First off if you can’t tell diff from cx80 dac and this you have bad hearing or crappy speakers or something going on.

The diff between dacs is easy to hear and is mostly a product of thier analog output domain, ie opamps, circuit designs, filtering etc.

Based on your response I would not trust that this is true balanced, vs just opamps boosting the signal for balanced outs 6db. True balanced designs have completely seperate signal paths for each half of the sine wave, which serve to cancel and reject noise. Vs some that just boost an unbalanced signal for an xlr connection. Given that it does not supply balanced headohone out I would doubt it is true balanced.

Also, I did not say audiophile usb, I said audioquest, just to be clear that I have good shielded cables not picking up ground noise or otherwise, and my cables are all visible with my rack so I prefer a nice looking cable for $30 vs a cheap black standard cable.

I run an ADI-2 Pro FS in my studio corner together with Geithain RL906 studio monitors and Audeze LCD-3 headphones and an ADI-2 DAC in my HiFi corner with Accuphase E-600 Class A amplifier and B&W 803 D3 speakers.

I know the ADI's very well now to be able to say that they are really top class.

If you have a problem with the sound, it can have different causes.

Some general examples:

The better the components of a hi-fi system are, the more likely it is that errors in the recording chain or music production will be exposed. The overall quality results from the quality of the individual components.

It could therefore be due to the song that the "S"'s are perceived by you as exaggerated. Perhaps the ADI-2 FS simply draws more accurately, which its previous DAC may not have done.

What is also important in my opinion: the combination of amplifier and loudspeakers, as well as the room acoustics or a mix of all these things. That's IMHO more worth a check than to put the ADI-2 Pro / DAC into question.

In short: I can't imagine that it's the ADI-2 Pro / DAC. That would be beyond my experience with these devices.

Another remark: I see that you pursue your hobby very seriously. But sinfully expensive USB cables are only for the optics. It brings really no benefits, as the digital transmission of digital audio Data is not being influenced by cable quality.
Zeroes and Ones during transmission do not look worse or better, depending on what cable you use.

See also here: https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopi … 75#p137775

According to people with technical knowledge also Bi-wiring doesn't bring audible benefits. Plain 4mm copper cable, thats it. More is not required. If you want to do it because the cables look smarter, ok.

Thanks for your exoerience with rme, it is true almost no one knows how to record or master music, Walter Sear has some great writing on this, now passed away, of sear sound NYC.

Ok, i get you on usb, but usb is not a digital signal and does not transmit 1’s and 0’s, it transmits voltage, below 2.5v is a 0 and above a 1 to the reciving component. It is an analog signal(voltage) not a “digital” signal like an optical cable is.

Also biwiring has measured benefits, and one if them is that my wbt posts on my speakers are missing their post connections so it is easier to just use the bi wire cables I have instead of spending money on matching connectors or jerry rigging something. That is a measurable benefit to me.

If you don’t think speaker cabkes make a diff I agree at a certain point, but they def do, especially in regards to their design in rejecting noise and how they work between diff components. So do RCA’s, Like I put a cardas crosslink RCA between rme and my amp and it was so bright I could barely listen to it. Putting the transparent musiclink plus MM2 back in the loop tamed the brightness greatly.

Dude, voltage is not digital. And cables that carry voltage, and have grounds, can carry noise and receive other interferences, simikar to why it is risky to use an internal audio card etc, because there is a lot of noise inside a computer, which is why good sound cards have shielding and good dacs and soundcatds use galvanic isolationa nd other power cleaning tools like duscrete power sources for diff operations to avoid noise and interference

The communication of using voltage to comm a 1 or a 0 is just a convenient tool to transmit data. But calling it digital is like calling class D amps digital amos, they are not, power is analog...they may use digital devices in their operation but the AC current coming out of their binding posts is not digital.

Just an FYI. Like if you use a digital camera ans then make an inkjet print, the print is not digital, it is ink on paper, no diff than any other ink on a piece of paper.

I don’t need manners, you need to use your brain.

It is not data errors I or anyone worry about IT’s the ground and electrical noise that can be carried into the power amplifier and audio signal, as they are both producing and utilizing electrical fields/signals etc to produce sound. If you din’t believe me look at how much engineering and design went intk the RME’s power and ground cleanup for the usb input.

Seriously dude, get an education or something, because I don’t have time to explain basic physics to you, I asked questions to which you gave some input,
and a bunch of your half baked idiotic rantings on “digital voltage”.

Just stop, and think, for a minute, if usb was not a source of noise and intereference and did not affect the audio signal, why is 20 percent of what is inside this 1100$ box dedicated to solving that problem.

Think first, speak later

Great question, should have thought of it, use it in my living room 2 channel system and have never used headphones.

Not even sure where my adapter is for my audiotechnica ath m50’s are, I’ll have to find or buy one. Great suggestion. Elminates some variables.

Question for MC or others:

Do the balanced XLR outputs on the DAC still benefit from being balanced aside from the decibel increase? If so, how?

Trying to clarify the OP's comments about the DAC not being "true balanced."

If you read the manual, you will note that it says it is "fully balanced" and "symmetrical." RME is predominantly part of the pro audio world, where properly balanced equipment is actually vital. The balanced signal is converted to unbalanced directly at the output so you get most of the benefits of the symmetrical design even unbalanced.

PS Audio is a high end consumer audio company, and "true balanced" is a marketing term that is useful to them.

If you're highly technical, you can see what this looks like in some wonderful internal shots: http://prosound.ixbt.com/interfaces/rme-adi2dac.shtml

Balanced designs have 2 signal wires, hot and cold, each carries half of the sine wave, that is how they reject noise, like in and out of phase. Somehow I missed that is says is fully balanced, but saying you get all of the benefits running unbalanced is incorrect, because the 2 halves of sine waves reject noise, they continue to do so in the xlr cable and then in the true balanced circuit of a true balanced amplifier, like BAT, or KRELL, or some Bryston models etc.

Thanks for poiting that out.

Ps-ps audio is real true balanced in many if not all of their designs. https://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/true-balanced-2/

You may find out that this is an error on your side. Please edit your posting accordingly, else I will do so.

That said, there is no way USB transfer can affect audio in terms of "sound quality".

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Really, then why is so much effort given to the design of the USB transmission, isolation, and noise remediation in your devices??? Hmmmmmm I call BS

Edit all you want, censor all you want, I have no patience for people that don’t respond to my questions with their experiences and feel it nec to expound on their opinions about other crap.

I will return your bright fatigueing piece of shit that sounds like the dac inside my iphone...actually, the iphone may even aound better....

Regarding ear fatigue there are some other factors to take into consideration as well.

Loudness being one of them. I think at 86db a person can listen for up to 6hrs before fatigue sets in. I tend to use a decibel meter app from time to time to check this.

Length of expose to sound. As mentioned previously.

Type of music. Music that is very busy/complex tends to fatigue my ears much quicker.

There are lots of variables to consider, including the ones previously mentioned.

Some speakers and headphones dont always pair up well with DACs.
Have you considered software such as Sonarworks Reference 4.

It may help to tame some unpleasant frequencies.

Kind regards

Rodney

Plenty of good reasons, but "sound quality" is not one. That happens elsewhere. If you don't see that, then I'm not sure you are in a position to lecture others.

Asking you not to insult others is not "censorship". I will disable this account and remove the thread in the coming days.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME