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Measurements of RME ADI-2 DAC and Headphone Amp

orangejello

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Apr 18, 2019
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Thanks for having posted the correct eq settings for this situation. I just saw that post a few minutes ago and asked some questions there. I guess one question I have has to do with the statements about aliasing (a concept that I know very little about) and the audibility of those artifacts. Are they audible? Basically other than the hf roll off is their any reason not to use the NOS filter?
 

florence

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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!
Great setup. The only question in my mind is I listen to music on Tidal, most of the time at least. idsd micro black supports MQA and I can notice the difference master quality songs on Tidal than others. Do you say that Adi 2 will sound better than idsd micro even it lacks support of MQA? Thanks in advance!
 

hadadzhi

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Hi!

After using my ADI-2 DAC for a while I discovered the following problem:
When the sampling rate is changed through WASAPI, there's a loud pop in the left channel of the line out.
It never happens on the phones out, only on the line out, and only in the left channel.
It doesn't happen if the line out is muted either by turning the volume down to -inf dB, or by pressing the volume encoder.
But when volume is > -inf dB the pop is equally loud independent of the volume setting.
I can reproduce this with two WASAPI applications: foobar2000 and mpc-hc. The pop doesn't happen 100% of the time, sometimes to reproduce it I need to switch between two tracks with different sample rates a few times, happens every 1..3 sample rate switches.

I would really appreciate it if anybody tried to reproduce this behavior with their ADI-2 DAC to see if this is a common problem or a defect with my unit. For reference, my unit is on firmware version 26/30.

I could not reproduce this with ASIO and foobar2000, but because this only happens on the line out, I am assuming this is not a problem with WASAPI, but with the dac itself. Hopefully something that can be fixed through firmware.
 

VintageFlanker

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Do you say that Adi 2 will sound better than idsd micro even it lacks support of MQA? Thanks in advance!
How do you listen music with Tidal? PC, phone Mac? Is the RME shows higher sample than 44.1Khz?
I you using Roon, you get 24b - 48/88/96Khz from Tidal to the RME whatever it is MQA or not. I seriously doubt that it could be audible.

Also I don't know the linearity of the BL but it's SINAD shows a performance which is closed to 16b/44Khz CD playback anyway. The RME is a much better measuring unit, with or without MQA.
 

Willem

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SINAD 112 dB as published in first post of this thread. In short, there is nothing to worry about - it is truly excellent. With its additional features, built quality and support I think right now this is the best DAC/preamp that money can buy. And it is not even the most expensive - far from it.
 

greyscale

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Can a ADI-2 owner provide me with the iem jack size?. 2.5 or 3.5mm?
 

greyscale

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Thanks Schackmannen:)
 

Willem

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The manual gives the same specifications for all inputs. And of course they are all excellent and well beyond the human hearing threshold. On the output side xlr is a bit better of course.
 

mewzik

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I get the (perhaps incorrect) impression that many people are using the RME ADI-2 DAC as a DAC, not both the DAC & amp.

How many of you are using as a DAC and how many owners are using as both DAC & amp?

Tx!
 
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