hello again,

my apologies for troubling you so by making so many uneducated posts.  But if i do not ask i will never know.  I live very remotely and i just cant go to my local music shop to chat about these things, because there is no local music shop.

i have the opportunity to purchase an RME ADI 8 AE for what i think is a reasonable price of about 455$us.

HOwever, soon i will place an order for a micstasy with the australian supplier.
i am wondering if the 2 units are compatible. 

I understand the specs of the adi 8 ae, put it slightly under the adi8 ds, but am not conerned with the input AD converters as i will have a micstasy at my disposal in the future.

I am concerned about the DAC's however.  I presently have an adi 2 and simply appreciate the sound, and the ability to run at quad speed if i ever need to.  I need more analogue output channels for some headphone mixes and i would really like to experiment with surround 5.1. The extra analogue outputs in the ADI 8 AE would be very useful. 

AM i going to be able to run 8 channels at 96khz from an adi 648 for monitoring purposes? Will i hear much difference between these converters and those found in the ADI 2.  Am i better waiting until i can afford a newer unit?

Thanks,as always, for your expert advice that you offer freely.

roon.