1 (edited by karumba 2022-06-15 12:32:50)

Topic: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

Dear RME employees,

could we please get an official statement regarding the current stock situation? Most interfaces are out of stock for months. Maybe it is about time to get an official news post on the main page about the current situation and an expectation on how long the situation will last. Keep up the great work - I'm loving your products.

Thanks in advance!
Jan

Jan Ohlhorst | finemastering

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

I ordered a interface a few weeks ago from a Swedish big retailer.  It is expected to arrive in October. If that is based on information from RME I dont know. I hope RME are in good financial shape since they can not have that big cash flow without any interfaces to sell.

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

Thanks for your comment.

bace wrote:

I hope RME are in good financial shape since they can not have that big cash flow without any interfaces to sell.

I hope so too!

Jan Ohlhorst | finemastering

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

Looks very bad. Both thomann and Swedish retailers have removed lot of the RME products. A few remaining low end products with expected shipment in February 2023.

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

bace wrote:

Looks very bad. Both thomann and Swedish retailers have removed lot of the RME products. A few remaining low end products with expected shipment in February 2023.

RME has been hit hard, sadly.

6 (edited by weezul 2022-09-07 17:50:29)

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

It's a shame because on my move to M1 MacBook Pro from Hackintosh 6700k, I wanted an RME Digiface USB to replace my RayDAT, but I can't; find one anywhere so I found a TB3 enclosure for 98 quid instead, a Lenovo Legion Booststation, the card actually doesn't fit in properly, the serial port screw is in the way but you can get it into the slot. It's jank as hell but it works great and still cheaper than buying a new device. Props to RME for the apple silicon support!

Edit: also strange is the slot is double width for gfx card but the screw hole is in the middle. So the RayDAT just sorta hangs out. And the expansion board has to just flop on top of it. I've taken the expansion off for now as I'm not using it. Definitely not as elegant as the extra slot I had on my Fractal R4 case designed for seemingly that exact purpose. A PCIe slot but at 90 degrees.

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

I saw it too that RME products are not in the USB Audiointerface section of Thomann here in germany. Musicstore Köln has still RME in stock. I hope they just moved away from thomann like Pioneer did, but is see products like the fireface take ages to deliver...

Asus X99 E WS, Core I7 5820k, 16gb Ram, PNY Quadro P400, Fireface 800 & 400, Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

It's difficult to make purchase decisions with the fog arround the availability of RME products.

The flagship UFX+ seems just a mirage at the moment.

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

AboveAndBelow wrote:

It's difficult to make purchase decisions with the fog arround the availability of RME products.

The flagship UFX+ seems just a mirage at the moment.

The competition have their heyday.

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

bace wrote:
AboveAndBelow wrote:

It's difficult to make purchase decisions with the fog arround the availability of RME products.

The flagship UFX+ seems just a mirage at the moment.

The competition have their heyday.

Which competition?

Well, consumer devices of a different quality, with fewer features and a shorter product lifecycle are most likely manufactured in much higher numbers (and do not need special components like FPGA etc.). So that, if you are lucky, you could hope for larger stocks.

But as soon as devices are a bit more expensive and more specialized, it's a different situation, and then everyone is in the same boat again.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

ramses wrote:
bace wrote:
AboveAndBelow wrote:

It's difficult to make purchase decisions with the fog arround the availability of RME products.

The flagship UFX+ seems just a mirage at the moment.

The competition have their heyday.

Which competition?


Apogee Sympony
Universal Audio Apollo
Antelope Galaxy
Focusrite Red
Steinberg AXR4

Dont get me wrong. I been using RME since Hammerfall DIGI9652. And im not in hurry. Have my old FF800 as backup, but I dont see that as feasible as backup for so much longer.

12 (edited by ramses 2022-09-19 19:12:27)

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

> Dont get me wrong
Nah.

