RME ADI-2 FS Version 2 DAC and Headphone Amp Review

[att007]

The KEF has those knobs on the back to join the HF and LF binding posts. It's important to make sure they are fully engaged in the right direction.

I've bought external silver jumpers and I've experienced that those are significantly better than the integrated ones. Thanks for the note but that can't be the problem.

 

[att007]

I have the rme ADI 2 fs great DAC. I usually leave it flat (using rpi4 -rme - Yamaha hs80m). Good having those bass and treble buttons if you want to adjust quickly with different sources. Just play around with it and set on whatever you think sounds the best.

The meta would be good if you didn't already have a DAC, speakers or a streamer, but not cheap.

With flat bass - because R3 has more than enough - and the +5-7dB treble settings I'm more than happy so I may live with that. I could say with these higher gain on treble the RS could sound similar than the meta as it opens up the higher registers.

 

[att007]

I use a lot of high frequency shaping. I mean a lot. That's what works for me.
View attachment 319382

okay, it seems I'm fine then

 

[G-rig]

Must be the speakers or your ears if you have to to crank the treble on the other DACs as well.
You grow out of wanting a lot of sick bass and ear piercing treble, perhaps you just need to listen to stuff with a flat EQ and get used to it.

As you get better gear you shouldn't need to play around with that stuff, particularly when listening to lossless as it should all sound good as its intended. I guess the other variable is your room, and ears as mentioned. No rules to this though.

 

[att007]

Must be the speakers or your ears if you have to to crank the treble on the other DACs as well.

I think both I always liked the articulated treble so that's not new for me that I'm after that. Thanks for the recommendation however on flat eq it's unlistenable for me. All of our ears and musical taste are slightly different, but I'm sure but music with flat eq on my chain (Cyrus One HD, Tellurium Q Ultra Blue speaker cables, QED silver jumpers, KEF R3 (non-meta), Wiim Mini) is far away even from the artist's impression. I'm still happy that we have tone controls (+-12dB) and loudness, etc. which are not necessarily there on integrated amps so you don't have much adjusments elsewhere and I think the implementation is great in ADI 2 as it never sounds artificial not like on cheap eq solutions.

 

[Doodski]

perhaps you just need to listen to stuff with a flat EQ and get used to it.

As you get better gear you shouldn't need to play around with that stuff

PEQ sometimes is required more than ever with better gear.

 

[Jonne Haven]

This may be a stupid question and I'm not an by any means an expert of measurements that Amir does on headphone amps, but why is this DAC/Amp a $1300 purchase vs. a Topping A30Pro at $250 when the Topping has better S/N ratio and rated above the RME in other areas as well?

I'm not challenging anybody or try to piss off any RME owners because it seems to me that this is one of, if not the most respected piece of headphone equipment out there. I just don't understand what makes it so sought after at its price?

If someone could explain what makes the RME exceptional as its price reflects, I may start investing in one, I'm very curious!!!

Blessings,
-J

 

[radix]

This may be a stupid questions and I'm not an by any means an expert of measurements that Amir does on headphone amps, but why is this DAC/Amp a $1300 purchase vs. a Topping A30Pro at $250 when the Topping has better S/N ratio and rated above the RME in other areas as well?

I'm not challenging anybody or try to piss off any RME owners because it seems to me that this is one of, if not the most respected piece of headphone equipment out there. I just don't understand what makes it so sought after at its price?

Blessings,
-J

The RME is a DAC/amp, and the A30pro is just an amp. But obviously, there's still a $1000 delta there.

I bought it for the built-in EQ. I can put in headphone EQs for the 3 cans i switch between (really just 2 now). I use several different computers through the day, and a few different streaming services. It's convenient for me to have the EQ on the RME rather than try to replicate it in a bunch of different places. I also appreciate the built-in loudness feature.

Is it worth the price premium? Well, obviously to me it was. And there was not clear, easy way to replicate the EQ features. Sure, I could have worked around it somehow....

 

[Jonne Haven]

The RME is a DAC/amp, and the A30pro is just an amp. But obviously, there's still a $1000 delta there.

I bought it for the built-in EQ. I can put in headphone EQs for the 3 cans i switch between (really just 2 now). I use several different computers through the day, and a few different streaming services. It's convenient for me to have the EQ on the RME rather than try to replicate it in a bunch of different places. I also appreciate the built-in loudness feature.

Is it worth the price premium? Well, obviously to me it was. And there was not clear, easy way to replicate the EQ features. Sure, I could have worked around it somehow....

Thank you for that answer,
What is the built in loudness feature? And what does it do?...compression or something? (i'm clueless)

Blessings,
-J

 

[Wicky]

Thank you for that answer,
What is the built in loudness feature? And what does it do?...compression or something? (i'm clueless)

Blessings,
-J

The RMEs dynamic loudness feature increases the bass and treble when volume is lower to conform to psychoacoustic research conducted by Feltcher & Munson. They developed a series of curves in a set of experimentally determined graphs that show how loud a sound at one frequency must be in order to be perceived as equally loud as a sound at another frequency. More here: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/what-is-fletcher-munson-curve-equal-loudness-curves.html

Implementation from the RME manual https://www.rme-audio.de/downloads/adi2dac_e.pdf see section 8.5

If you are really interested to know why the RME DAC is at a different price-point when compared to similarly measuring products from Topping et. al. have a browse through the feature set, primarily the DSP and its implementation. We are yet to see DSP included in almost all of new DACs being manufactured elsewhere. There are of course other factors in price, such as being manufactured in Europe, exceptional reputation for product reliability and after sales support. These factors may or may not be valuable to you.

