RME ADI-2 Pro Discussion Thread

oh my gosh!!!



just paste some of the main points here...will ya
I haven't waited for any review longer than yours....
70 shmevendy...

just post one line a day and keep editing the same post. I will read the post one day at a time.

Honestly though, I can't think of another product I want next any how but this one.

 

Blargh, copied a wall of text over to head-fi. There's too much purple prose there for this place.

I haven't even gotten to the Yggdrasil comparison part yet, but the meat of the Prism vs RME stuff should be there.

 

I like to just dash in, read, and dash out, of that place. Could you post the link, so I don't have to look at anything else there?

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/rev...drasil-forssell-mdac-2a.867575/#post-13916102

His TLDR summary

• Prism Lyra1: musical and sweet, the most engaging, a bit too soft
• Prism Callia: more muscle in the amp and more presence than Lyra, kinda pushy upper mids
• RME ADI-2 Pro: super technical performance, amazing DSP options, somewhat dry
• Forssell M-DAC2a: midrange warmth, superb staging, lacks extension
• Schiit Yggdrasil: great cohesion, great overall resolution, yet at the same time a slight haze

They all seem to have positives & negatives, but I'd like to know which he preferred the most overall in the end.

 

I still have the Lyra1, but I'm biased because I use the mic preamp.

I've mentioned somewhere earlier in this thread that the Prism gets me with this immediacy and air which is relaxing up front, but a bit too loose on longer sessions. The RME for me is a bit cold at initial listen, but settles into proper neutrality later on. However, my listening habits these days are extremely transient and I barely get more than a few songs in before I have to run off to do something else. That's a big reason why the Prism suits my current listening habits.

 

Oh great, thanks! As I'm just drooling, your nice tl;dr is probably all I need. I drooled over Prism stuff some time back. And then Lynx Hylo. RME has the brand advantage for me in that, after throwing out two or three cheap (waste of money added up, though!) my first good sound from a computer came via an RME card.

Of course, I can no longer say, "They are a pro-audio company, not interested in home hifi," but hey, would I say no the new no-ADC box? Heck no...

 

I guess I really want to know if the RME has close to as much plankton and clarity as the yggdrasil.

 

Here is a teaser from some of the measurement data in my queue.

ADI-2 Pro Bal 1KHz THD THD+N spectrum - ASIO -30 dBFS - HpW

 

That noise floor is so deep you can see coelacanth!

 

All the better for syphoning up them planktons

 

That's some resistor noise dominated shit right there.

 

Has anyone tried Audeze cans out of this unit? Debating the LCD 2C hype train and it seems like a good match (resolving, clean power).

 

The noise floor of the new ADI DAC's IEM out is about another 10 dB lower btw...

 

Good luck hearing the noise even on the regular outputs.

 

I actually find the noise of the Pro's headphone out a bit annoying when using super sensitive IEMs like the Andromeda. The Pro's noise level is at about -108 dBu, which unarguably is a very low value. Nevertheless the noise can be heard with very sensitive IEMs - I had a vivid discussion with RME about that. Hence I did some experiments and found out that I need a noise level of about -118 dBu (unweighted WN) to call it silent when paired with the Andromeda. I communicated that with RME, so they were incited to create an output that is silent with the Andromeda. They obviously came up with the new ADI DAC, that even slightly surpasses my value.

I don't know if any devices surpasses this value, but I think it's safe to say that this is one of the world's most quiet outputs.

 

that's nice but its probably still not a good pairing with andromedas given that the output impedance is not between 1.5-2.5.

 

Can easily be fixed with some diy though

 

void warranty Lol.....just love the hype that it was specifically enhanced for the andromeda for noise floor,but they didnt even take the output impedance curve into account....not saying its a bad product, Probably awesome for other iems, but don't try to sell it like bartsky on a pairing that is not ideal.

 

I am just talking about a simple adapter with two resistors in it, no need to void any warranty