "successfully" changes the sample rate (as confimed by the ADI-2 DAC display) but produces heavily distorted sound. MPC-HC, on the other hand, works OK in "exclusive" (aka WASAPI) mode, changes the sample rate and all, but when it enters said "exclusive" mode, all other applications that were producing sound at that moment crash or display error messages. While I'm hoping this is all just Windows being Windows, and not a problem with the ADI-2 DAC, still it is a bit disappointing

2. Keeping the above in mind, after installing the official RME drivers, everything works great through either DirectSound or ASIO, albeit WASAPI stops working completely. I guess I can live with that, as long as RME continue providing their drivers for all the new Windows versions that Microsoft pushes every six months

3. One other thing that was not clear to me from all the reviews and product descriptions, is that the ADI-2 DAC can't use all of its outputs independently. It only toggles between them, either manually or automatically. Furthermore, the "phones" and "IEM" outputs are not separated -- they are both active at the same time and share volume control. This is not a huge problem for me personally, though something to keep in mind if you're considering this device and want to use all outputs independently and at the same time.

4. The controls are very responsive, the display is a fairly high-resolution IPS panel. The UI probably could be a bit more easy to navigate, but it's fully functional, fast enough to navigate, and far from "horrible" like some reviews say.

So far, when it does work as expected, there are no audible sound quality problems

The wasapi exclusive thing is very normal or it's what it should be. Exclusive means all other applications can't access the interface. It pretty much acts like asio.
And as after installing driver asio works just fine I don't see anything wrong here. Just as it should be. Wasapi shouldn't be a part of the design. So it may break.
So you can use windows audio for casual use and asio for critical use.