While I have multiple headphone amps, I never use them with ADI-2 Pro, even with the hard to drive HE6se, EQ’ed. I do use them with other DACs that don’t have as good a headphone output.
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Measurements of RME ADI-2 DAC and Headphone Amp
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Strumbringer
Active Member
You all are great!
Thank you so much everyone- I greatly appreciated these responses and the reassurance that I'm not losing my mind in believing my ADI-2 sounds great with my ZMF headphones.
I bought my ADI-2 not quite a year ago, and posted on another audio forum how much I loved the sound and it was able to drive my ZMF headphones with no problem. One of the guys on that forum got really mad and bullied me stating I can't make these statements, I have no standing as a new member, and should not put misinformation on the thread as he asserted the ADI-2 DAC could NOT be a stand-alone unit for higher impedance headphones. I was shocked by the bully who stated I had no standing my ears were wrong. I contacted Matthias at RME and he confirmed the ADI-2 does drive 300 Ohm headphones just fine. Then, I found this forum and read Amir's review and got even more reassurance.
I suppose the other forum (or maybe certain people there) makes me feel that I'm "wrong" for not having more gear and having an external amp to pair with my ADI-2 (as a side note, I did get a Bottlehead Crack and think it's great- warm and tubey).
Thank you so much everyone- I greatly appreciated these responses and the reassurance that I'm not losing my mind in believing my ADI-2 sounds great with my ZMF headphones.
I bought my ADI-2 not quite a year ago, and posted on another audio forum how much I loved the sound and it was able to drive my ZMF headphones with no problem. One of the guys on that forum got really mad and bullied me stating I can't make these statements, I have no standing as a new member, and should not put misinformation on the thread as he asserted the ADI-2 DAC could NOT be a stand-alone unit for higher impedance headphones. I was shocked by the bully who stated I had no standing my ears were wrong. I contacted Matthias at RME and he confirmed the ADI-2 does drive 300 Ohm headphones just fine. Then, I found this forum and read Amir's review and got even more reassurance.
I suppose the other forum (or maybe certain people there) makes me feel that I'm "wrong" for not having more gear and having an external amp to pair with my ADI-2 (as a side note, I did get a Bottlehead Crack and think it's great- warm and tubey).
holbob
Active Member
I think only Head-Fi demand the death penalty for not using an external amp.
Only your ears matter. You don't need someone on a forum to agree with you. I recommend using forums as a way to become exposed to new ideas and products but you don't need to justify your audio taste to anyone. As long as you like it that's enough. If you keep that in mind it's pretty easy to ignore the trolls who would like to enforce their audio tastes on you.
04gto
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In the early days of ZMF, Zach would recommend amps like the JDS Labs El Amp which is less powerful than the RME. I used my Eikon with the RME and my JDS Labs Element II. The Eikon was great with both.
Two valuable things you may have gleaned from this thread today:
1. Trust your own ears
2. Ignore the opinions of people that tell you what you should be hearing. Roughly 5% of audio forum members think they are ‘gatekeepers’ for the hobby and they think if you don’t do it their way, you are wrong. In fact, nobody is more wrong than them.
Strumbringer
Active Member
Thank you all, again. If I were interested in understanding the ADI-2 DAC’s ability to produce frequencies, let’s say bass and sub-bass, what measurement or chart/data would I look at? Mostly curious about understanding how the headphone amp of the ADI- 2 DAC compares to frequency capabilities of things like Topping A90 or Benchmark HPA4.
Veri
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These will all measure flat 20hz-20kHz. You might rather want to look up distortion and clipping point, but that too will be excellent with all three.
Trell
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The ADI-2 headphone amp is flat according to the specs, and various reviews have shown that RME specs can be trusted:
- Frequency response @ 44.1 kHz, -0.1 dB: 0 Hz – 20.2 kHz
The current ADI-2 FAC FS is reviewed in this thread, btw. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...version-2-dac-and-headphone-amp-review.13379/
Joachim Herbert
Senior Member
Not sure what this question is about. It's as flat as it can be.
I use the Adi-2 dac with my Verite Closed, and have also used the Element 2 for a while. It sounded fantastic on both, with the caveat that I haven't heard them on a monster tube amp or super high-end solid state. Zach has said himself that, despite the high ohms, they are actually quite sensitive and something like 300mw is enough to max out the driver.