But I see no real alternative to my current RME setup. None of the mentioned vendors offer solutions with the quality and so many good features and an excellent designed and mature mixer SW like TM FX.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

ramses wrote:

> Dont get me wrong
Nah.

But I see no real alternative to my current RME setup. None of the mentioned vendors offer solutions with the quality and so many good features and an excellent designed and mature mixer SW like TM FX.

There is currently no RME setup available. You stick what you have or get something else.

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

I've checked a few places in UK and the earliest date is showing as 28th of December. The situation is that bad?

15 (edited by ramses 2022-10-08 21:58:44)

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

HardRock wrote:

I've checked a few places in UK and the earliest date is showing as 28th of December. The situation is that bad?

You would think it would have started to get around that all sorts of industries are affected by supply chain problems.
Then, unfortunately, 2-3 chip factories burnt down. Many products had to be redesigned for that reason to use other chips.
Is that really not known? Try buying a Neff oven. Be prepared to wait 3/4 of a year. There are many examples like that.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

AboveAndBelow wrote:

It's difficult to make purchase decisions with the fog arround the availability of RME products.

The flagship UFX+ seems just a mirage at the moment.

The idiots have discontinued it without announcement or replacement. They have left the pro market.

17 (edited by ramses 2022-10-11 20:53:26)

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

bace wrote:
AboveAndBelow wrote:

It's difficult to make purchase decisions with the fog arround the availability of RME products.

The flagship UFX+ seems just a mirage at the moment.

The idiots have discontinued it without announcement or replacement. They have left the pro market.

Complain to Intel, and please remain polite.

https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 64#p192364
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 77#p192377

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

karumba wrote:

Dear RME employees,

could we please get an official statement regarding the current stock situation? Most interfaces are out of stock for months. Maybe it is about time to get an official news post on the main page about the current situation and an expectation on how long the situation will last. Keep up the great work - I'm loving your products.

Thanks in advance!
Jan

It seems that all RME Audio Interfaces are no longer listed at thomann.de any more.
And no reactions from RME until now.
I think it's time to drop an official statement.

best regards
Thomasch

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

Thomasch wrote:
karumba wrote:

Dear RME employees,


could we please get an official statement regarding the current stock situation? Most interfaces are out of stock for months. Maybe it is about time to get an official news post on the main page about the current situation and an expectation on how long the situation will last. Keep up the great work - I'm loving your products.

Thanks in advance!
Jan

It seems that all RME Audio Interfaces are no longer listed at thomann.de any more.
And no reactions from RME until now.
I think it's time to drop an official statement.

best regards
Thomasch

But what statement would that be? That they're closing up shop? That seems unlikely.

I've browsed around for the UFX II availability and Gear4Music web store shows they could deliver one in 2 weeks. It could be bullѕhit, but they are generally reputable store and I bought stuff from them before.

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

ramses wrote:
bace wrote:
AboveAndBelow wrote:

It's difficult to make purchase decisions with the fog arround the availability of RME products.

The flagship UFX+ seems just a mirage at the moment.

The idiots have discontinued it without announcement or replacement. They have left the pro market.

Complain to Intel, and please remain polite.

https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 64#p192364
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 77#p192377

It is quite a claim to say that other vendors wont do thunderbolt.  And  UFX+ is not
the only interface RME have problem to produces so it can not be the comlpete story.
And  nothing about when RME will have something that can replace UFX+ even if it is USB only.
I don't think it will fit my needs but it should be in RME lineup.
I think I can live with a PCIe card and a external TB cabinet. RME converter is not essential
but I think totalmix is top notch.

21 (edited by ramses 2022-10-13 07:23:35)

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

bace wrote:
ramses wrote:
bace wrote:

The idiots have discontinued it without announcement or replacement. They have left the pro market.

