What is an AKM RME ADI-2? Is it supposed to sound different from some other version?
AKM is a diminutive for
Asahi Kasei Microdevices, ESS stands for
ESS Technology.
Both are chip manufacturers. In this case, it's about their DAC and ADC chips.
RME used to use mainly AKM chips.
As many other brands from the Pro audio industry were doing.
(My 15 years old Yamaha DM1000 V2 mixer uses AKM
ADC and DAC chips, as an example)
In October 2020,
a 3 days fire destroyed AKM's main factory, where DAC and ADC chips were produced.
It seems they were not able to produce chips in reasonable quantities until 2022, where they restarted with new products.
Most industrial actors using AKM chips were impacted. RME was one of them, although they said they had a serious strategic stock.
Due to the AKM shortage, though, RME decided to change the DAC chip in the ADI-2 DAC.
They also said they wouldn't change DAC or ADC in the ADI-2 Pro, since their stock was sufficient for those.
The limited edition RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE is using ESS chips, though.
I don't know for the UCX/UFX series.
I think it was confirmed that the UCX II is using AKM.
(Maybe
@MC_RME may comment ?)
It seems RME managed to use the ESS ES9028Q2M in the ADI-2 DAC with doing just a few changes from the AKM base. There are differences in terms of available filters and some others, but they tried -and, it seems, succeeded- to keep functionality almost identical.
Note that it's not the first time RME changes the chip in the ADI-2 DAC. They did previously change from AK4490 to AK4493, with a small enhancement in measured performances.
As for an audible difference in sound, there are some legends around, but no evidence that there might be any difference.
The measurements clearly show transparency. At such a level of excellence, that leaves no room for actual audible differences.
Which, in other words, translates into:
There is no audible difference between the AKM and the ESS chip versions of the RME ADI-2 DAC.