What I see talked about often is pairing an amp with a higher output impedance to ensure the driver isn't over dampened. Higher than 1 is recommended, however, he also said that this doesn't mean that lower output impedance amps won't work for people too. For what its worth, I experimented with the Beyerdynamic A20 that has an output impedance of 100ohm I believe and I couldn't detect a massive difference (if any?) between that and the JDS Labs or RME headphone output. Possibly slightly warmer, possibly slightly more constrained soundstage... possibly all placebo. So I wouldn't lose sleep over it.
Is it possible to set an independent PEQ for each of the outputs (headphones/balanced/unbalanced) on the ADI-2? Whether that means simultaneous output to each or having a 'one-button' switch on the remote to select a PEQ/output combination.
If that's not possible, can you select a stored PEQ via the remote and switch between profiles that way?
If that's not possible, can you select a stored PEQ via the remote and switch between profiles that way?
On the Pro fs R, you have 2 stereo DACs, and each of the 4 channels may have its independant EQ.
On the DAC version, I guess you only have 2 channels EQ.
Balanced and unbalanced are not different.
You may store several settings and retrieve them.
(This saves the display color too, so if you want to make easy to immediately see which setting is selected, you may use different display colors)
danadam
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You can have separate settings for Phones, IEMs and Line-Out outputs. By default only one output can be active and when it becomes active, it loads its settings. You can change the configuration so that all outputs are active, but then all of them get signal processed by Line-Out settings.
Line-Out XLR and RCA are counted as one output, so they can't have different settings from each other.
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Thank you both for the detailed answers!
The fact it will change the settings when you change outputs has a lot of potential. The MiniDSP Flex Eight is another contender, boasting more raw outputs, especially since you can't split the line-outs. But it doesn't have a built-in state-of-the-art amp. Food for thought!
The fact it will change the settings when you change outputs has a lot of potential. The MiniDSP Flex Eight is another contender, boasting more raw outputs, especially since you can't split the line-outs. But it doesn't have a built-in state-of-the-art amp. Food for thought!
ShootingStills
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Hi guys,
I have read so much of this forum I felt I needed to join.
I have a question here. The R version, with the screen seems to Omit a Coax input? Instead it has a different all in one Digital input with an adapter?
If I have a single Coax output from my Node streamer, can I still connect this to the adapter? Do I connect to the Red or White?
Sorry, feel stupid asking but have never come across this interface before.
Cheers guys
I have read so much of this forum I felt I needed to join.
I have a question here. The R version, with the screen seems to Omit a Coax input? Instead it has a different all in one Digital input with an adapter?
If I have a single Coax output from my Node streamer, can I still connect this to the adapter? Do I connect to the Red or White?
Sorry, feel stupid asking but have never come across this interface before.
Cheers guys
All RME ADI-2 Pro's use a short adapter for Digital copper connections (provided)
This is the same you'l find with the RME UCX II
See here for a picture.
So, yes, you connect the coax SPDIF from your node to the adapter. And the input is the white one.
(Both SPDIF connectors are labeled accordingly)
ShootingStills
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Spot on thank you ever so much!
ShootingStills
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Sorry, just trying to get my head around this product, the product here - https://www.rme-audio.de/adi-2-dac.html - the ADI-2 DAC FS, is this a new product or one from a few years ago?
I am considering buying it but would like to know the age / likelihood of a new replacement etc.
Also the all in one adapter with XLR and COAX etc that @Rja4000 pasted isn't needed on the ADI-2 DAC FS as it has a COAX? This makes me think its an older product?
Sorry for asking a load of questions
PS - this will be used as a HiFi Day 80% of the time - headphones 20%
I am considering buying it but would like to know the age / likelihood of a new replacement etc.
Also the all in one adapter with XLR and COAX etc that @Rja4000 pasted isn't needed on the ADI-2 DAC FS as it has a COAX? This makes me think its an older product?
Sorry for asking a load of questions
PS - this will be used as a HiFi Day 80% of the time - headphones 20%
This is the review of the product currently on sale (well, with ESS chip I think... who cares):
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...version-2-dac-and-headphone-amp-review.13379/
The DAC has no analog inputs, and, therefore, no digital outputs. And no AES/EBU digital input either.
So its back is way less populated with connectors.
So, indeed, they don't require the extra connector.
Nothing to do with the device's age.
Only practical.
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