 

[Jonne Haven]

The RMEs dynamic loudness feature increases the bass and treble when volume is lower to conform to psychoacoustic research conducted by Feltcher & Munson. They developed a series of curves in a set of experimentally determined graphs that show how loud a sound at one frequency must be in order to be perceived as equally loud as a sound at another frequency. More here: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/what-is-fletcher-munson-curve-equal-loudness-curves.html

Implementation from the RME manual https://www.rme-audio.de/downloads/adi2dac_e.pdf see section 8.5

If you are really interested to know why the RME DAC is at a different price-point when compared to similarly measuring products from Topping et. al. have a browse through the feature set, primarily the DSP and its implementation. We are yet to see DSP included in almost all of new DACs being manufactured elsewhere. There are of course other factors in price, such as being manufactured in Europe, exceptional reputation for product reliability and after sales support. These factors may or may not be valuable to you.

Wow!

Ok I think I'm getting the picture more clearly now. Seems to be a bit of an external soundcard/effects combo with great amplifying capability as well. Almost a mini sound computer machine all in a little package...hence the price tag.

Thank you for your input...I can see why it is valued so!

Blessings,
-J

 

[palm]

It’s great to have so many DACs well implemented these days, sound quality isn’t a concern basically. There are products for headphones like the Qudelix that have EQ capability, it will come to desktop DACs and it will probably take a few iterations until this is well implemented as well.
If you are using active speakers, a reliable volume control is important also: you don’t want to damage your hearing and your speakers because of a glitch.

 

[G-rig]

It’s great to have so many DACs well implemented these days, sound quality isn’t a concern basically. There are products for headphones like the Qudelix that have EQ capability, it will come to desktop DACs and it will probably take a few iterations until this is well implemented as well.
If you are using active speakers, a reliable volume control is important also: you don’t want to damage your hearing and your speakers because of a glitch.

Yes I mainly got it for the volume control and remote, and overall quality. The quick bass and treble settings are handy but still haven't played around with the EQ at all. The rme has gone up in price somewhat these days but only grabbed it because of mate. Wanted the pro version so was hard to resist it (was running a DAC magic and nano patch with no remote volume and this is way better to complete the setup).

 

[palm]

I like the fact that everything can be adjusted on the unit, but you can get lost in the menus. The remote app makes it even easier to play with EQ and presets.

 

[G-rig]

I like the fact that everything can be adjusted on the unit, but you can get lost in the menus. The remote app makes it even easier to play with EQ and presets.

Yes the settings and options are more advanced than I'll ever use but should look into it more.
For my PC & headphone setup I I just use exclusive mode (ifi DAC) as Tidal does hi-res (MQA and hi-res FLAC now too) so leave it. However I turn this off if i want to use EQ with some headphones (I run PEACE APO with built in AutoEQ and use the innerfidelity presets.

ps. which is this app, is it for phone? Didn't see much in the play store.
Thanks,

 

[Brad1138]

From my ADI-2 I am currently using RCA splitters to run to 2 different preamps (Tube and SS). But I was wondering, could I use an XLR to RCA adapter and use that output instead of splitting the RCA. I know it might be more or less the same, but I worry a bit about torque on the RCA connector, I use the pictured spitter and my RCA cable are kind of stiff.

 

[staticV3]

I was wondering, could I use an XLR to RCA adapter and use that output instead of splitting the RCA.

Yes. However, you should make sure that the cable is configured correctly.
When you do RCA->XLR, then both XLR1&3 should be tied to RCA GND.
Conversely, XLR->RCA should leave XLR3 floating (disconnected) and only use XLR1&2.

Even then, a performance penalty can be expected varying from slightly higher distortion (example) to slightly increased DC offset (example), all the way to drastically higher HD (example) depending on how the output stage is designed.

 

[G-rig]

XLR splitter selector would be the best I'd assume, but more expensive (and not sure if your preamps have XLR inputs.
Cable splitters wouldn't be idea but depends if you can hear any difference, usually get more noise and stuff.

 

[Brad1138]

Yes. However, you should make sure that the cable is configured correctly.
When you do RCA->XLR, then both XLR1&3 should be tied to RCA GND.
Conversely, XLR->RCA should leave XLR3 floating (disconnected) and only use XLR1&2.

Even then, a performance penalty can be expected varying from slightly higher distortion (example) to slightly increased DC offset (example), all the way to drastically higher HD (example) depending on how the output stage is designed.

Thanks,
I am looking at these (F2F), I also have a Moon 310LP that I will (hopefully) be doing the same thing with.

RCA/XLR Adapters

Moon Audio RCA/XLR Adapters

www.moon-audio.com

 

[Brad1138]

XLR splitter selector would be the best I'd assume, but more expensive (and not sure if your preamps have XLR inputs.
Cable splitters wouldn't be idea but depends if you can hear any difference, usually get more noise and stuff.

Neither preamp has XLR

(Odyssey Candela & Axiom II Passive Pre Walker Mod)