RME ADI-2 DAC

Discussion in 'Headphone Amplifiers and Combo (DAC/Amp) Units' started by Luckbad, Jan 12, 2018.

  1. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

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    A lot of us use a RME mainly as Standalone dac and we gave impressions in the RME ADI2 pro thread. Go there, you'll find interesting stuff to read which could be useful to answer your question. Especially @Armaegis gave several detailed impressions and comparisons.
     
    Last edited: Mar 2, 2018
  2. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    Doh! 26 pages on the Pro thread! Sorry, I didn't even know about it. Linked here for truly lazy.
     
  3. Azimuth

    Azimuth FKA rtaylor76, Friend

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    All I did was point out facts. Not noise.

    It's okay that op amps sound fine to most.

    You guys listen to stuff and talk all around and never look at the whole entire design.

    And for the record, I have heard an ADI-2, but only li,e out. I was never impressed with RME's headphone out either. It is the same on the Fireface.
     
  4. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    In regards to the headphone output (not the DAC), I think Marv was bothered by "digital glare", "boring and lifeless", "too much feedback", "plastic timbre", and "lacked any real resolution" specially for the price point. Back a few more posts he said it "sounded like a shitty LMExxxx buffer or something like that, except without balls."

    What that is telling me is that Marv did not like the performance of the built-in headphone amplifier. The only technical allusion in his impressions are feedback and LMExxxx buffer.

    I actually like feedback, but I would be concerned about the LMExxxx buffer's stability. But that's another story. I don't think he mentioned "switching 12V 1.25 A DC power supply", or "use all those 1.25 amps", or "whole lot of op amps", or "box that is smaller than the Schiit 2nd tier box sizes". All of those worry me little.

    The thing that would concern me more about the RME from a specs perspective is that it seems the headphone out is 30 ohms and may not be compatible with low and even medium impedance range headphones (this probably to keep the driver stable which might be tricky). This is even mentioned in their manual in section 7.3:

    http://www.rme-audio.de/download/adi2_e.pdf

    That is not "very low impedance type" headphone output.

    And with that, maybe one day I will hear the RME. Hopefully as a DAC driving some awesome sauce amps and cans.
     
    Last edited: Mar 2, 2018
  5. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    Isn't hp output impedance 0.1 ohm?

    Here is what I found from the spec they claimed:
     
  6. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    You are correct. I was looking at the ADI-2, not the ADI-2 DAC.

    Welp, all I can say then is that Marv didn't like it: Too boring.

    Who knows, maybe I will like it. Maybe I won't. To be honest I give one shit. But not two. $999 is currently outside my budget anyway.

    Carry on guys. Don't mind me.

    EDIT: Actually, based at least on what I'm seeing in paper and based on some of you guyses impressions, I might like this device. It is just outside my price range right now. If this was a measurement grade DAC/ADC maybe. But even then it still pricey. I would not f**k around and have gotten an AP or a dScope long time ago if I felt different, and use those not just for measurements but for listening as well if I could.
     
    Last edited: Mar 2, 2018
  7. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    @atomicbob Would ADI-2 DAC benefit from a LPS? Specs say 24W 2A max power consumption 18W.
     
  8. atomicbob

    atomicbob dScope Yoda

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    Maybe. I don't know. Haven't tried it yet. RME engineers are quite good with internal power management, including power and ground plane noise.
     
  9. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    I noticed some very faint power noise through the IEM output with Andromeda. I originally thought it was silent but it's there. That's why I was wondering if the LPS might lower that a touch.
     
  10. mitochondrium

    mitochondrium Friend

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    @cskippy that is what I have done and might already be paranoia. There is a video on the net where Benchmark explain why they went from a transformer based PSU to a switcher. On the other hand if you have a LPS at your disposal why not try it?
     
  11. uelover

    uelover New

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    My ADI-2 Pro benefitted from LPS, and I don’t see why the DAC version wouldn’t.
     