Complain to Intel, and please remain polite.

https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 64#p192364
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 77#p192377

It is quite a claim to say that other vendors wont do thunderbolt.  And  UFX+ is not
the only interface RME have problem to produces so it can not be the comlpete story.
And  nothing about when RME will have something that can replace UFX+ even if it is USB only.
I don't think it will fit my needs but it should be in RME lineup.
I think I can live with a PCIe card and a external TB cabinet. RME converter is not essential
but I think totalmix is top notch.

Supply chain issues and component shortages due to burnt-out chip factories still determine the market and lead to shortages and very long delivery times, not only in the audio sector.

In addition, Intel's product policy does not offer manufacturers enough continuity to be able to roll out planned designs.
As MC mentioned in his posting, all seemed to be ready for a new product, and then Intel ceased the product (“not so nice”). Otherwise, the UFX+ successor would probably already be available.
This, of course, led to another redesign of the device, and that all costs a lot of time because you can redo everything again. From the board design to the drivers and firmware, including the manual. And this was not the only product that had to be changed to be able to deliver. Didn't you read the postings here, that other AD/DA converters had to be used here and there?

You most likely lack the necessary imagination because you don't know the processes from planning to production or don't take the time to think about what is going on everywhere at the moment.

Just think how much time it took to have to completely redesign the products that are currently most in demand, despite a shortage of components, to be able to produce anything at all. A successor to the UFX+ will come sometime, but everything takes time. You just have to show the necessary understanding.
Just trust that RME is doing its best and of course has a strong self-interest in being able to bring such an excellent product back onto the market.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

ramses wrote:
bace wrote:

It is quite a claim to say that other vendors wont do thunderbolt.  And  UFX+ is not
the only interface RME have problem to produces so it can not be the comlpete story.
And  nothing about when RME will have something that can replace UFX+ even if it is USB only.
I don't think it will fit my needs but it should be in RME lineup.
I think I can live with a PCIe card and a external TB cabinet. RME converter is not essential
but I think totalmix is top notch.

Supply chain issues and component shortages due to burnt-out chip factories still determine the market and lead to shortages and very long delivery times, not only in the audio sector.

In addition, Intel's product policy does not offer manufacturers enough continuity to be able to roll out planned designs.
As MC mentioned in his posting, all seemed to be ready for a new product, and then Intel ceased the product (“not so nice”). Otherwise, the UFX+ successor would probably already be available.
This, of course, led to another redesign of the device, and that all costs a lot of time because you can redo everything again. From the board design to the drivers and firmware, including the manual. And this was not the only product that had to be changed to be able to deliver. Didn't you read the postings here, that other AD/DA converters had to be used here and there?

You most likely lack the necessary imagination because you don't know the processes from planning to production or don't take the time to think about what is going on everywhere at the moment.

Just think how much time it took to have to completely redesign the products that are currently most in demand, despite a shortage of components, to be able to produce anything at all. A successor to the UFX+ will come sometime, but everything takes time. You just have to show the necessary understanding.
Just trust that RME is doing its best and of course has a strong self-interest in being able to bring such an excellent product back onto the market.

Did you read MC statement? MC: I don't think there will be a new TB audio interface from RME...or anyone else...
So a new version of UFX+ is not to be expected.

23 (edited by ramses 2022-10-13 12:12:28)

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

bace wrote:
ramses wrote:
bace wrote:

It is quite a claim to say that other vendors wont do thunderbolt.  And  UFX+ is not
the only interface RME have problem to produces so it can not be the comlpete story.
And  nothing about when RME will have something that can replace UFX+ even if it is USB only.
I don't think it will fit my needs but it should be in RME lineup.
I think I can live with a PCIe card and a external TB cabinet. RME converter is not essential
but I think totalmix is top notch.

Supply chain issues and component shortages due to burnt-out chip factories still determine the market and lead to shortages and very long delivery times, not only in the audio sector.

