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Measurements of RME ADI-2 DAC and Headphone Amp

LTig

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Im wondering if ADI-2 dac will be good paired with my Hegel H190 amp and Elac Unfi FS52 speakers.
Speakers are neutral. I guess using balanced output from ADI to Hegel amp imput.
Those speakers need good PEQ base to make them go sing well. Will this dac be enough as preamp?
Certainly. I wonder though why you think your speakers need a good PEQ if they are neutral to begin with? Or do you mean room EQ?
 

Forsaked

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Any measurement for the ESS ES9028Q2M version of this DAC?
 

Forsaked

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Widber

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Any measurement for the ESS ES9028Q2M version of this DAC?
Wow! https://www.rme-audio.de/adi-2-dac.html
"The updated ADI-2 DAC uses ESS's ES9028Q2M in a special circuit variant developed by RME engineers that allows the chip to perform at its best. With noise levels of 123 dBA, distortion less than -120 dB, or THD+N of -116 dB, the device delivers outstanding measured values, and allows the IEM output to reach a sensational low noise level of -121 dBu. In addition, there is +2.5 dB of digital headroom, so that high intersample peaks do not produce any audible distortion. The reserve in volume setting results in a still undistorted analog output signal even at a volume setting of +2.5 dB.

There are no significant changes in operation, features and behavior compared to the predecessor, which is why neither appearance nor name have changed. All differences are explained in the detailed manual of the ADI-2 DAC."
 

ArturoKiwi

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Wow! https://www.rme-audio.de/adi-2-dac.html
"The updated ADI-2 DAC uses ESS's ES9028Q2M in a special circuit variant developed by RME engineers that allows the chip to perform at its best. With noise levels of 123 dBA, distortion less than -120 dB, or THD+N of -116 dB, the device delivers outstanding measured values, and allows the IEM output to reach a sensational low noise level of -121 dBu. In addition, there is +2.5 dB of digital headroom, so that high intersample peaks do not produce any audible distortion. The reserve in volume setting results in a still undistorted analog output signal even at a volume setting of +2.5 dB.

There are no significant changes in operation, features and behavior compared to the predecessor, which is why neither appearance nor name have changed. All differences are explained in the detailed manual of the ADI-2 DAC."

First question on my mind: why they used the ES9028Q2M and not the Es9038?
 

Forsaked

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First question on my mind: why they used the ES9028Q2M and not the Es9038?

It is cheaper and by the way RME implemented it, with their own tweaks, it would make no big difference.
RME is the best example what you can do with this kind of chip by careful engineering.

Why didn't they use the AKM 4497 or 4499 in the previous version?
Same answer as above!
 

trl

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First question on my mind: why they used the ES9028Q2M and not the Es9038?
Same +129dB DNR and -120dB THD+N on both chips, so I guess RME choose what it was cheaper or easier to find, purchase in bulk and implement. Same way Benchmark guys did with DAC3 when they choose 9028Pro against 9038Pro chip.
 

Trell

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It looks the the iem connection improved a lot.

The improvement was from v1 of the DAC-2 ADI FS (measured in this thread) that used an AK4490 chip to v2 that used an AK4493 chip. The new v3 is using an ESS ES9028Q2M chip but as far as I can see the specs published by RME is the same between v2 and v3, unless I missed something.
 

ezra_s

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JimmyBuckets

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The improvement was from v1 of the DAC-2 ADI FS (measured in this thread) that used an AK4490 chip to v2 that used an AK4493 chip. The new v3 is using an ESS ES9028Q2M chip but as far as I can see the specs published by RME is the same between v2 and v3, unless I missed something.
Looks like IEM output went from -118 to -121 ?
 

ShiZo

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The improvement was from v1 of the DAC-2 ADI FS (measured in this thread) that used an AK4490 chip to v2 that used an AK4493 chip. The new v3 is using an ESS ES9028Q2M chip but as far as I can see the specs published by RME is the same between v2 and v3, unless I missed something.
Yeah, I owned both v1 and v2. But I believe the v3 has better iem specs than even the v2 unless im mistaken.
 

Trell

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Looks like IEM output went from -118 to -121 ?

The specs for IEM is the same when comparing to AK4493: "Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) @ -3 dBu: 118 dB RMS unweighted, 121 dBA"

This is on the home page and the same in user manual v2.4 that is for the AK4493 that I got with my ADI-2 DAC when I bought it.
 

Trell

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Yeah, I owned both v1 and v2. But I believe the v3 has better iem specs than even the v2 unless im mistaken.

Possibly you just copied marketing just changed from the AK4493 version. As I wrote to @JimmyBuckets in post above the specs seems the same between v2 and v3.
 
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