RME ADI-2 DAC

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

  1. Sylafari

    Sylafari Acquaintance

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    Just received mines today, plugged in Campfire Andromeda, ZERO hiss. Just figured someone wanted to know. :)
     
  2. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    And the next question...how does it sound? Do you have ZX2 or another reference?
     
  3. Sylafari

    Sylafari Acquaintance

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    Unfortunately I don't have another reference to compare it to except plugging it into the Apple adapter when I use it with my iPhone X, Galaxy S8+, or Macbook Pro. And I haven't listened to it much on those sources except for on the iPhone X Lightning adapter where it emits a constant hiss that doesn't really manifest itself when listening to music.

    Was thinking about getting the ZX2 but I bought this RME instead.
     
  4. gepardcv

    gepardcv Almost "Made"

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    Has anyone tried using the ADI-2 DAC with an iPhone or iPad through a Lightning-to-USB adapter? Does it work or does it make the source complain about the device drawing too much power (and thus necessitating a powered hub, a Wyrd, an Eitr, or similar)?
     
  5. jowls

    jowls Never shitposts (please) - Friend

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    ADI-2 Pro works with iPhone and iPad via CCK. Unfortunately it tends to reveal how shit the sound quality of Apple Music is though...
     
  6. HAL9000

    HAL9000 Almost "Made"

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    I just read about how @cskippy used RME's Magic Box to completely transform the LCD2Cs. Great stuff! I've been involved in DSP for 40 years and it seems to me that, thanks to Moore's Law, we are now at the inflection point for heavyweight DSP becoming sonically invisible. IMHO it will completely transform personal audio.
     
  7. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    Lol, no I don't have the ADI-2 DAC...yet. I just used REQ Wizard's EQ and my target curve. However, that is an excellent idea. I could measure headphones and create EQ profiles that could be used with the ADI-2 DAC or Pro.

    And I almost always try and stay away from EQ since my main rig doesn't have that option for all sources.
     
  8. Azimuth

    Azimuth FKA rtaylor76, Friend

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    I know plenty of pros that use toslink. It is all about maximum amount of I/O and toslink is cheap. Mainly found in project and demo studios as well as home studios. Nothing like adding 8 more channels of I/O or 4 more channels in 24/96 (using S/MUX). A demo/project studio I know uses three 8 AD/DA boxes that use ADAT and plug that into a computer with an RME ADAT card for 24 channel I/O, and then clock the whole thing off of word clock using an Apogee Big Ben. Without the clock sounds like mush.
     
  9. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    Some like it angular and cold.
     
  10. Collusion

    Collusion Friend

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    ^ I've never understood why people consider the toslink as an inferior interface... I've tried many dacs and more often than not, if the unit has both usb and toslink, I find the toslink to sound more natural. Sorry for the OT.

    Any new owners willing to share impressions? I am seriously considering of buying one, but it seems they are out of stock everywhere in Europe.
     
  11. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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    Because of its higher intrinsic jitter that - if not taken care of by careful re-clocking - outweighs the benefits of galvanic isolation.

    Cheap DACs don't have proper signal re-clocking, letting the DAC cheap handle the jitter (usually poorly, despite the marketing fluff) or resort to asynchronous resampling chips to isolate both clock domains.

    Pro devices like the ADI - which feature DSP processors to realize the "pro" features (EQ and whatnot) - can implement efficient signal conditioning in their DSP.
     
  12. mitochondrium

    mitochondrium Friend

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    Thomann in Europe say it won't be available before the 16th of March, so it has been introduced to the Amerrican market first
     
  13. Luckbad

    Luckbad Traded in a unicorn for a Corolla

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  14. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    An invisible force (aka curiosity) was suddenly making me visit this thread, go through whole discussions, and end up with ordering adi2 dac for myself. Oh well.. :eek:
     
  15. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    Where at? I can't find one available?
     
  16. Luckbad

    Luckbad Traded in a unicorn for a Corolla

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    I bought mine from ZenPro Audio. I see it listed at Full Compass now as well but it says "Special Order" so I'm not sure how long theirs take to ship.

    Given my notorious impatience, I called ZenPro up and placed an order with overnight shipping and got it the day after I ordered (it was a weekday).
     
  17. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    ZenPro now shows preorder and available March 15th. :( And Full Compass is 7-14 business days...

    I'll probably call ZenPro on Monday and see what's up.
     
  18. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    Oh, I ordered yesterday at zenpro, and it will be delivered tomorrow.

    Never thought one-day-difference can be this big..
     
  19. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Anyone know what sort of amp topology this uses? I'm sure it's opamps but still curious what they use.
     
  20. Hrodulf

    Hrodulf Prohibited from acting as an MOT until year 2050

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    3x opa1688 per channel for the regular output and less for the IEM jack.
     

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