In addition, Intel's product policy does not offer manufacturers enough continuity to be able to roll out planned designs.
As MC mentioned in his posting, all seemed to be ready for a new product, and then Intel ceased the product (“not so nice”). Otherwise, the UFX+ successor would probably already be available.
This, of course, led to another redesign of the device, and that all costs a lot of time because you can redo everything again. From the board design to the drivers and firmware, including the manual. And this was not the only product that had to be changed to be able to deliver. Didn't you read the postings here, that other AD/DA converters had to be used here and there?

You most likely lack the necessary imagination because you don't know the processes from planning to production or don't take the time to think about what is going on everywhere at the moment.

Just think how much time it took to have to completely redesign the products that are currently most in demand, despite a shortage of components, to be able to produce anything at all. A successor to the UFX+ will come sometime, but everything takes time. You just have to show the necessary understanding.
Just trust that RME is doing its best and of course has a strong self-interest in being able to bring such an excellent product back onto the market.

Did you read MC statement? MC: I don't think there will be a new TB audio interface from RME...or anyone else...
So a new version of UFX+ is not to be expected.

Ok, maybe I misunderstood you.
I think it's out of question, that there will be a successor, but then with USB, without TB.
Your problem seems to be, having to use USB instead of TB.
But why is it such a big issue for you to use USB instead?

For me personally, TB is of no importance anymore after some thinking:
— too limited choice of mainboards
— no upgrade paths for mainboards not supporting it from ground up (crap design of TB IMHO)
— cables are with 2 m max length much too short
  many people need at least 3 m if the devices are left and the PC right from the desk
— plugs are so tiny and IMHO more vulnerable by this compared to the usual USB3 plugs

Latency / performance of USB and TB drivers are equivalent with minimal differences.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

ramses wrote:
bace wrote:
ramses wrote:

Supply chain issues and component shortages due to burnt-out chip factories still determine the market and lead to shortages and very long delivery times, not only in the audio sector.

In addition, Intel's product policy does not offer manufacturers enough continuity to be able to roll out planned designs.
As MC mentioned in his posting, all seemed to be ready for a new product, and then Intel ceased the product (“not so nice”). Otherwise, the UFX+ successor would probably already be available.
This, of course, led to another redesign of the device, and that all costs a lot of time because you can redo everything again. From the board design to the drivers and firmware, including the manual. And this was not the only product that had to be changed to be able to deliver. Didn't you read the postings here, that other AD/DA converters had to be used here and there?

You most likely lack the necessary imagination because you don't know the processes from planning to production or don't take the time to think about what is going on everywhere at the moment.

Just think how much time it took to have to completely redesign the products that are currently most in demand, despite a shortage of components, to be able to produce anything at all. A successor to the UFX+ will come sometime, but everything takes time. You just have to show the necessary understanding.
Just trust that RME is doing its best and of course has a strong self-interest in being able to bring such an excellent product back onto the market.

Did you read MC statement? MC: I don't think there will be a new TB audio interface from RME...or anyone else...
So a new version of UFX+ is not to be expected.

Ok, maybe I misunderstood you.
I think it's out of question, that there will be a successor, but then with USB, without TB.
Your problem seems to be, having to use USB instead of TB.
But why is it such a big issue for you to use USB instead?

For me personally, TB is of no importance anymore after some thinking:
— too limited choice of mainboards
— no upgrade paths for mainboards not supporting it from ground up (crap design of TB IMHO)
— cables are with 2 m max length much too short
  many people need at least 3 m if the devices are left and the PC right from the desk
— plugs are so tiny and IMHO more vulnerable by this compared to the usual USB3 plugs

Latency / performance of USB and TB drivers are equivalent with minimal differences.

