RME ADI-2 Pro Discussion Thread

Hmm, has anyone else tried the loudness setting? Either that one doesn't work for me or I'm missing something. (it turns on, but there's no difference in sound)

Nevermind, I'm an idiot. I dunno why but it's working now.

 

Have you defined the upper/lower limits and amount of equalisation?

 

Fin-uh-ley!

 

Bastard.

 

Yes and yes.

The point is moot. Maybe I was a space cadet earlier, maybe it was gremlins, but it seems to be working fine now

 

What confused me first is that you don't set the value of the threshold but instead of the max setting. Intuitively, I would like to listen to music and set the volume to where I DON'T need the loudness boost. Set that volume for anything below to activate loudness. But the way it works is that you set the point of where you want MAX loudness.

So the way I do it is I listen normally to where I feel comfortable and don't find bass/treble lacking. Then set loudness to -20 dB of what I currently have.

 

I have no idea what I was doing wrong earlier. I'm quite sure I wasn't on the wrong page/settings... but who knows. I most of my listening is quite late in the night and maybe I was in zombie mode.

That said, the loudness function is really quite interesting. I appreciate that the magnitude of it varies with your volume, which makes the transition super smooth and you don't even realize it's on.

For those who don't know what we're talking about, the loudness setting is not a simple on/off. When you're at normal volumes (and you set what your "normal" parameter is), even with loudness on there won't be any difference. It's only when you decrease volume that the bass and treble *gradually* increase.

 

Ah, so it's an equal loudness contour. I am used to thinking of LUFS. Neat!

 

Wow. Not quite like the loudness button on my old portable cassette player, then?

 

Are you still daisy chaining the optical or feeding them both separately from the same source?

 

With all the enthusiasm, I decided to read the manual. Bad move... now I have an itchy trigger finger!

 

Switched over to my Peachtree X1 to output optical to the RME and coax to the Callia. I also added my Genelec monitors to the setup. Still using pink noise. I've noted the following:
- I think the Callia might have been clipping or distorting at maximum volume with pink noise; so I turned it down a few notches and level matched again and now it's not a big difference
- BUT there's still a tiny difference when outputting to my Bryston to feed my HE-6
- thinking maybe it was the output stages into my amp (single ended from both), I listen directly from the headphone amps, but nope there's still that same tiny discrepancy; not as obvious as before, but it's like a tiny tonal shift
- it's super difficult to tell on the monitors and I might be placebo-ing myself into hearing it
- I do not hear any difference when using single tones or dual tones or with music or spoken word

 

Not at all. It's a super slick implementation, and so smooth you don't even notice it. The incrementation (is that a real word?) happens over a 20dB range.

 

Might be that the pink noise is taxing the output stage too much. In any case that's something I wouldn't like to see in a 2 kilobuck unit.

 

Wondering if you found an ideal setting with an external amp.
I'm using the same settings/outputs going into my integrated amp, and occasionally hear some subtle clipping.
According to the manual, these are the recommended settings.

 

What he was getting most likely was digital clipping due to additive EQ. To compensate he needed either to turn the volume down or engage extra analog gain.

Is it amp input clipping or the ADI-2 Pro level meters are going into red?

 

Thanks for the reply.
I'm pretty sure it was the amp inputs clipping, the ADI-2 looked okay. It only happened a couple of times and was pretty subtle, but obviously not ideal.

I tried the Auto Reference setting, and interestingly it changed the setting to +13dB, then reduced the main output to -6dB.
So far so good, but I'll see how it goes.

 

Great, thanks.
Yes the Auto Ref seems to have done the trick.
I remembered there was a track that made it clip, listened again and it was fine. Very happy.