• Registered: 2022-02-01
  • Posts: 8

Topic: Thanks, Observations, and maybe 1 minor weakness

2 weeks of ADI DAC ownership in and WOW. Just feel compelled to say thanks to RME for making such a great device - as far as I can tell, totally unique in the hifi world.

Also, big thanks to the forum members - great resource with most questions and topics covered (going beyond the excellent manual) and a fast response to my noob questions.

Some observations...
Out of the box sounded great on factory defaults. I thought my system was very transparent before but immediately heard all sorts of new content, and very good untangling of layered complex music.

Then I tweaked the EQ a bit based on what my ears thought would be about right. Fiddled with  filters (My preference = slow for rock, sharp for everything else) Wonderful stuff, literal tears flowing hearing some of my favourite tracks anew.

Then I decided to get a bit more scientific and downloaded audiotools and got to work. Ouch -  my fancy system (and family oriented room arrangement) has a pretty sketchy frequency response. Then I suffered a horrible psycho-audio effect, hearing the sound was suddenly not very good based on the graphs I was seeing.... after an initial wtf moment, turns out 5 band PEQ can do almost anything when you can freely control frequency, gain and quality, independet for each channel. So it was a remarkably quick job to get a pretty flat frequency response at my listening point.

Aaaaand, turns out my 'audiophile ears' are not all that honest, and really dont like treble above maybe 10 khz. Dunno why, but the ADI DAC can fix that, so back to the EQ, and adjusting the treble of the dynamic loudness (BTW dynamic loudness is incredible, though I have found it a bit disconcerting - with dynamic loudness and zero audible noise I find I cant quite tell how loud I have the music, as I guess my brain was using clues other than just sound level to work that out)

Anyway,  now I have it all tuned back in to my quirky ears, so I can mostly ignore the DAC and enjoy the music.

One weakness? Well I bought this device because I enjoy fiddling with hifi, and if I play a track thats not quite mastered how I think it should be I have a bit of an urge to tweak some settings here and there to put it right... I think I need to learn to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. But maybe thats my weakness and not the DAC.

Thanks again to RME from one happy listener

2 Reply by Curt962 (edited by Curt962 2022-02-16 04:10:28)

  • Registered: 2019-01-07
  • Posts: 1,462

Re: Thanks, Observations, and maybe 1 minor weakness

Jamshir,

You sound just like a satisfied RME User!   Welcome to the Group.

Amongst your observations,and if I were to single one out... I think perhaps it's helpful for you better understand the True purpose of Dynamic Loudness.

Dynamic Loudness is not about making things louder   (Record Companies have been doing that for us since the mid/late 90's)

Dynamic Loudness as implemented in the RME is a Compensatory Function which applies an EQ at reduced volume settings to compensate for the Human Ear's demonstrated loss of Acuity at reduced Vol. Levels.   Google:  Fletcher-Munson Loudness Contours sometime to get a better understanding of the Science behind all of this.

In our Home Playback/Hifi World, Dynamic Loudness allows our sound to remain full-ranged, and "Whole" to our Ear when levels are reduced to conversational levels, etc.    This is simply not possible without it,  and then even the most costly gear will sound Hopelessly  Thin, and Threadbare at Meal Time, etc.

+1 for Dynamic Loudness at my House!

Enjoy!!

Curt

Vintage 2018 ADI-2 DAC. "Classic AKM4490 Edition"
Cables:  Red, and White Ones.
Speakers:  Yes
  • Registered: 2022-02-01
  • Posts: 8

Re: Thanks, Observations, and maybe 1 minor weakness

Thanks Curt, I think I probably didnt explain my comment on dynamic loudness clearly.

Pre-ADI if the volume was high it would "sound loud" due to different frequency response of hearing, and due to a bit more noise between notes.

Pre-ADI if the volume was low, the music would "sound quiet" due to impaired freqency response of the ears.

But now, even if volume is low, I still get to enjoy the full depth of the music by the dynamic loudness correcting for my ears. And conversely even if the volume is high there is zero perceptible noise.

These things are undoubtedly excellent! But I do notice a slightly disconcerting feeling of not being quite sure what the volume is, which I find rather fascinating to observe.

  • vinark
  • DAW Mastermind
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  • Registered: 2009-06-05
  • Posts: 2,655

Re: Thanks, Observations, and maybe 1 minor weakness

I think it is perfectly acceptable to change the eq (or even compression) of a track you like but don't like the sound. That is what engineers and mastering engineers are doing all the time. Plus some terible mistakes are made while mastering (Like RIAA pre emphasis on, on a cd lol, no lows and deafening highs). You should feel absolutely free to adjust. I am a musician and producer and nothing I do is sacred, it is meant to enjoy!
Some players support vst plugins and there are some brilliant free plugins available!

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
Babyface pro fs, HDSP9652+ADI-8AE, HDSP9632

5 Reply by KaiS (edited by KaiS 2022-02-16 17:56:51)

  • KaiS
  • DAW Mastermind
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  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2020-02-05
  • Posts: 3,126

Re: Thanks, Observations, and maybe 1 minor weakness

vinark wrote:

... Plus some terible mistakes are made while mastering (Like RIAA pre emphasis on, on a cd lol, no lows and deafening highs).

I‘ve yet to come along a recording with this really extreme mistake: -20 dB of bass cut, and 20 dB of treble boost.

There are some metal recordings where the mastering engineer must have been completely deaf - I know one of those, where not even the drummer can stand being in the control room, for him listening so incredibly loud.

Even then it’s not like RIAA-EQ.

Do you have an example?
Would be funny to hear!

KaiS's Website

6 Reply by vinark (edited by vinark 2022-02-16 18:19:30)

  • vinark
  • DAW Mastermind
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  • Registered: 2009-06-05
  • Posts: 2,655

Re: Thanks, Observations, and maybe 1 minor weakness

It was an album by coil, the horse rotorvator. I had the vinyl and later the CD.

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
Babyface pro fs, HDSP9652+ADI-8AE, HDSP9632

7 Reply by Curt962 (edited by Curt962 2022-02-17 03:49:02)

  • Registered: 2019-01-07
  • Posts: 1,462

Re: Thanks, Observations, and maybe 1 minor weakness

Jamshir wrote:

But now, even if volume is low, I still get to enjoy the full depth of the music by the dynamic loudness correcting for my ears. And conversely even if the volume is high there is zero perceptible noise.

Jamshir,

Welcome to RME's World. smile

Our Hi-Fi Ears have perhaps been acclimated over time to certain Aural clues beyond absolute SPL, which our Brain loosely correlates with "Loud", or "Soft"    Absent these associated Noises, Distortions, or FR deficiencies, I might be able to understand your perceptions.   Maybe instead of the term Volume, we use instead the term "Scale" , as RME's Dynamic Loudness when working alongside the Volume Control that we users control, doesn't truly change our perception of the sound ...only the "Scale" (ie: Magnitude of the Sound Presentation), and as I decribed in an earlier post, brilliantly allows you to chat with family members while not altering the full-ranging Tonality of your Sound.

This seems like the Best Deal in History, and you've RE- proven that it does exactly what it claims!  smile

Best to You,

Enjoy!!

Curt

Vintage 2018 ADI-2 DAC. "Classic AKM4490 Edition"
Cables:  Red, and White Ones.
Speakers:  Yes