A new firmware for the ADI-2 Pro and AE is now available. Version 149/83 is once again a great update with some fixes and some unexpected new features. We analyzed the feedback via support channels and forums and picked the stuff that still fits into the unit and makes most sense. Here is the complete list:

Fixes
- Fixed self-oscillation style effects and repeated pop noise from phones when the power source voltage drops to 9.3 V (battery discharging).

- Fixed a loud click on the right channel when connecting USB, or when a computer wakes from sleep and enables USB.

- When in balanced phones mode and switching from front to back via long press of VOLUME, the EQ Bode plot of Main Out 1/2 was not shown correctly

New
- When the operating voltage drops below 9.3 V a warning dialog is shown: 'Power Fail - Analog I/Os disabled. Check DC power supply.'

- When the unit fails self-test at boot, a warning dialog is shown: 'Internal Error. USB Audio disabled.'

Improved
- In Basic Mode DAC the input selector, Source Main Out 1/2, now allows to directly choose SPDIF coaxial and SPDIF optical. The former menu to use (Setup, Options, Hardware&Diagnostics, SPDIF In) is then greyed out and no longer working.

- When in balanced phones mode Auto and plugging out PH 3/4 first, the channel indicator and the Spectral Analyzer change to Main Out 1/2.

- If an EQ preset is loaded and not changed: after reboot the name no longer changes to 'Manual'.

- After reboot EQ presets/settings for Phones 1/2 and Main Out 1/2 are loaded correctly, even the not active one.

There are two news that deserve a detailed explanation:

- Added Crossfeed with less effect than setting 1

We often heard that people would like to have another setting with less effect than preset 1. Therefore we added a less intensive one as new '1', and shifted all existing ones one up - 2 to 5. If you stored a setup with Crossfeed setting then these need to be stored again with a setting one higher to have the same effect. The Crossfeed effect is mainly defined by the filter frequency and the amount of crossfeed given as damping factor. These are the current preset values:

1: 650 Hz, -13 dB (Just a touch, new)
2: 650 Hz, -9.5 dB (Jan Meier emulation)
3: 700 Hz, -6 dB (Chu Moy emulation)
4: 700 Hz, -4.5 dB (30° 3 meter emulation)
5: 700 Hz, -3 dB (Example how even stronger would sound)

- My personal favorite: Scroll through EQ presets by viewing the frequency graph (Bode plot)

As a regular PEQ user, I missed this feature, and am happy it finally made it into the firmware. I have all 20 presets filled with personal compensation curves for various headphones and applications (speakers, line out…). So far I had to call up the EQ Preset menu, and scroll through all the 20 available preset names. If all these have a name it already gets easier to select the right one, but especially during testing and fine-tuning this often is not the case. Which turns selecting the correct EQ preset into a tedious 'select and change to the graphical frequency response display' process, wrong one – ok, back to the menu, select etc. No longer!

Call up the EQ Bode plot by pressing the EQ function button, then either push encoder 2 three times to navigate to the bottom, or push encoder 1 one time (wrap over menu), and you enter the new graphical PEQ Preset selection! By turning encoder 2 you scroll through all the 20 presets with all of them shown as Bode plot, and even their name shown in the parameter line. I don't use the other menu anymore, apart from storing and naming these presets, of course. Even better: in this PEQ screen the big VOLUME knob still controls the volume, and one can also change the VOL control between 1/2 and 3/4 by pushing VOLUME. And encoder 1 can be used to change to any output channel / EQ state. Try it and I guarantee you'll love it!

This new function also makes the change of PEQs according to the current output easier to understand and to verify. For example: you have a phone plugged in, the PEQ of PH3/4 is active. You change to 1/2, now the PEQ of 1/2 becomes active. In this display not only the Bode plot changes (like in former firmwares), but now also shows the preset name this PEQ setting has.

All updated files (firmware, manuals) are available on the ADI-2 Pro's web page:

http://www.rme-audio.de/en/products/adi_2-pro.php

http://www.rme-audio.de/products/adi_2-pro.php

Please report back here if you think you found a bug or error.