AD Converter (ADI2DAC)

I auditioned several DAC players in audio shops and spent almost a month reviewing the recommendations on the internet. I have a high end stereo system in the $40,000 range and wanted to find a DAC that could reproduce my library of LP's and CD's. The RME AD12DAC is the closet to anything that I have heard for any unit over $6000. And it will hold it's own against units that cost $10,000 or more. This unit cost app. $1000 and is worth every penny. The reviews say it's the best DAC on the market, but they scare the average buyer talking about the intricacies and complicated set up. There is nothing complicated to set it up. You have an input from a music source, laptop, I-pad, etc. (It does not support Blue Tooth.) For high end audio, a wired connection is the best source. Connect it to your receiver, I use a USB cord and turn it on. That's it, unless you want to adjust for EQ, etc. I found it to be perfect without any further adjustments with the default settings. It's German made, small in size, headphone outlets, remote control, etc. There are "bells and whistles" but they are superfluous. Music reproduction is all that counts. I tried and subscribed to three streaming services, as my musical taste is very extensive -( I own more than 1500 CD's and LP's.) The Amazon Hi-FI plan for Prime members is a terrific deal and the musical library has almost everything I could want. I play classical guitar and have a very wide range of music tastes. The RME AD12DAC and Amazon Music ULTRA Hi-FI package do all I ask.

I am loving this DAC. After a month I am just scratching the surface learning all the DSP settings. Sounds excellent using XLR to my fully balanced, differential integrated. I wasn't even looking for a headphone amp, but this one is outstanding. Drives HD6xxs better than any other amp I own. I guess I've got to get some IEMs now to try the dedicated jack. With USB digital out I could see myself using this for a long time, even as just DSP into a different DAC. Edit: 6 months later. Still absolutely loving this. No issues whatsoever. Added a single ended tube amp that only uses RCA, and XLRs to the ss, so they're both hooked up all the time and I just swap the speaker wire(hmmm...maybe I'll try my baby Klipsch above the big ones and run both amps) Added an Allo DigiOne Signature and that's where my only complaint arises, $1100 and no BNC? isn't that how the pros do it? I'm converting a 75 Ohm right at the fitting. Both USB and coax inputs are great, but getting off the PC>USB was a huge improvement. I do think about R2R, maybe I'll build an Audio Note kit, but it'll be hard to give up the features of the ADI2

I hate to say this because it never ends up being true, but this is my end-game DAC. I won't go into a ton of technical details / comparisons here since there are better forums for that, but this is a definite upgrade from the Schitt Jotunheim (non-multibit) that was my previous daily driver. I bought this because I was looking for a DAC/AMP that would last me for a very long time. The RME stood out because of the company's history, background, and reputation in the industry. I decided to pull the trigger and am glad that I did. The RME ADI2DAC produces impressively clear details, a flat but "fun" sound profile, a very cool front display, hardware EQ adjustments for extreme customization, multiple inputs and outputs, and very nice and practical remote control. The balanced XLR outputs mean this device can be connected to a wide variety of devices such as headphone amps, speaker amps, etc. For the prosumers out there, this thing will definitely meet a lot of demands and for the individual who appreciates great quality music (and audio in general), this won't disappoint.

Excellent balanced product. Fairly complex menu system but once you get it dialed it it is a pleasure to use.

If you look up reviews for this DAC you’ll see that most agree that it’s one of the best in 2019 under $2k, period. Unlike other DACs in this price range the features and customization available are amazing. If you don’t want to buy a Hugo/Mytek and are looking for a step up from Massdrop/Geshelli/JDS/Schiit/etc. look no further. The 1/4” and 1/8” outputs are powerful enough to drive most headphones/IEMs so an amp is unnecessary. The RME ADI-2 DAC of the best purchases I’ve ever made for audio.

Why not just move to USB C or thunderbolt for power and data transfer? I can power it through my laptop and/or pc output and I could do much more with it but too many cables and the adapter is killing the looks of all. I like the sound but man get it together and I will buy the next gen.

You cannot feed the RME ADI-2 DAC bad quality sounds or it'll produce bad quality sounds. It's not one of these devices that auto-corregates an unmastered sound. It has to be tweaked with VSTfx plugins (not VSTi - which are not the virtual sound effect plugins but the virtual instrument plugins) and/or you may tweak it using the EQ built into the unit. Personally, I leave it at a flat response of 0.0 B, 0.0 T (bass and treble respectively)...which is what mastering should be done at anyway and at the mix stage beforehand. Due to its low-noise properites, I run a 1/8" to 1/4"-Y unbalanced stereo cables from the IEM port of this DAC into my RME Babyface Pro, which runs back into the digital domain on the same computer, and the sound is good - no clock jitters - everything runs on the internal clock of the computer's CPU. Remember if using USB with the DAC to make sure the USB port that you plug in into is grounded, or else you'll get a nasty ground loop noise that would have to be rectified with USB ground noise cancellor --or-- else it'll be recorded into your final masters - no plugin would remove that noise without compromising some quality of the final mastered sound.

I have been through a year long odyssey of comparing different DACs and related components. This DAC has great sound, but for me the feature set was most important. I found and brought back to life an old pair of B&W speakers (803 matrix series 2). They were built to be used with a 'bass alignment filter', essentially an equalizer that cuts off bass below 24 Hz and adds a relatively wide 3 dB bump right above that. The speaker cabinets were designed to resonate with that in places. Other equipment could add peaks with different Q and gain but the RME had several different types of cut offs and other filters that enabled me to duplicate this old bass alignment filter. I am just throwing out an example of the surprising things I discovered this could do. For my old ears, also amazing are the separate equalizers for the left and right channel (tailor to each ear or do DSP in your room). Love this thing - the headphone amp is quite good, but might not be to everyones taste - analytical and exact. Even if you buy a different headphone amp, this is a great piece of equipment.