  12. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    It's funny that the very first thing the power coming off that external LPS will encounter is the RME unit's internal SMPS. That's followed by two tiers of progressively more sophisticated and closely regulated linear stages. The first is a general (high quality) linear regulator, and then there are even higher-precision regulators downstream off that for various different elements of the internal unit's power.

    So in such a case you'd be going

    LPS (External) -> SMPS (Internal) -> "LPS" (internal regulators) -> [multiple] "LPS" (LDO - Internal))​
     
  13. Colgin

    Colgin Friend

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    Looks like new units won't be available in the U.S. until end of month or early April. A few sites still say "Pre-Order" or "more on the way", but Guitar Center is showing a ship date of April 7 with another online store showing 3/31.
     
  14. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    It's this sort of thing that has stopped me doing any kind of pre-order for new and popular gear. I *always* get screwed (didn't here, since I've already learned the lesson). And this was entirely predictable in this case due to the major differences in when various resellers were claiming to be getting their next units.

    Some claimed 2/28, another 3/7, and a couple more the 2nd week of April. On the 27th that first vendor removed any estimates and just says "Pre-Order Only". The second one changed to 3/16 (and that's sourcing from Europe, though will probably be right, even though you'd wait an additional week for delivery AND pay more in the process). April was probably the right date after-all.

    I bet they're closer with this estimate than, say, Moon will ever be with estimates for any new Chord product ...
     
  15. Colgin

    Colgin Friend

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    I am smart enough not to pre-order in these situations. However, I am getting inpatient and considering alternatives. Looking into all other options until the ADI-2-DAC becomes available.
     
  16. mitochondrium

    mitochondrium Friend

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    Well I think RME did a very good marketing job there first of all the PRO which still is more of a pro tool but which already crosses the border to some extent spec wise (no built in micro preamp) and asthetic wise (compare ADI-2 with ADI). Then waiting how the sales evolve and what the feedback is and once they heard ‘this is nice but maybe a tad too voluptous’ out comes the slender DAC version which definitely albeit having pro genes is a consumer orientated product. Given the fact that in my opinion they offer excellent value for money good on them. I do not need a housing milled from an aluminium block in order to like a piece of gear.

    Seems like both the DAC and the PRO version are out of stock they can’t churn them out fast enough
     
  17. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    Hopefully it didn't come across that I was implying that you shouldn't have pre-ordered (even though you didn't). It was more a lament on this becoming a more prevalent thing ... promised dates and missed (often badly) deliveries.

    I'm in a similar boat on needing a compact, preferably balanced output, DAC - and the most interesting options have either gotten silly with delays, availability, pricing, features or all four.
     
  18. daka242

    daka242 New

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    Dunno if its a good marketing but the DAC was announced december 2017 and 3 months later its still missing on the market. I can's see how this is helping em. According to their forum they started shipping last week but honestly i don't believe it. Too bad am in the preorder boat ...
     
  19. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    Oh, they've shipped quite a few. I know people that have them (e.g. @Luckbad has one here), and that got them from state-side dealers. I expect demand just outstripped RME's expectations. And then impatient types (like me) said "sod it" and bought the Pro versions instead, putting that one in short-supply as well.

    My issue is more with dealers making overly optimistic claims about when they'll have stock while happily taking pre-orders*. The product exists and is shipping. Unlike, say the iFi Pro iDSD which is, what, more than four YEARS since it was announced (I think it was CES 2014 was the first I heard of this thing) - they were still f'ing around with the spec as recently as a month ago - and you still can't buy one (hell, pre-orders are more than month out even).

    --

    *Saying you're going to have stock on a specific date, and only updating your site to reflect that you're not getting that stock the day before/day off suggests shenanigans to me. That, or not paying attention to your suppliers/incoming shipments. Though some manufacturers are typically chronically late anyway.
     
  20. Zed Bopp

    Zed Bopp Friend

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    Not trying to make this an HF-thread with loads of useless noise, but my unit dispatched from Thomann Germany earlier today.

    I still have my Lyr 2 and I'm going to compare the hp amps head-to-head. Should be pretty easy.
     

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