RME ADI-2 DAC FS Reviews

Here comes a no BS review

Since the first time I saw ADI-2 DAC I was always convinced that one day I will be owning this Swiss army knife of audio gear, use it with great passion and put its features that I fell in love with to use.

Boy, I couldn't have been closer to the truth.

I am using it with Dynaudio 18s and BM5 MKIII as a consumer. Now, putting its amazing performance at the test bench aside, this thing is an evolution of a term DAC when it comes to practical use and feature set.

Good build quality, good looks, outstanding functionality, very good ergonomics - both dealing with ADI-2 DACs hardware and software side (I read most often complaints by other people about getting around the unit itself, mostly about confusing menu structure). But honestly, the whole package that you are getting is plentiful and it took me a day or two to get used to it. If you find ADI-2 DAC too much, it may not be the DAC you are looking for. You also get a caring team behind the device you got, constantly polishing the product in terms of firmware updates, which was unprecedented and unthinkable for a manufacturer to provide two-three years ago in consumer/'hi-fi' market.

That is, 'till RME came.

I will leave subjective opinions to others.

There is one tiny con, but still a con, It would be terrific if in one of the future updates guys at RME would allow another PEQ band bellow 200 Hz. I know it's getting crowded down there and there is a higher chance of bands overlapping, but at least leave it as a possibility for end-users.

Best thousand euros you will ever spend on audio gear

I agree with most of what Artemis *Seven* wrote in his review. I have some Sennheiser HD 25s which I leave on my desk because they're tough and cheap and I don't have to baby them. They're a little bright but resolve pretty well so I keep them handy for monitoring recordings on some of my TASCAM gear. Other times I run them out of a Chord Mojo I have connected to a Linux box.

Last night I played some high rate PCM sample files and SACD rips over the RME and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This DAC is beyond superb. It turned the HD 25s into a high end listening experience. The headphones absolutely disappeared and I was there in the concert hall. Just fantastic. I don't remember a wow moment like this. And I could not have expected it from this pair of headphones.

RME has a forum and there is a good chance that bugs in the firmware will be addressed. The device speaks for itself as soon as you listen to it.

The DAC comes with a real dead-tree manual, spiral bound and lay-flat so you can linger over it and you will need to! However the manual comes with a note saying it's somewhat out of date. I think it should have gotten the latest manual.

The RME does not seem to be a good pairing for my Sennheiser HD 600s but I'm not really surprised since the 600s are usually much happier on tubes. This is not a complaint about the RME, just to let anybody know that if Sennheisers are your main phones like they are for me, you might want a separate headamp to drive off the RME. I have several here but have not had the time to experiment.

I have not tried to run the RME into a hifi system but from what I have heard on phones I believe it would be difficult to beat. For now it is used as a DACAMP on my desk. The lights-out mode is neat but that is only an option when the device is on. When it's off there is a bright red ring around the power button. There should be an option to turn that off completely.

There are tons and tons of features and settings and I find navigation a little confusing. Three controls rotate and can also be pushed and their behavior depends somewhat on where you are. UI is hard. This is good but quirky. You won't be bored...

I still can't figure out how to deal with the EQ but to be honest I haven't spent much time with the manual.

The DAC has protective features so it won't burn up a pair of expensive IEMs or blow up your ears. A lot of thought went into the details on this. I'm impressed with that, it is somewhat unique. But I too would have preferred 2 x 1/4 inch headphone jacks rather than one for headphones and one for IEMs.

One ongoing annoyance is that the device is really light and the feet don't grip. It slides all over the place when pushing buttons, plugging and unplugging headphones etc. If it weren't so hugely musical and so hugely customizable it would be easy to think it was junk. I'd still like some real traction on a table top but this piece of gear is definitely staying around and no plans to ever sell it.

As everything you would expect from RME

Sound great; features and functions are so plentiful, personal favorite is PEQ for room control;Nice little screen useful to display info like levels, EQ and spectrum; lots of inputs for me to connect to different devices, easy to swap between input and outputs; powerful headphone output; IEM out is nice to have. Only problem is I got tiny tiny noise(only audible when no sound is playing) when my Macbook is plugged into some charger (USB-C charger of my monitor, original Apple one is fine), got a USB filter dongle and it is now perfect

Fantastic ! High C/P ratio product!

This is a very high C/P ratio DAC product. It can bring out the characteristic and detail of the music without distortion.

The EQ function is also fantastic and it provides enough room for you to tune the music.

