Topic: RME ADI-2 DAC FS DSD Direct Clipping

I purchased a ADI-2 recently and got it in the mail today and have been loving it. But, I've been having one issue with it. On DSD albums that are particularly loud, such as Thriller by Michael Jackson, it seems that when using DSD Direct, the signal starts to clip, as indicated by the L&R meters on the DAC showing "OVR." Is there anyway to workaround this without having to disable DSD Direct?

Re: RME ADI-2 DAC FS DSD Direct Clipping

No. If the album is mastered poorly. There is no way to fix it.

Turn your volume down is the only way to avoid clipping. But you want to use dsd direct, then sorry no volume attenuation is available.

non-4490 devices usually have to enough headroom for intersample peaks so the analog output shouldn’t clip, unless you are listening from headphone out.

Re: RME ADI-2 DAC FS DSD Direct Clipping

ning wrote:

No. If the album is mastered poorly. There is no way to fix it.

Turn your volume down is the only way to avoid clipping. But you want to use dsd direct, then sorry no volume attenuation is available.

non-4490 devices usually have to enough headroom for intersample peaks so the analog output shouldn’t clip, unless you are listening from headphone out.

I'm using a Topping A90 as my headphone amp. Are you saying it shouldn't clip with this?

4 (edited by terrys999 2021-09-19 22:51:17)

Re: RME ADI-2 DAC FS DSD Direct Clipping

I have over 3000 sacd ISO’s at least 10% of en clip and distort
Thriller is poorly mastered , my copy clips bad. It too hot.
Best way to solve is convert to pcm then use something like ozone audio software and declip

Works wonders. Or turn off direct dsd. And lower vol 4 dB.

5 (edited by ning 2021-09-19 22:53:42)

Re: RME ADI-2 DAC FS DSD Direct Clipping

OVR means the output signal is larger than max (so it’s a digital clip) but ADI-2 has enough digital and analog headroom for rear outputs so it doesn’t mean the analog signal would clip. Most likely it won’t, if the peak is within 2.5db

If you hear no clip then it doesn’t matter. If you hear clips then there’s no way to save your poorly mastered album, unless you use volume attenuation. ( but you insist not to turn dsd direct off…)

6 (edited by KaiS 2021-09-20 22:31:30)

Re: RME ADI-2 DAC FS DSD Direct Clipping

If the master is clipped there’s no way to fix it, even turning down volume doesn’t change or improve on that.

But, Level Meters OVR in playback is no reliable indicator for clipping.

Re: RME ADI-2 DAC FS DSD Direct Clipping

Quote: “On DSD albums that are particularly loud, such as Thriller by Michael Jackson, it seems that when using DSD Direct, the signal starts to clip, as indicated by the L&R meters on the DAC showing "OVR.”

Good that you have a choice of helpfully useful solutions to the issue and great to know that your RME equipment is not the source of any problem.

Welcome to the RME forum and congratulations on an excellent choice from which I trust you will derive many hours of listening pleasure.

Out of interest, could I inquire whether your first awareness of the clipping was clearly due to hearing a distinct audible problem?

Or whether you first visually noticed the OVR indication of the levels meters which naturally alerted your concerns?

Re: RME ADI-2 DAC FS DSD Direct Clipping

CrispyChips wrote:

Out of interest, could I inquire whether your first awareness of the clipping was clearly due to hearing a distinct audible problem?

Or whether you first visually noticed the OVR indication of the levels meters which naturally alerted your concerns?

Honestly, it sounded fine to me (I didn’t listen to it to long, I just wanted to see how the DAC handled louder DSD masters) but once I see indications of clipping, I want to limit that to the best of my ability without compromising on quality.

Re: RME ADI-2 DAC FS DSD Direct Clipping

As said before. Ovr does not indicate it’s clipping. ADI-2 has a analog headroom for inter sample peaks so most likely it works just fine.