LizardKing123 wrote:I do not what what the output measures yet I believe the high power adds 15DB.
Hi- or Lo-Power only switches the DAC’s out gain by 15 dB.
Think of it as a coarse, two step, analog volume control.
The analog headphones power amp itself stays at unchanged full power.
Therefore both modes preserve the same, high, analog amp quality.
For this reason I suggest to use “Auto Reference Level”, it automatically switches the gain according to the needed volume, optimizing Signal to Noise Ratio SNR and usually improves on it by the mentioned 15 dB, compared to fixed Hi-Power.
LizardKing123 wrote:II see the Video with MC using planar headphones.
Are there any Planar headphones reasonably priced that will play well using the RME and have a high enough sensitivity?
ADI-2 DAC can drive every headphones, even what they call “hard to drive“, with ease!
Sensitivity is not critical by any means.
“Reasonably priced” - the Hifiman HE-4XX is hard to beat.
https://drop.com/buy/drop-hifiman-he4xx … headphones
Even more so if you live in US.
It’s sound signature / frequency response is close to the Sennheiser HD 650, adding what you typically expect from planar magnetic headphones - deep bass down to the subs and clean, transparent midrange and treble.
I have the HE-4XX ($160) and the HE-1000 ($3500), and their sound quality is by no means as far apart as the $$$ might suggest, the HE-4XX can almost keep up!
I have the Hifiman 5XX too, but prefer the slightly fuller sounding 4XX over it.
AUDEZE headphones in general have a significant recessed upper midrange / presence, that makes them dark and distant sounding.
I like my AUDEZE LCD2rev.2 (LCD2.2, the model with the least of this recession), with a bit of ADI-2’s equalizer.
AUDEZE of course is a different price range.
From Dan Clark Audio I have the DCA Aeon 2 Noire, a nice and open sounding closed back.
Strong bass, clean and uncolored midrange and presence, quite bright sounding, treble can be tailored a bit with the supplied filter inlays.