solderdude
Grand Contributor
No it won't. It means the amp will provide full output power at 2V.
I don't think you ran it at full power.
Besides that has no influence on the headphone out of the RME which you say does the same.
-
WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
Measurements of RME ADI-2 DAC and Headphone Amp
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
No it won't. It means the amp will provide full output power at 2V.
I don't think you ran it at full power.
Besides that has no influence on the headphone out of the RME which you say does the same.
I want to be 100% clear that it was subjective. And not scientific at all. The most obvious one was Tool. I know it is a pretty harsh recording sadly. And with the Grace Design m902 it is not flattering but it is listenable. But with the RME I couldn't listen to it, it was just to hard and hurted my ears. What I also hear is that in other music the S's comes through more, a bit like sibilance. Also and I want to be clear I haven't listened to my main system with the Grace Design for many months.
That is weird. I checked my response history. Because I asked this question in the Oktoresearch dac thread. Because they have to change it themselves. And someone responded that I could find the manual of the lyngdorf itself and that it was stated there. And he said it was 2V and that I should ask it to change it to that. Isn't that what we are talking about?
And to be clear the RME is not intended for headphone listening. And to be clear the test with headphones was very small. And I would disregard that.
D
Deleted member 65
Guest
I’d recommend some RME ADI-2 DAC Youtube time:
solderdude
Grand Contributor
Its not.
The Lyngdorf simply reaches max. output power when it receives 2V. In normal operation it will receive much, much less as most people usually do not drive their amps to clipping levels.
When one connects something to it that has max 1.4V (+5.1dBU = +2.9VdBV) out (like a dongle on headphone out) you simply won't ever reach full power.
When one connects a pre-amp or whatever that can put out max 2V (+8.2dBu = +6dBV) you can just reach clipping levels.
When one connects a a pre-amp or whatever that can put out 10V (+22dBU = +20dBV) you can easily get the amp clipping even with soft recordings.
In the latter 2 cases the input voltage of the Lingdorf, in normal situations listening to music, the input voltage will not reach 2V.
The difference you will notice is that the volume position will differ only and when having a party you can get the amp to clip but not distort with a 2V source but can drive it very far into clipping when driven with 10V.
When you don't ever want the Lyngdorf to ever clip set it to +7dBU. When you want a more usable volume control range set it to +13dBU or +19dBU.
There is only an issue when connecting the RME to something like the O2 or Atom where one can easily overdrive the amplifier input while lowering the output using the volume control. There isn't one in your case.
Last edited:
Alan S
Member
The same problem I met.Well....I just went to user forum, tried to register & I received this message:
"
Warning! The following errors must be corrected before you can register:
- The email address you entered is banned in this forum. Please choose another email address."
I can't think of any reason why that would be so....not only have I never registered there beforehand, I'd never even heard of such a forum until Willem kindly suggested going there to ask about the remote.
I've used this email as my personal for a 'scary' long time, never had any kind of problem with it & can't fathom why it would receive that message. Does that indicate somebody has tried to use it to login previously? That's just totally weird.
The RME forum software is pretty restrictive at times. Just send them an email. As for the sound quality, ask them about the appropriate reference level - they will have good suggestions. But first try it in your main system.
And now for my own subjective impressions, apart from the fact that it measures perfectly. I came from an old Quad 33 pre amplifier, using analogue outputs of a Bluray player, a television and a Chromecast Audio. Power amplifier is a refurbished Quad 606-2. Of itself that has a very high input sensitivity of 0.5 Volt, but I lowered it with two 16 dB inline attenuators. Speakers are Quad 2805 plus a B&W PV1d sub (with Antimode 8033 dsp room eq of the sub). My impression of the sound is precisely how I like it: ultraclean, transparent and undistorted, even at quite high levels, and without any trace of harshness. It was certainly better than the old situation, even though I don't know whether the improvement was due to a better DAC or a better preamplifier. My hunch is both.
I am using auto reference level, and also dynamic loudness. After a couple of REW measurement sessions I decided to use the filters in the RME to attenuate some bass peaks coming from the main speakers. I also decided to use the tone controls to aproximate the Harman curve. But even before that, there never was any harshness.
Finally, of course such transparent gear is a sometimes uncomfortable window into the bad recording quality of some music. If you really want to know what your ADI-2 is doing, play some well recorded classical music or acoustic jazz. Pop/rock etc is so processed that there is no natural point of reference.
