Very Cool. Why isn't that a major feature for most buyers of better DACs? 99% of expensive equipment is in less than perfect rooms. Most people over age 40 have some high frequency hearing loss. Seems to me that EQing in digital should be a standard feature.
I seem to be talking myself into spending $1200
Irrational people plague this community. You have a sizable portion that think ANY processing of a signal is too much. The other half is simply people that don't know, or don't care. Aside from the recent advent of the performance wars in new audio gear, there is virtually zero expansion into feature-set. The latest stride in this direction has been of course the RME you know of now. And more recently, SMSL doing something simple like including a screen and stepped attenuator for volume control to be also used with a remote if you would like on an analogue-only amp, which is a nice break from the same old, plain old. Aside from that, I am not seeing ANYONE remotely even hinting at attempting to compete on the level with RME. Some companies do a small thing here or there, but for the most part, you either have something useful like streamer all-in-ones that don't get attention, or have some glaring flaws elsewhere. But as stated, something like FPGA use for something like a DSP box in the manner the RME DAC is, is so far from the minds of many device makers it seems (I don't blame them, considering you need a whole team from UI/UX specialists, software designers, hardware specialists etc...). I've never seen something like this in any industry, where somehow many companies can be successful, even as others offer massive value per dollar compared to the other.
And then there are the boutique companies that never change... (boutique same-old device makers resting on their laurels puzzle me, I'm surprised they can weather this storm just staying the same with the same old, bad performing gear). I guess branding is that powerful.
But when you take a look at how mainstream companies do audio (like Samsung, Apple, or the multitude of other companies making things like gamer headphones or whatnot), their entire focus is feature-set. They understand that audibility for 99% of people is virtually a non-issue that has been solved ages ago. Like imagine having a wireless headphone with distortion as good as something like a DAC, so something like a maximum of -120db of harmonics vs a fundamental. What use is that, if the headphone has a slight frequency focus on treble that makes is hard to listen to, when something like a small chip to quell that fault isn't included? Or imagine having a $100 DAC that just works as a DAC or a $105 DAC with a remote, and a single-button press to turn on something like crossfeed so you don't fatigue yourself to death listening to stereo recordings on IEM's or headphones for hours.
Now I'm no hardware expert, nor audio software expert. But it's just puzzling to see RME reign supreme in this respect with no competition in sight at all. It sort of reminds me of Benchmark, who with their power-amp (the ABH2), virtually rules in almost every respect for literally a half decade now. Though at least this specific example may not be the case (John Yang, fellow amp designer for Topping that frequents us here thankfully) seems to have up his sleeve a proper contender to dethrone the Benchmark. Fingers crossed for that.
Also, if you do pull the trigger on the RME, the manual specifically addresses something you said in you post (the RME has a section on channel volume-balance control, and per channel EQ, and their justification for that was for the inherent natural hearing ability discrepancy many folks have of one ear compared to their other, especially as we age and things perhaps start getting worse in one ear vs the other). It's that sort of forethought and consideration where a consumer sees, and can rest easy knowing all their other claims like short-protection, and things of that technical nature, should be done properly. Compare that to a company that's talking to you about how you should also get their cable to their power amp so that the highs sound slightly cleaner... It's just a stark contrast that's almost difficult to imagine that both are in the same industry competing supposedly.
