• Registered: 2018-12-23
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Topic: RME ADI-2 DAC - I'm new.

Hi guys,

Please forgive me my questions. I'm new and not everything it's obvious for me.

I have DAC connected to USB PC windows 10. I've installed latest drivers. I tried foobar 2000, aimp and media monkey.

1. In aimp player I'm able to set output bit depth and frequency to max 32 bit and 384 kHz. When I play music DAC shows that input is always 384 no matter what I play. So I guess Aimp do software resampling to 384?

2. In foobar and media monkey i can't set te output depth and frequency. I always see the input frequency on dac which is the same as file frequency. So there is no upsampling at all?

3. Which settings/player is the best for sound quality? Should I use aimp or media monkey/foobar is better?

4. Why I can't set output in aimp above 384 kHz?

Thanks for help.

2 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2018-12-23 13:01:21)

  • ramses
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Re: RME ADI-2 DAC - I'm new.

Try MusicBee, it supports ASIO and has a more suitable GUI.

With the MusicBee Remote Plugin you can also nicely remote-control it from an Android device via Wireles.
If you need to rip your Audio CDs to produce lossles content in form of FLAC files, then consider EAC (exact audio copy).

I think if you use this combination, then you are perfectly fine.

Foobar is also nice, but I dislike the GUI and MusicBee is easier to operate and has a nicer presentation of content.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

3 Reply by MC

  • MC
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Re: RME ADI-2 DAC - I'm new.

Piotrl wrote:

I have DAC connected to USB PC windows 10. I've installed latest drivers. I tried foobar 2000, aimp and media monkey.

1. In aimp player I'm able to set output bit depth and frequency to max 32 bit and 384 kHz. When I play music DAC shows that input is always 384 no matter what I play. So I guess Aimp do software resampling to 384?

Google helps. AIMP intentionally does not change sample rates, and does not support  native DSD playback. The programmer of AIMP has his own ideas of what is useful or not.

Piotrl wrote:

2. In foobar and media monkey i can't set te output depth and frequency. I always see the input frequency on dac which is the same as file frequency. So there is no upsampling at all?

Why should there be upsampling during the record process? That is usually done after recording. Or you meant playback and don't use ASIO.

Piotrl wrote:

3. Which settings/player is the best for sound quality? Should I use aimp or media monkey/foobar is better?

Media Monkey, Music Bee, Foobar, JRiver, Audirvana, HQ Player are all good players with different capabilies. There is no basic sound difference between the players unless you start to upsample, EQ or FX the audio.

Piotrl wrote:

4. Why I can't set output in aimp above 384 kHz?

See 1.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • ramses
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Re: RME ADI-2 DAC - I'm new.

Audirvana kannte ich noch nicht. Also bei mir unter Win7 crashed das Teil einfach nur beim Aufstarten.
Vermutlich meinen die das ernst, dass es nur unter Win10 läuft ...

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

5 Reply by Piotrl (edited by Piotrl 2018-12-23 19:06:32)

  • Registered: 2018-12-23
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Re: RME ADI-2 DAC - I'm new.

I'm not use DAC for recording. Only for playing. In aimp, foobar and media monkey I'm able to choose ASIO output. But aimp asio works different than foobar or media monkey asio. In aimp I can set output to 384 kHz and DAC display always show me that input is 384. Even when I play 44, 96 or 192 kHz flac. In foobar and media monkey when I play flac or wav I see on DAC display exactly the same frequency as file properties.
So I'm wondering if ADI should done frequency upsampliy from 44-192 to 768 for better sound quality? In ADI settings on the taskbar app I can set output to 768 but it changes when I playing depending on the source file quality. Only in aimp it's different.

BTW I can control media monkey and foobar from my mobile devices. It's easy to control foobar from bubble upnp or from monkey mote app.

  • ramses
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Re: RME ADI-2 DAC - I'm new.

AFAIR I read in this from by MC, that audio content does not become any better by upsampling.

Either the content has been recording already in highest quality and has been mixed down and mastered at
a certain high quality or it won't become any better by upsampling.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
  • Registered: 2018-12-23
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Re: RME ADI-2 DAC - I'm new.

ramses wrote:

AFAIR I read in this from by MC, that audio content does not become any better by upsampling.

Either the content has been recording already in highest quality and has been mixed down and mastered at
a certain high quality or it won't become any better by upsampling.

So why many DAC done input upsampling from 44 kHz up?

  • ramses
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Re: RME ADI-2 DAC - I'm new.

Because its a nice storyline to sell the devices.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
  • Registered: 2018-12-23
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Re: RME ADI-2 DAC - I'm new.

ramses wrote:

Because its a nice storyline to sell the devices.

It seems to me that AIMP sound quality is better than the foobar / media monkey when I set the output to 384 and the DAC shows the input 384 at all time.

10 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2024-01-30 12:17:27)

  • ramses
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Re: RME ADI-2 DAC - I'm new.

You do not seem to be aware of psychoacoustic effects, did you perform blind or double blind test to proove that ?
Let me guess, most likely not.

The way our brain works is that we have upfront a certain expectation and if we think that it
should sound better, then it will sound better for us. This is the way it goes with our brain.

Moreover, you need to perform quick A/B tests because our brain can not really remember subtle sound differences.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13