I’m now part of the RME club. I’ll be doing some reading tonight with the manual and then setting up tomorrow. I’m going in with no expectations of sound really, but the feature set is exciting in itself!
14 Likes
Did RME at any point change the bass? I’ve been using ADI-2 DAC FS since July 2019, and I did a flash update for the first time 1-2 weeks ago (I did only driver updates before that), and I feel like the bass hasn’t been the same. Before, it felt like it primarily boosted the mid-bass and sloped off into the sub-bass, but now it feels like it’s just mid-bass with a very narrow Q.
Welcome. I recently became apart of the RME club as well, and the feature set alone is amazing. A good DAC and good amp section? Makes it worth the asking price.
1 Like
That’s what I’m hoping for the price it is. I’m ready to dip my toes in the water of eq, loudness features, channel tuning…you name it.
I’m going to pair it with my Jotunheim 2 for balanced and just to compare in general.
I’ll admit though, the RME makes me want to try more iems now!
2 Likes
No hiss is an amazing (not talked about enough) feature of the RME.
4 Likes
I have had every version of the RME ADI-2 DAC line (V1, V2 AKM, V2 ESS, Pro, Pro FS R). I have been through many firmare updates, never once did any of them change the sound. They have added tons of (free) great features and tweaks with those updates though.
1 Like
It’s possible a setting might’ve been enabled when you updated it. I’d check if all my settings are straight.
1 Like
First off, I’ve got it all set up!
I have a quick question and I am sure more are to follow, but not till after I read this manual a few more times. My god, I’m getting an education just from reading it which is incredible. Anyway, my question is:
I believe I saw someone on here also used this with the Jotunheim 2? I feel that it’s best to keep my Audio Ref Level to +1. When I had it to -5 I had to crank the volume pot of the Jot2 more so then I ever did with my Modius. So just an observation there. Makes sense I suppose. I know this is more of a preference thing, but anyone else experience this?
2 Likes
Oh sorry, 1 more question. I read on some other forums that it is really not recommended to use the RME drivers and instead allow windows to use its own. I am fine with that. However, it seems you have to install the drivers in order to do firmware updates correct?
1 Like
You got too used to iFi 
2 Likes
Sadly, this is true, and I’m happy to expand my horizons.
3 Likes
Hello all.
My first post so please be gentle. Just purchased the ADI-2 and am looking for advice on EQ for my Audeze LCD-2 fazor. Having never used EQ on my headphones before I’m looking to set up an advised EQ and want to know if it is usable as is or indeed suitable at all.
Low Shelf at 100hz, +1.5dB Q of 0.7
Peak at 1000hz, -3dB Q of 2
Peak at 3000hz, +2.5dB Q of 2
Peak at 4500hz, +4.5dB Q of 1.8
Peak at 6000hz, -6.5dB Q of 1.6
Peak at 9000hz, +4.5dB Q of 4
Does the Low shelf refer to B/T base setting? And do the remaining five lines refer to bands one to five?
Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.
3 Likes
Does “any help” include a non-ADI-2 owner? I think I’ve picked up enough about it over the years to hazard a reply until an actual owner can weigh in. So, my understanding says the answer is Yes to your first question, plus you shouldn’t have to do anything to achieve that setting from the defaults except increase what’s called the gain to 1.5.
And Yes, also for your second question.
The manual covers the EQ controls but if you’d like a YouTube visual presentation right from RME, see here: RME ADI-2 EQ tutorial. This doesn’t cover the first, B/T, step needed to dial in the low shelf, but hopefully you can sus that out – or search YouTube for the similar tutorial from RME that covers the entire interface for the ADI-2.
As background, the basic idea of what you’re doing here is boosting or reducing the loudness of the music you’re playing, not just over-all, not just crudely by making bass louder than treble or vice versa. Instead, you’re adjusting the loudness of the entire range of pitches from deepest bass to shrillest treble, but with that range divided up into up to seven user-specifiable segments of control, called bands in EQ-speak (the B/T control adding two bands to the five bands of the EQ control).
The first instruction says “Low Shelf”, but that’s just what the bass half of the ADI-2’s B/T control does when translated into EQ-speak. The “100hz” part and the Q of 0.7 part are just the default values for the bass control. So you can likely leave them alone. The +1.5 decibels part tells you that you want to up the bass by 1.5 units of loudness.
The second instruction starts with “Peak”. This is EQ-speak for introducing a loudness bump (loudness is called gain in EQ-speak) centered on a certain pitch (typically called frequency in EQ-speak) of 1000 hertz. The “-3dB” part says you should dial in a reduction of 3 decibels. And the “Q of 2” part says what’s called the Q, or Quality factor in EQ-speak, should be set to 2. What you’re doing here is specifying whether you’re creating a gentle bell curve of loudness gradually dropping off as you go both lower and higher in pitch from 1000 hertz … or whether you creating a narrow peak in loudness focused very tightly on 1000 hertz. As you experiment with the controls you see that the bigger the Q number the more of a spike/peak you’re creating from a positive gain value. And conversely bigger Q numbers create more of steep-sloped valley when the gain number is negative.