Transparency on another level

I had high expectations with this DAC and suprisingly it exceeded all of them. The setup is a bit finicky and I needed some time to understand the menu/sub-menu aspect and why I did not find some settings initially. The most important feature for me is the independently adjustable EQ. Hello room correction, goodbye CPU hungry apps!

I am extremely pleased with the sound quality, the soundstage improved quite a lot, not to mention the depth and realism I get.. it's like buying a new set of speakers in a much higher category. I enjoy the fact that the power supply and every part of the power stage is done in a way that it does not need fancy stuff before the DAC to "filter" noise out. There is NO noise whatever you put before this. I would expect this in 2019 but still, too many products out there are not on par with the ADI-2 from the engineering aspect. I haven't tested the headphone preamps yet but I will need the IEM part and I suppose those have no problems either. I highly suggest you get this DAC if you don't need it for recording. This is great for extremely high-quality hi-fi listening or mixing/mastering. I am pretty sure I won't upgrade this part of my system for a looooong time.

Great product

Bought this for use as DAC and headphone amplifier for hi-fi system.

Features are great, EQ is very useful for headphones or for a little room correction (note that there is only 3 bands of eq available under 200 Hz). Very useful remote. Noise floor is very low.

very good

This little DAC is simply put ..incredible.

RME ADI-2 DAC - Perfect Desk-Based AIO

Short and to the point review:

Wonderful All-In-One unit for use on a desk at home or in the office.

Easily transportable.

Works wonderfully with planar headphones, studio monitors and IEMS.

Could be all you need for control and monitoring in a home/project studio.

Incredible array of extremely useful features.

Lacks the AD stage of the pro version so not useful for measurements/recording.

Separate head-amp will add some (needed) musicality if listening for pleasure with headphones - this is an extremely linear and neutral device.

Highly recommended, would buy again.

Incredible RME's highquality

RME combine a high-end DAC and a very stable usb interface into RME ADI-2 DAC.

In most situation of home using,we have no use for analog input,espically in today trends.A lot of device come with adat or spidif port,which can offer high digital signal source.No additional ADDA is needed,ADI-2 DAC can convert your digital signal directly to the Hi-End Analog output.Also,the sound is incredible clearly.I use it to connect my TV spidif optical port,which could combine all of my device's audio output.And I connect the DAC to Genelec 8010 and 7040 system.What's more,the remote control is particularly senstitive.I can control the unit in my whole room!Very useful.Even I mount the remote the control on the wall, it still working.That's amazing.

In a word.RME ADI-2 DAC is the best choice of Hifi use.No useless funtion,just offer clearly?impressive sound you need!

Excellent HP DAC amp

One of the best dac amps regarding features, Sound is really good too, Headphone amp is amazing and it has some graphical displays too should you want to see some action on it, you can also turn the entire face LEDs off too should you wish.

The best new, affordable high-end DAC for Pros and Consumers.

Initially I intended to purchase a 2nd interface for my secondary location, where I mostly just relax and do a little bit of work on the side. However, upon finding out that my favorite audio interface brand released something in between a pro and consumer DAC product it immediately caught my attention.

Having owned the RME UFX interface for a while now, I knew what I was getting - a very well made, very high quality and easy to use product. And I wasn't disappointed. I only had to wait a while for delivery as it's constantly getting sold out of stock - something of a testiment to the product's value.

For the pros:

- sound (obviously) is absolutely high-end and crystal clear (monitors)

- heapdhone amp, which after having owned multiple REALLY high end amplifiers I can honestly say I'm surprised by.... it gave a "new life" to my DT 770's PRO which I thought I knew in and out

- something as silly as a full "dark out" function for a total lack of emitted light (for those late night listens) but very important to quite a few people

- classic RME menu's and no-nonsense unit design, so RME users will feel right at home

- the ability to interface with other RME products through the support of ADAT protocol over it's TOSLINK input (unlike other DACs with SPDIF only)

- user manual is detailed, with reference photos to help

- PRICE (no, seriously) - having the technical specs and features typically associated with products at twice the price point

For the cons:

- not necessarily a con, however I don't imagine many people using IEMs for stationary listening, so I'd rather have another one of those incredible headphone amps instead of the IEM one to share my sound experience with another person at the same time

- digital encoders - some people may think they are low quality, because they are stepped ("clicky"), and would rather have smooth, stepless ones, but RME provides a very valid technical reason for the use of those going into their decision making and technical arguments extensively in the user manual

- technically, visually and otherwise operationally - I can't think of any (apart from the ones I had to come up with above to fill the con section with something)

I would whole-heartedly recommend this product to any consumer or professional in the world. RME outdid themselves again.