« Sonic improvement » O_o
Have you red the reviews and measurements? RME has extracted every bit of SQ the DAC can propose
And even if they manage to gain a few dB of SNR or DR, I doubt that a human ear can ear the difference...
You are not happy with the sonic caracteristics of the device? (You would be the first!)

Chill out people. The DAC is great. Some DAC manufacturers release firmware updates that also improve sound performance, so I was wondering about that in this case. It's a simple yes/no question, not needing paragraphs of angst or reading more into my post than needed, as though I said the DAC didn't already have good sound.

Resetting factory settings almost gave me a heart attack!
So I was messing around in my studio and listening to Podquisition on far field monitors (as one does at the end of the week) after I stopped playing with settings on my ADI-2 I decided to reset it to factory settings just in case; Big mistake, normal listening levels on my system are around -40 -50 db but restoring factory settings sets the volume at -16! Why?? For the love of Godoka WHHYYYYY? Please fix this, make default volume -100 or something.

With -20dB Rothwell attenuators, I managed to bring down the normal listening level from -50/-40 to -30/-20 (for music). -16 is loud, but not deafening loud. In fact, the digital TV output is a bit low, so -16 is usually TV listening volume. Anyway, attenuators are a great solution bringing it down a little.

However, after doing factory resets my hand is always on the volume button when starting up (especially when using DAC's as pre). With any kind of DAC. You never know what is considered normal according to the factory, and how much it differs from your setup.

You could additionally consider to connect the DAC digitally behind a RME recording interface (TOSLINK connection).

Then you can configure in TM FX a lower default output level into the direction of the DAC.
And in the preferences you can define, that the volume is always being set / restored from a saved snapshot on PC.
This gives you a little bit add-on safety.

You could also consider to turn the volume down on your Monitors, if they should have a volume knob.

Or connect the ADI-2 XYZ simply to a preamp in front of your HiFi so that the output of the ADI is not directly connected to the raw power of an power amp with nothing like a preamp in between to bring it to an acceptable volume level.

Otherwise I fully agree to what Bejero told.

What I personally never would do or recommend, to use smth like the ADI-2 Pro / DAC in front of 2 1000W Mono Power amps .... 0db could become interesting .. blow you ears and your mind ... Put a preamp in between ... or use integrated amplifier which has a preamp already built-in.

Excuse me Bernd, nonsense ? Come on. He had an issue and this would be a valid solution for that.

Only because you prefer a certain setup doesnt mean that everybody has to do it like this at the risk, that you can potentially damage your ears depening on circumstances and on how powerful the amp / speaker combination actually is.

Good luck with your ears Bend and that you never forget to look at the levels. I personally wouldn't like to take this risk for a potentially extremely low quality difference.

A friend of mine just had an acoustic accident because his guitar amp / monitor switcher ticket out (internal electronics) and blastered his ears with a mix of different frequencies very loud. For him high frequencie loss of left ear and also his little son was impacted and frightened since then to enter the room.

Look back what the guy wrote. It happened to him. And what can happen once can happen twice in a bad case of luck.
Don't be so petty all of a sudden.
You can do whatever YOU want. If you do not like my good meant recommendation to him, people, then simply ignore.
No need to start debates over this or to accuse somebody to tell nonsense.
Good Preamps btw are still being sold in 2019 ... if you wan to save the money, simply do .. its fine be me.

If I am not wrong, this space is a discussion forum. So in case someone writes something what is a nonsense from SQ and logical and factual point of view, the solution is not ignorance or not debating it as you suggest. The solution is to write that it is a nonsense and also to post reasons why it it a nonsense. I did both.

If you do not agree, use arguments, not the aim to silent others.

Suggesting a hardware solution (especially multi thousand $ preamp) to a simple software parameter "error" is beyond stupidity. I have 3 systems: near field monitors, far field monitors (maybe I shouldn't call them monitors, they are a pair of                                     big hifi speakers and power amps) and headphone system with external head amp, all of them require different levels and I didn't ever had a problem with clicking or popping noise.
The solution to this issue is really simple, instead of putting volume attenuators or connecting preamps to preamps, just set default volume to minimum in firmware, problem solved, the end.

I made a proposal based on an issue that a user had, that was all.
You started to rate my proposal as nonsense.

So I question myself whats worse, to suggest a solution (not all solutions cost $0) or to claim
I am telling nonsense for really no reason.

