anttipi wrote:I've got certain classical music tracks that eat into the ADI-2's extra headroom after EQ'ing, peaking at over +2. There's no clipping at the source, Foobar2000 and ReplayGain take care of that.
I'm assuming the Pre-FX meter probably isn't detecting intersample peaks (because the reading is, well, "pre-anything"), but how about the Post-FX meter, after the signal's been EQ'ed?
The reason why I'm asking is that EQ'ing might very well introduce intersample peaks that ReplayGain naturally can't have prevented upstream. So... If I use EQ should I make sure the Post-FX reading never exceeds 0 dB, to accommodate intersample overs? Or are the intersample overs calculated by the RME and shown on the meter - in which case I can be relatively sure a +2.4 dB isn't actually going to clip?
You have a misconception about InterSamplePeaks.
In the digital domain they do not exist.
Only during the DA-conversion ISPs are developed.
The current lines of DA-converter chips (and ADI-2) provide enough internal and analog headroom to handle all possible ISPs, as ISPs are absolutely common with the still raging loudness war.
Peaks generated by EQing are a different story.
EQ level boosts and phase shifts require some extra headroom.
ADI-2‘s PostFX Level Meter faithfully shows these effects.
ISPs, which are not shown at the meter by design, are +3 dB on top of the value shown, worst case, with or without EQ.
ADI-2 DAC has 1 dB (headphones out) or +2.5 dB (line outs) headroom above 0 dBFS (meter full scale), see manual page 30.
Headphones out doesn‘t usually need headroom, as it already has so much power that nobody with half-healthy ears can stand the full level and dials to full volume.