Topic: Issues with UFX+ connectivity and others
Hello, I'm writing a bit of a long post with multiple topics about issues that I've been having with my RME products. I'm just hoping to get some answers and to better understand what's going on. I've been fighting some of this for a number of months, as well as trying and failing to access the forums when I've had time, so I really apologize if my frustrations color my writing.
I got a UFX+ a year or so ago, but the chip shortage delayed its arrival to this year. I've been under the assumption that a new ESS AD/DA chip set was put into this box, given it was among the batch that went in stock after the AKM fire. I've encountered some issues that I hope people have answers for.
Since I received it, it's had a distinct issue with the outputs. If it's turned off, sometimes upon reboot the outputs simply won't work. At all. It will register audio out in mixFX, but none of the outputs like the analog, madi, adat, etc. have any output signal.
I'm looking for a permanent solution to this. Powering off and on didn't fix this, and toggling other settings did nothing. Only by reinstalling the firmware does this seem to solve the issue temporarily. This isn't a large problem, normally, but there are so many settings and disparate menus in so many places that I have trouble orienting myself when sound doesn't work.
Unfortunately, though, that's not the end of it. Today, in the middle of a field recording the UFX+ dropped out. all of the outputs stopped working again while it was running, and completely killed the session. I don't know if this is a new issue or not, but it's caused a very messy turnabout.
All of the following issues were unchanged after a complete Windows Reset.
While recording through my desktop, which I use mainly for mixing, the UFX+ has distinct pops and clicks. This is irrespective of sample rate, buffer size, computer workload, CPU core speed, CPU frequency lock, USB port, etc. (I've checked latency mon, everything is below 700 microseconds after two hours of light usage) The only "fix" I found was changing the RAM speed. Different rates caused random changes in the frequency of the pops and clicks. 3200 was best, but 2933 was the second best rate to minimize clicks. I don't hear clicks using my old Presonus box and a Digiface. Is there something I can do to permanently solve this as well?
Changing buffer sizes necessitates a computer reset to get non-desynced/crackling audio. While changing the sample rate works... maybe 60% of the time without issue, changing the buffer size causes otherwise unfixable crackling.
The UFX+ has a distinct scratchiness in the 10k+ band. I had somewhat recently purchased a new pair of fairly unforgiving speakers, and A/Bing them across other interfaces shows a very painful harshness on the top end. I'm attaching images to an I/O test. One of the UFX+ and one of an ADI-Pro, whose input I'm using to measure the UFX+. In the images of the next post, I'm showing why this seems so unusual. At my normal listening volumes I don't see any distortion in the output.
Bandlimited pulse Impulse response of UFX to ADI PRO Slow Filter:
ADI Pro to ADI Pro, Slow to Slow impulse response
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I also purchased a 12mic, and in every use it's been treating me well. I would call it very convenient, except that I can't control it through madi, which is the only interface that the UFX+ can provide at 96khz. I'm very confused as to why there hasn't been any integration of midi-thru-madi to control the box when I've been told, on multiple occasions for months that it was in the works. Is there a slated time of release?
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On another note, I've purchased on 30 day guarantee an ADI-2 PRO FS R BE to act as my main outputs instead of the UFX+ and to test my output. While it works mostly fine, I've already encountered an issue with it.
The most recent firmware update doesn't seem to consistently fix the ADAT double and quad-speed issue. I've reset and re-installed the drivers via uninstalling them in the device manager, as well as reinstalled the firmware, but the box dropped the ADAT connection mid-way through mixing a song, and was stuck at 48khz until I re-installed the firmware. Also, the firmware check says the current iteration is 265, while the box itself says 06/2022, contrary to what my friend's, who also has the ADI PRO BE, display reads, 08/2022.
Any help on any of these topics would be very, very much appreciated.
Thank you,
Will