I don't have experience with loud amps, but I wouldn't mind silencing it as much as possible.

It is very obvious that people who yield to self conviction of being always righ are often very wrong. This topic shows it clearly.

Thread hijacking
Let's discuss firmware updates please
Love the sound and features of this dac
Rgds
Ronny

Amplifier output power does not have anything to do with gain. You can have 30w tube amp that has more gain than 1kw solid state. My previous amps had 1000wpc and I had to run them at about -20 -15 db, my new amps have "only" 200w yet they get loud at -40 db

Posts like this are why I don't visit this forum much anymore.

Here I am asking a very straightforward question about firmware updates, and you write a 3 paragraph diatribe critiquing my reasoning process while digging up old debates on a completely unrelated topic.

I have a B.A. in Philosophy but I don't think I'd ever use a phrase like "epistemic paradigm prevalent on this forum."

Anyway, I have no interest in this type of discussion. My original question was answered.

This forum is quite annoying at times.  I know there are lots of different nationalities here and English is not always a first language, so things can get warped by translation.  But the tone is often condescending, and frequently becomes aggressive.  People seem to be more interested in appearing intelligent than helping each other.  This should be a safe and easy place to ask questions about RME’s products without fearing ridicule.  As a new user I found it really off putting, and I don’t think it helps RME’s cause.

@Jas0_0
agree

Just to get back to this before you continue on Firmware update. My 2c on trying different preamp.

I tried RME as a preamp, instead of my Primaluna tube preamp. Its OK, but far far from dedicated hi quality preamp like Prima, which is more musical, engaging, natural (vocals, mids), dynamic, more details, better hi and low extremes (specially upper range! Hi hats sound more realistic compared to RME). Power amp is Nord Acoustics NC500 revD (Hypex class D) with Focal 1028be speakers.

Prima costs like 2 RMEs, so would be strange if it doesn't sound better. But as a DAC, I couldn't find anything better in 2x price range of RME (tried just few, but still)...

I agree.  I tried removing my Croft pre from the chain and used the RME as a pre into a Croft power amp.  I really wanted to like it because selling the Croft pre would have saved me about £700 that I could have put into other parts of my system.  The result with RME as pre was more detailed with better attack, but it was also flatter, less tonally saturated, less three-dimensional and less dynamically interesting, so the Croft pre stayed.

I am open to the idea that what I heard was colouration, but it was colouration that made my music sound better to me, which is all that really matters.

You must understand that you are not in an audiophile place. People here are professionnals and/or have a big technical background.

Curt962 is ironic, but if you think about it... The RME ADI-2 DAC is close to perfection in terms of sound quality: it is top of the art converter, and it handles the volume in a very clever way.

So how can a preamp attached to the RME can improve sound quality? Do you think that the RME degrades SQ when it handles the volume?
It is perfect at 0 dB and crap at -20 dB? Please read the ADI-2 DAC manual on page 63: you will have the technical explanation that it is not the case.
Or do you think you like the distortion added by the tube preamp? Maybe you can like it, but "more [...] natural, dynamic, more details, better hi and low extremes" and other idiophile's BS, that just doesn't make sense... A preamp can't guess or "enhance" or add information to the signal (distortion excepted), it's just facts and logic...

Are you serious @noob and @Curt962? You really think that
1) RME DAC is best D/A converter AND preamp because it measures well? How do you measure something like stage depth and width, details, timbar, or musicality?
2) is there something like perfect amplification equipment?
3) did you actually hear any other piece of gear, other DAC? RME is great dac for up to ~1500-2000$, but can't compare against most more expensive dacs, specially preamps
4) preamp section of RME which costs X is same as Prmas pre which costs X*5? Prima measures much worse in terms of THD, linearity, ..., since its tube pre, but how come it sounds better then?
5) are you, like 10?

Im just pretty sure that those who think that tubes are adding to "colorations" didn't hear proper tube gear. Expect if "natural" sound means "coloration" because it doesn't sound, well, digital? I mean, everything adds to coloration, specially today's digital equipment. Every transistor, capacitor, coil, wire, tube, will change something in the sound, so perfect accurate equipment doesn't exists.   
Some of the world best sound system today will have a tube in the playback chain. For mixing/producing probably not because it doesn't make sense, but mastering and home hifi, for sure.