RME ADI-2 DAC FS PCM/DSD 768 kHz Signal Converter with AKG K240 Studio Pro Headphones & XLR Cable Bundle

I don’t think anyone can find a better sounding DAC at this price range, period.I have owned a few DAC as a senior stereophile, in my 25 years audio life, and keep counting, from time to time I have owned high end DAC like Audio Research, Wadia, Audiolab, Sonic Frontiers, Macintosh, Krell, Mark Levinson. I don’t have the luxury to owe dCS, Weiss, MBL, Burmester, Goldmund, so I cannot comment on those.Anyway, the closest DAC comparison would be myTek. I have to be honest the ONLY thing I like myTek is it has onboard upsampling so it can “cheat” up to 192Khz for any incoming PCM stream. If you turned that off, it sounds on par as RME, period , just of different taste - RME is warmer and balanced, mytek is aggressive with a slightly larger sound stage. Remember, mytek Brooklyn Dac+ is double the price of this RME Dac, and I am not talking or comparing to mytek Manhattan $5K+ or Empire $10K+ level.This RME Dac is a steal. A HUGE upgrade from any computer laptop audio, or anything $1500 or less Dac can compare to. They can’t win.A few key points:- it supports up to 192Khz pcm and 768Khz DSD- it has loudness, a nice feature to boost old recording- the sound is high resolution, very neutral and balanced.- it supports multiple sets of EQ - rarely nowadays Dac has this feature- it has good enough headphone output ( note, probably good enough to drive headphone up to like HD650, DT880 etc but not really able to drive HD800 level enough to support its dynamic, even with HP mode)- it feature the greatest, (tho not latest which is ESS9038Pro), Dac chip ESS9028 - Sabre Ess is the best Dac chip you can buy in the world unless those running FPGA like Weiss who claimed better THD and dynamic, well if you are ok to spend $10K a Dac there you go. A Dac Chipset decides at least 60-80% of how the Dac sounds if the designer don’t mess up with PCBA/ circuit design, components chosen nor the power supply design.- it is light enough to carry around- it has XLR and RCA output- it has USB for computer / iPad / iPhone input- of course it has coaxial and toslink input- made in GermanyOk, here are thing I DO NOT like:- No MQA decoding (folding / unfolding). I know RME is working on the next generation which will have it support.- No upsampling. Come on, this will make a big difference!- No hdmi eArc. Not a big deal for me as I use it only for 2-channel not for watching tv. But also you will not going to have Dolby Atom those fancy stream which requires eArc.- cheap power supply. Even RME claims they have three tiers voltage regulator: linear- switching - super low noise linear in the box, and I did change to professional linear DC12V supply and it made no difference in sound. I still feel this should be designed as a linear, large transformer for the audiophile sake, and the truth is such large linear power supply design does make a big acoustic difference but RME this Dac was limited by three internal regulator stages so there’s no room for a good power supply to kick in which should be designed in the chassis. Good thing is portable, and small size. But not professional looking and feeling.- connectors can be better. They feel flimsy and low grade given the price range.In short, this is by far the best sounding 192K/768K DAC you can get for less than $1.5K. I bought it at $999 on promo, highly recommend to get it if you are looking to upgrade your computer/headphone/stereo system!

pros:Great sound for ear phones and speakers. Reviews are very positive.Power to drive inefficent ear phones (such as the AKG k240).Expensive, but worth it to me (I also have an older benchmark dac 1, which does not have an USB input)Very detailed manual and a large number of settings.Customer support in USA is good (see below).Very good build quality.cons:None found yet.notes:Originally it appeared the wall wort power supply was not working. I tried another 12V unit, and everything was ok. Called customer support, and found that the power input round plug was not just the insertion type, but you had to insert it and twist 90 degrees. I had never seen one like this before. Then it worked ok.There are multiple menus and sub menus, and there are many options. The only thing I have played with so far is to set the headphone power to low, which was sufficient for the headphones that I have (AKG K240, Grado 225, beyerdynamic dt 770 pro). I like the Grado sound for the music I listen to (acoustic, small group jazz, folk vocals, and classical baroque)I use the DAC with a PC running Fedora Linux. I use the PC since I like high resolution music.Have only had the DAC for a week, and will update the review after more usage.Review by Doug Telford

Wow. I can’t describe how impressed I am with this for headphone use. The ability to add missing sub-bass back into open-back headphones and smooth out frequency response all within the dac is nothing short of amazing. And that’s just one feature of *many*, and only one use-case. Best return on investment for new gear I’ve had in a long time. I set up a preset for my daughter’s HE400i 2016s for her to try it out, and the smile on her face was a perfect summation of the magic this thing pulls off in a tiny little box.

This DAC has so many excellent reviews that I decided to try it. I listen to a lot of DSD files and unknown to me when I purchased this is the new models can't play DSD natively. I was shocked to discover that the RME ADI-2 was converting them to PCM. I know the reviews I saw stated it could play DSD natively without a conversion. I contacted the company and they explained due to the chip shortage they had to switch over to another DAC chip that doesn't happen to support DSD.For me that's a deal breaker and I returned the DAC. If you don't listen to DSD then this may well be an excellent DAC for you.

Great Dac with a ton of different settings to make your headphone sound the way you want them to.i have a few headphones and you can make a profile for each one so all you have to do is select a profile when you change phones instead of setting everything up again. It works great if send to an Amp as a preamp and also set up profile for that. The headphones that come with this bundle are pretty good. Nice sound very clear I just shaped out the ear cups for better ones and was inpressed

It sounded a bit pricey at first but once you know what it's capable of doing, you'd feel the price is right and willing to pay every penny of it. I will not bore you with the spec but once you spend a day figuring out the menu, everything makes perfect sense and you'll get amazing sound of it. You will NOT get the sound signature out of the box but once you fine tune it, you can make it magical and will not settle for anything else. I love it.P.S. I purchased this from Kellards, great service, speedy shipment. Highly recommend them.