• From: Oakland, California
  • Registered: 2021-06-21
  • Posts: 50

Topic: Balanced Phones Mode and Loss of Pass-Through Functionality

I currently have my ADI-2 Pro FS R BE hooked up as follows:

  • Music source device output connected to ADI-2 AES input, with SRC enabled

  • Digiface USB output connected to ADI-2 ADAT input

  • ADI-2 ADAT output connected to Digiface USB ADAT input

  • ADI-2 PH 3/4 TRS output connected to headphones

  • Dig Out Source is set to Main Out

  • Main Output AD/DA Source is set to AES

  • Phones Out 3/4 Source is set to SPDIF

With this configuration, the ADI-2 does double (simultaneous) duty: (1) SRC for AES music source, passed to TotalMix FX via ADAT; and (2) headphones DAC and preamp for separate input from TotalMix FX via ADAT.

However, when I enable Balanced Phones Mode, the signal from the AES input is no longer passed to TotalMix FX via the ADI-2's ADAT output. I can still direct any TotalMix FX channel to the headphones, and the ADI-2 is still showing an AES input signal present, but the the AES input no longer gets passed to the ADAT output for mixing by TotalMix FX (and return to the ADI-2 via its ADAT input).

Is there any solution to this routing problem? I understand that engaging Balanced Phones Mode necessarily disables the 1/2 analog outputs on the rear of the device, since the associated analog circuitry is needed for the right balanced headphone channel, but I don't why that should prevent a purely digital pass-through.

  • KaiS
  • DAW Mastermind
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  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2020-02-05
  • Posts: 3,122

Re: Balanced Phones Mode and Loss of Pass-Through Functionality

Did you check the various “Modes” (manual page 36 ff) if you find one that serves your need?


If there is no other workaround:

Do you really need Balanced Phones Mode?
Sound-wise single ended is the same, balanced just offers 6 dB more output, but only for higher impedance ‘phones.

KaiS's Website

3 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
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  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 24,837

Re: Balanced Phones Mode and Loss of Pass-Through Functionality

Digital output muted in balanced mode has been changed in firmware 259 / 111 already. Are you on the latest one?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

4 Reply by AdamBier (edited by AdamBier 2022-05-10 18:14:58)

  • From: Oakland, California
  • Registered: 2021-06-21
  • Posts: 50

Re: Balanced Phones Mode and Loss of Pass-Through Functionality

KaiS wrote:

Did you check the various “Modes” (manual page 36 ff) if you find one that serves your need?

Thanks, KaiS--after studying the block diagrams in the manual again, I determined that the desired dual-purpose functionality should also work in Digital Through mode, and in that mode, this problem doesn't occur (or was previously fixed).

Of course, I don't really need Balanced Phones Mode, and I doubt I can actually hear the difference from the reduced THD discussed in the manual, but I would like to be able to use the available functionality if possible. This is more for entertainment purposes than for any serious work.

MC wrote:

Digital output muted in balanced mode has been changed in firmware 259 / 111 already. Are you on the latest one?

Thank you, Matthias. It looks like I'm on 262/113 already, but reviewing the release notes for 259/111, it appears the fix was made for DAC mode (which doesn't meet the dual-use objective described in my initial post), not AD/DA mode, and I can confirm the issue is present in AD/DA mode.

However, as noted above, everything works correctly in Digital Through Mode. So perhaps this bug/limitation should be addressed for AD/DA mode? In any case, I'm now able to do what I intended, so a fix isn't important for me.

Thanks again!

  • From: Oakland, California
  • Registered: 2021-06-21
  • Posts: 50

Re: Balanced Phones Mode and Loss of Pass-Through Functionality

Oh, and I should add: using Digital Through mode for this purpose only works because the digital out (the source of which can't be configured via the AD/DA Source parameter in Digital Through Mode) appears to always pass through the signal from the AES input if there are signals present on both the AES and SPDIF inputs. If the SPDIF input were favored, there'd be no way to pass the separate AES source on to the ADAT output.