RME ADI-2 Pro Discussion Thread

I should add, or clarify ... when I said that dynamics were "fucked" at anything other than 0 dB, I didn't mean that they were bad per-se, just that that's when I found issues there. Though micro-dynamics do take a disproportionately bigger hit in that case.

My choice of wording could have been more precise - I shall blame the medication there, on account of my being sick.

 

ADI-2 Pro vs Gungnir Multibit V1 + Eitr - TAKE 2
My thanks to @geniekid and @Torq for enlightening me as to the RME’s behaviour in regards to digital volume control and reference levels. I wouldn’t have been able to give it a fair shake otherwise, even had I used the defaults. My first go at this can be seen on the previous page. Suffice it to say the way it was set severely effected dynamics, micro-dynamics, and to a slightly lesser degree resolution.

Setup
Focal Utopia with circular open cell foam over each driver
ADI-2 Pro: 0dbr Volume, Auto Ref On (+24dbu), Slow Filter, USB input
Eitr -> Neutrik Coax to AES -> DEQ2496 -> Neutrik AES to Coax -> Gungnir Multibit
All DSP disabled

Impressions
I settled on the Slow filter as @gepardcv did. I found the SD Sharp, SD Slow, and Sharp varying levels of artificial and fatiguing. I wouldn’t have spent much time with it if those were the only options. The NOS filter blunted the treble too much for me. All my comments on these two DACs will be in relation to each other.

Though it is a notch or two clearer and a bit faster than the Gungnir Multibit, and either on par with or not far off in some respects, it lacks many of the sorts of qualities that first impressed me about the Modi Multibit, having come from affordable ESS and AKM based DACs like the Geek Out and D1. It’s overall dynamics are a bit constrained and it’s presentation less engaging, comparatively thinner, and a little more ethereal. Lacking the tactility and vibrancy of the Gungnir Multibit. The Schiit DAC has a warmer fuller sound with greater slam, smoother sweeter treble, and more involving and nuanced instruments and vocals due to better resolution and in particular the micro-dynamics being a number of steps ahead. In terms of staging the RME’s feels shrunken next to the Gungnir Multibit’s impressive spaciousness.

The result is that the Gungnir Multibit gets a stronger emotional response from me. I enjoy music more, I am more engrossed in each song, and I move my head to the beat more. My attention is maintained and I notice background subtleties more so. Even though they can be just as present on the RME. Because on the latter they feel less real and have less room to breathe stage wise, and therefore fail to capture my attention.

As a DAC alone the Gungnir Multibit is the better option, unless clarity is your primary goal. I wonder now if my experience here is reflective of delta-sigma vs multibit/R-2R in general?

SE vs BAL Headphone Output
The reason I made any comparison here was for those that are choosing between the DAC and Pro as an AIO. Having reset the device anew, settled on the Slow filter, and taken more care with it’s settings I do not hear the SE HP out as weak and washed out as I did originally. I still found the BAL to be warmer and possessing increased slam over SE but I also heard it as thicker and actually less clear than the SE. Aside from bass impact it was worse. These characteristics seemed to carry over between lo and hi power, but if the HP volume is also controlled by digital attenuation it may explain why BAL was worse with the Utopia as it required that I turn the volume down significantly due to the increased power output. I do not have a proper adapter which slowed swapping considerably, so it was difficult to be absolutely certain if I was hearing any difference in dynamics at all. The manual implies that there is no analogue volume control anywhere in the system.

 

A small follow up before I box it up
My goal being to downsize meant that after assessing the merits of the ADI-2 Pro I had to decide upon whether I could live with it or not. I was reluctantly leaning toward a no due to the less natural presentation. But what put it over the edge was that I just found it so fatiguing. These aspects seemed to be even more problematic with the LCD-2C, which also indicated that I would end up with a less versatile system in terms of synergy.

On the AIO side of things I am certain now that the BAL output was worsening resolution and micro-dynamics over the SE. I would recommend those looking for an AIO skip the higher priced Pro and go for the DAC, assuming the SE output on that sounds the same. Unless of course they have something so insensitive that they can use the BAL without having to reduce the volume so severely, though this assumes that digital attenuation is the cause of these differences. Unfortunately I have no way to test for this without making my ears bleed.

 

There's a new firmware update that's been out for a little over a week now: https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=27467. Looks like mainly bug fixes and menu navigation changes.

 

Just a quick update.

I'm very happy with this AIO solution still. My listening is 90% Genelec 8020 monitors + 7040 subwoofer / and 10% HD650.
With headphones I always use @atomicbob IVS ( Settings here, and more info here ), and balanced + polarity reverse pigtail.
Genelecs have been positioned following mic measurement.

I don't see any need to change anything for a foreseeable future.
Without the IVS the ADI-2 pro is very detailed and can be perceived as borderline cold - but I feel that with the software 'tricks' added I'm left with a very competent AIO solution with a very small footprint.

The USB input works well, although I'm using a Lynx AES16 card. Could probably sell the card and the breakout cable and not hear much of a difference...

Happy days!

 

Since my tinnitus has worsened significantly, I have come to appreciate the PEQ of the PRO. I use brutefir with filters for “room correction” but I lack the skill to incorporate a small band filter into that. I use the PEQ of the PRO to set a -12 dB small band filter right at the frequency where my tinnitus is. This allows me to listen to music at moderate levels without taking the risk to worsen the darn tinnitus. At first I did not store the filter setting. After I had powered off the PRO and turned it on again, I had the feeling that my tinnitus got worse, I checked and found that power cycling erased the filter setting. Now I have it stored and the filter is loaded automatically when the device is powered on. Very handy. My use case is DA and ADC. Listening with speakers only.

 

Ever since I use a balanced headphone something wasn't just right in the audio chain. In case of the cable scheme I used RME's layout from the manual V 2.2 on page 38: https://www.rme-audio.de/download/adi2profs_e.pdf

I've been running some tests by listening to music, to celebrate my newly soldered balanced cables. It turned out for two balanced headphones, that the phase is inverted on both channels, when "Bal Phones Mode" is on. Additionaly tests with sample based noise impulses had shown that this suggestion was right.
It is possible to reconstruct the inverted phase polarity with a positive single sample impulse, by putting a headphone's loudspeaker closely to a microphone and mute the other headphone speaker. The recorded signal will become phase inverted. As soon as the "phase invert" switch on the ADI-2 Pro FS device was turned on, the sample based signal was positive (+). This procedure prooves a phase inversion somewhere in the chain.

I tripple checked the soldering scheme from RME, and also the 4-Pin layout of my headphone manufacturer and I can say either is true:
The soldering scheme for the +/- 1/4 TRS is inverted or the device has a DSP based phase invertion.

 

If you need a quick and ugly 2.5 mm balanced IEM adapter
Wiring from left to right with the screws facing up, like on the picture::
1. Left ring
2. Left tip
3 Right tip
4 Right ring

By the way this little green thingy is pretty good quality, gold plated, and robust

 

For those interested, at the moment the PRO still has AKM DAC chips, the guy who has the the non professional customer distribution in Germany said that very likely the PRO will be switched to ESS chips some time around beginning of next year. So for those interested and preferring AKM buy now, for those interested an preferring ESS wait

 

Hello!! I have the ADI-2 Pro and I cannot connect an external headphone amplifier through the rear XLR output, I have tried to follow the manual and I must be very silly but I cannot get the sound ajaja
Could someone please tell me how to configure it to do this step by step in the menus. I would appreciate it eternally