And now for my own subjective impressions, apart from the fact that it measures perfectly. I came from an old Quad 33 pre amplifier, using analogue outputs of a Bluray player, a television and a Chromecast Audio. Power amplifier is a refurbished Quad 606-2. Of itself that has a very high input sensitivity of 0.5 Volt, but I lowered it with two 16 dB inline attenuators. Speakers are Quad 2805 plus a B&W PV1d sub (with Antimode 8033 dsp room eq of the sub). My impression of the sound is precisely how I like it: ultraclean, transparent and undistorted, even at quite high levels, and without any trace of harshness. It was certainly better than the old situation, even though I don't know whether the improvement was due to a better DAC or a better preamplifier. My hunch is both.
I am using auto reference level, and also dynamic loudness. After a couple of REW measurement sessions I decided to use the filters in the RME to attenuate some bass peaks coming from the main speakers. I also decided to use the tone controls to aproximate the Harman curve. But even before that, there never was any harshness.
Finally, of course such transparent gear is a sometimes uncomfortable window into the bad recording quality of some music. If you really want to know what your ADI-2 is doing, play some well recorded classical music or acoustic jazz. Pop/rock etc is so processed that there is no natural point of reference.
Last edited:
Thank you again for your wisdom.
Does it matter if I change it from 5 dBu to 13dBu?
If I can interpret it correctly it doesn't matter because in both settings the power amplifier gives all the power.
I changed it to 13 dBu and I thought that the Tool album was better but that could be my mind playing tricks with me.
But the high notes on my classical albums (I tested swiftly the Naïve 10 th anniversary https://www.amazon.co.uk/Naive-10th-Anniversary-Compilation-Various/dp/B001DETD8M) still come out much more and prominently.
Thank you.
I have a thought. What if I measure my system with the Grace and also RME. And I post my measurements here. Would that also be a good test instead of a blind test? And maybe I can find the issue and also exclude my bias that way. Or would that also not be good enough?
I would need to buy the equipment first and I also don't have a fast laptop( I have an old slow one) to do the tests.
Oh yeah and I also want to mention that my listening level was around 80 dB-85dB A weighted (measured from my phone). Pretty loud. and at some sections my music cut out because of my cd player skipping. I think because of my subwoofer which is placed on the ground and because of the vibrations it also skips if I tapped the cd player. I don't know if this matters.
No. If used as a preamp, Auto Ref Level provides the best SNR for all output voltage. -5dBu, then switch automatically to +1dBu, then +7dBu and at last +13dBu (add 6db for all using XLR). Nothing wrong here.
I guess so!
D
Deleted member 65
Guest
You’ll only need this microphone, your PC may be good enough.
https://www.minidsp.com/products/acoustic-measurement/umik-1
solderdude
Grand Contributor
For optimal performance (lowest own noise which is inaudible low anyway) and the amp never clipping the +7dBU is the one you should select.
When you caanot play classical music loud enough you can select +13dBU and get a bit more volume out of it.
Not exactly. For a preamp usage, the ADI-2 runs best with Auto Ref Level. Because it has the less loss in SNR for all analog levels. I've never been able to reach the +7dBu (13dBu XLR) level with my power amp. And +13dBu (19dBu XLR) is completely overkill. Lowering the volume, drastically, from this level will affect the SNR much more than goes step by step through the analog Ref Levels available.
Last edited:
I maybe buy the microphone. Will this make clear that it is too bright? Or is it money not well spent?
And is it ok to give the curves here and ask how to correct them or do I better make another thread for that?
And I will change it back to auto ref level.
And is it ok to give the curves here and ask how to correct them or do I better make another thread for that?
And I will change it back to auto ref level.
The RME does have tone controls if you are finding the sound too bright, then dial down the treble a little.
Keith
Keith
That is the problem. When I dialled down the treble by 6 dB I had a feeling it did very little. Could it be that the power amplifier can't deliver enough juice to the speakers?
Would it be helpful if I post the curves here when I buy the microphone? It is good for room correction measurements. So I think it is money well spent, I hope.
My rme adi 2 dac is the v1 and has always sounded amazing. I'm able to run it +19 dbu but that's because benchmark can recieve up to 32 dbu.
I swear you have to be sending to much or too little dbu to whatever your using. Does it sound good out of the headphone out?
Also my speakers max input is 20 dbu, so I've never ran into clipping like that with the rme.
I swear you have to be sending to much or too little dbu to whatever your using. Does it sound good out of the headphone out?
Also my speakers max input is 20 dbu, so I've never ran into clipping like that with the rme.
Similar threads