Excellent DAC, pour le moment je l’utilise en combinaison avec un hd800s et il arrive à les driver avec une grande aisance malgré l’impédance de ce casque. Je ne ressens donc pas le besoin d’un ampli pour le moment. Les détails sont justes incroyables, l’equalizer sera un plus si vous souhaitez personnaliser votre écoute.

Habe den DAC jetzt 2 Tage in Betrieb. Als Zuspielgerät dient ein Raspberry PI3 mit Volumio, der mittels USB verbunden ist. Die Einrichtung klappt automatisch. Man muss im Menü von Volumio nur den DAC auswählen und fertig Der ADI-2 füttert über XLR eine Hypex ClassD Endstufe, die wiederum ein paar Focal Electra 1038BE befeuert. Vorher hatte ich einen Yamaha WXC-50 als Vorstufe. Mir ist vorgekommen als wenn der Yamaha die hälfte der Töne verschwinden lässt. Am Kopfhörerausgang hatte ich einen Beyerdynamic Tesla 1 drann. Zum Vergleich ein Röhren KHV im gleichen Preissegment. Da kennt man erst die Güte des Gesamtkonzeptes, da ein Kopfhörer wesentlich mehr auflöst. Die klangliche souveränit, die der DAC hier präsentiert ist einfach genial. Da sind Welten dazwischen. Ich denke der alte KHV hat bald ausgedient. Die Bedienung ist sehr intuitiv. Die einstellbaren Funktionen sind einfach genial. Man muss sich schon etwas beschäftigen damit man den ganzen Funktionsumfang des DACs nutzen kann. Fernbedienung liegt gut in der Hand, da kann man nicht meckern. Die Bedieungsanleitung gibts in Papierform dazu. Es ist eine Freude die BDA zu lesen. RME hat sich bei der Dokumentation sehr viel Mühe gegeben.Da können sich viele Hersteller eine Scheibe abschneiden. Mechanische Verarbeitung und Anfassqualität ist auch sehr gut. Man darf hald keine 2cm dicke Alufront erwarten. Das ist ein Gerät aus der Studiotechnik. Das hat einfach zu funktionieren. Da braucht es keine kaschierung mit einen dicken Gehäuse um den verbauten audiophilen Elektronikmüll zu verstecken. Lieferzeit war 2 Tage nach Österreich. Da kann man auch nicht meckern. Den RME ADI-2 DAC kann ich uneingeschränkt weiterempfehlen. Würde ich jederzeit wieder kaufen.

Acquistato dopo averne letto tantissime recensioni positive non posso non elogiare la qualità costruttiva e sonica. Devo dire che è abbastanza complicato da settare ma ne vale la pena. Il mio impianto ha come sorgente un Macbook Air , ampli integrato Exposure XV alternato a Valvolare Audioromy,diffusori Rogers ls3/5a alternate alle ATC SCM7 .

Compré este dac por sus buenas críticas y realmente es un buen dac, pero mis comentarios son referentes al vendedor, el cuál me envió un producto de segunda mano, que yo no en principio no supe, me explico, el dac me llegó en su caja original y aparentemente nuevo, solo después de probarlo y tener problemas con el conector de auriculares es cuando me pongo a investigar y veo que en el unboxing del producto en Youtube, la caja trae un plástico exterior el cual el mio no traía. El producto a sido devuelto al vendedor en Alemania y estoy a la espera del reembolso.

Prima di procedere alla prova di questo DAC avevo letto varie recensioni in alcuni forum; in molti lo elogiavano, elencando gli ottimi risultati nei vari test. Dopo averlo ascoltato e provato a fondo mi rendo conto che una cosa sono i risultati tecnici e tutt'altra cosa è la musicalità. Questo DAC teoricamente fa tanto, infatti viene venduto con un manuale di 70 pagine che spiega, fra le molte cose, come impostare i vari parametri e filtri. Ho provato a smanettare con le varie impostazioni per vedere se riuscivo a migliorare la qualità del suono, ma nonostante le varie prove, la qualità del suono, dal mio punto di vista, non è nulla di speciale. Per arrivare alla mia conclusione ho provato questo DAC in varie situazioni: ascolto in cuffia(da cuffie di fascia medie a due di fascia alta), implementato nel mio impianto e in un impianto bilanciato di altissimo livello di un amico; come fonte ho usato un lettore cd, un network streamer e un lettore portatile; inoltre l'ho paragonato con altri DAC, da uno più economico(Matrix mini) ad altri di fascia superiore(della Lumin e Matrix); in ogni prova che ho fatto la musicalità non era piacevole come quella di un DAC come il Matrix mini che costa meno e, chiaramente, per nulla paragonabile ad un DAC di fascia alta. Inoltre la presa posteriore per l'alimentatore non è granché, infatti capita che non si inserisce bene il jack e il DAC non si accende. Concludendo penso che piuttosto che badare ai dati tecnici di quello che questo DAC è in grado di fare sia meglio trovare un DAC la cui qualità del suono vi soddisfi e penso che anche scelte più economiche siano musicalmente più soddisfacenti di questo. Chiaramente il mio punto di vista è relegato anche al prezzo non certo economico di questo DAC, se fosse venduto a massimo 600 euro potrebbe essere un acquisto interessante, ma a 1000 euro è meglio spenderli altrove e con DAC più performante anche a costo di spendere di più.