The next four instructions work the same way as the one we just covered but with different values for frequency, gain and Q.
Keep in mind that due to anatomical differences no two people are likely to find a given EQ recipe to produce the same effect on how correct the music sounds. This is increasingly an issue the farther you go above 1000 hertz. In addition, no two units of the same model headphone produce exactly the same loudness at any frequency. This is an issue especially both below 100 hertz and above 1000 hertz. So the upshot is to be prepared to adjust the loudness/gain amounts for any of the 6 adjustments in the recipe you’re working from.
Beyond that, both the 1000 hertz gain value and the 9000 hertz gain value look very suspicious to me. I’d first try leaving both those out, then listening to a range of music, then add them in, then listen again to see if they in fact help or hinder things for your hearing.
Well, actually, EQ has long been viewed as pure poison by a large portion of the audiophile brotherhood, grin. I suspect that ironically Audeze has served more than a little to corrode that perspective by introducing headphones with such amazing audio performance in every regard except tuning that purchasers seem often to have been driven to the extreme of secretly using EQ to achieve a blissful total experience. But such has been the increasing enlightenment of the modern age that in recent years some of these secret sinners have even dared to own up to their misdeed on public fora such as this.
6 Likes
DD that was an amazing reply and so helpful. My current phones, HD800 Beyer T1 are so different to the the Audeze and I was not to sure what to expect from them
Having read as much as I could find online re the Audeze-2 it became very apparent EQ was the way to go. After your comprehensive post I’m now ready to give it a go. Many thanks.
1 Like
You’re very welcome. If any questions arise when you get down to the brass tacks of actually doing the EQ (don’t forget to save and name it) don’t hesitate to post them in this thread.
BTW, it’s quite possible to use EQ to move the LCD-2 more in line with the tuning of either the HD 800 or the T1 (which generation T1?) if either of them happen to make music sound particularly good to you in regards to tuning. By this I mean making the bass more emphasized or less, the mid range (where vocals and most instruments live) more emphasized or less and/or the high frequencies more emphasized or less.
I’ve never heard any of your headphones, but based on measurements I’ve seen all that’s really “wrong” with the LCD-2 could be fixed with a few EQ filters in the range between 1000 hz and 7000 hz. Then, in addition, you could add more bass if that floats your boat. But between the bass and 1000 hz it looks beautiful, at least on paper.
1 Like
Has anyone here paired up the ADI2DACFS with the DCA Aeon2 Noires? I am going back through my collection and I was surprised on this one. To get a good listening level I am pumping the volume up on this set as much and sometimes slightly more then even my Atriums. It’s obvious that Planar’s are different in drivability to a DD, but still this was interesting. Of course this is with the SE since this dac/amp doesn’t have balanced.
For reference, I remember when I powered these on my Jotunheim2 it was a much different story. I am sure the volume pot on the Jot2 was somewhere around 12-1 at the most on SE. With balanced it was around 9-10. Granted the Jot2 has some serious power.
The good news is these sound fantastic out of the ADI2DAC and that is all that really matters.
4 Likes
Despite being unbalanced, the RME does have a lot of power output and can still support a lot of t hard to drive headphones.
3 Likes
I just got the RME. I am running the RME Dac into my Jot R for the Raal’s.
My question is: is it better to control the volume with the RME volume or the amp volume? Is there some crossover point where it shifts from being better on the DAC to the amp?
Also, Roon is downsampling from 96 to 44.1? Is that right?
Room shouldn’t downsample unless you set it to. I used to have the RME at a set volume and let the amp attenuate. The manual has recommendations on which volume and gain level to keep it on if I recall correctly. I do that with all my DACs and amps btw
Generally, you want to have the DAC set to apply no digital attenuation (i.e. its max output is at 0 dBFS) and control the volume from the amplifier. On the RME with the Jotunheim R, this means picking a fixed Reference Level (I would choose the lowest setting to begin with), and then setting the volume on the RME unit to 0.0 dB.
If you’re not able to get enough volume from the Jotunheim R in that configuration, turn the Reference Level up to the next setting, and try again.
The maximum Reference Level on the RME will generally push the input stage of consumer gear into clipping, which will sound harsh and terrible. This is why you start with the lowest value and work up. I can’t remember what Reference Level worked best with the Jotunheim R.
It shouldn’t be, unless you’ve asked it to or the DAC is setup to be fixed-rate.
My guess is that you’re running Windows, have installed the RME’s drivers and/or are running (or trying to run) in WASAPI Exclusive mode. And/or have your output set in Windows to 16/44.1. If so, the DAC won’t switch sample rates automatically and Roon will have to downsample to whatever the OS tells it the DAC is capable of.
Roon should be able to drive the RME, switching sample rates automatically, using JUST the standard Windows 10 UAC2 driver.
Search the RME forums for more on that (it comes up often enough). And it’s a Windows-specific problem.