Not really.  Here are a thread in GS with measurements. https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.ph … ostcount=1
And those tests are with low cpu load. To be able you argue that you are right you need to show your measurement.
Relevant measurement it maximum IRQ lock times, and cpu cycle count for the driver.  However I mostly avoid USB due too it's
bugs. There are so many quirks around and no certification that is done for any parts and parts interfere with each other. And it is a pain in the ass to get a clean electrical environment with USB. (You need the analog parts be separated with optical system, with usb that is easy done with ADAT, so you get the limitations of ADAT. Thunderbolt can be separated with optical thunderbolt "cable" and have full feature set) There is of course also advantages with USB, apple is more or less enforcing vendors to do userspace drivers for usb stuff, it will make the system very stable and apple have security concerns with kernel drivers. Kernel drivers gives better performance. (I dont care that much about security on my studio computers, at least not for risks regarding hardware access)

Sidenote: You can use a optical cable to a thunderbolt cabinet and have a USB pcie controller-card there for your audio, this also solves the limitation that both TB (electrical) and USB have with cable length.

25 (edited by ramses 2022-10-13 15:18:34)

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

I never had issues with USB and a comparison with a PCIe card like RayDAT and the UFX+ with USB3 didn't show me a significant different in terms of CPU load.

https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … cks-de-en/

The optical solutions for longer USB3 and TB cables are relatively expensive if I remember right, so I didn't see any value to invest into them and USB3 with 3m are sufficient, at least for this setup.

But nevertheless what your and my preference is and for whatever reason.
RME wanted to deliver with TB and this was not possible because Intel of all sudden ceased TB3 chip delivery.
TB2 and TB3 chips are not available anymore, and TB4 doesn't seem to be an option.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

ramses wrote:

I never had issues with USB and a comparison with a PCIe card like RayDAT and the UFX+ with USB3 didn't show me a significant different in terms of CPU load.

https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … cks-de-en/

The optical solutions for longer USB3 and TB cables are relatively expensive if I remember right, so I didn't see any value to invest into them and USB3 with 3m are sufficient, at least for this setup.

But nevertheless what your and my preference is and for whatever reason.
RME wanted to deliver with TB and this was not possible because Intel of all sudden ceased TB3 chip delivery.
TB2 and TB3 chips are not available anymore, and TB4 doesn't seem to be an option.

What about USB 4.0?

27 (edited by ramses 2022-10-13 16:11:34)

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

HardRock wrote:
ramses wrote:

I never had issues with USB and a comparison with a PCIe card like RayDAT and the UFX+ with USB3 didn't show me a significant different in terms of CPU load.

https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … cks-de-en/

The optical solutions for longer USB3 and TB cables are relatively expensive if I remember right, so I didn't see any value to invest into them and USB3 with 3m are sufficient, at least for this setup.

But nevertheless what your and my preference is and for whatever reason.
RME wanted to deliver with TB and this was not possible because Intel of all sudden ceased TB3 chip delivery.
TB2 and TB3 chips are not available anymore, and TB4 doesn't seem to be an option.

What about USB 4.0?

I assume USB3 will be chosen for the same reason as using USB2 for recording interfaces up to about 60-70 channels IN+OUT.
If the bandwidth of USB3 is sufficient, why would RME use USB4 and put much higher HW requirements on PC side than needed?

For those customers who do not have USB4: do you really want to buy a new laptop or an expansion card for a pure USB4 interface, even though there are no performance / latency advantages by using USB4? Sorry, but that makes no sense, and it would raise the costs unnecessarily as USB4 will be more expensive compared to USB3.

In contrast, USB4 is backwards compatible with USB3.

Also … USB4 also has further length limitations as far as cables are concerned. See this tabular (hope the values are ok).
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/us … bles-to-8/

Additionally, I don't think the small connectors are as robust compared to USB3.

Therefore, for me, USB3 is the ideal alternative to TB, which is already available in most devices or can also be retrofitted easily and at moderate cost.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

28 (edited by Finfet 2022-10-13 18:46:47)

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

I think one thing about supply problem is that RME products never appeared in the Ranking or Best Seller pages in Thomann or many sellers for like many months now. That'll do some damage to advertising/marketing. Of course supply problem may also means the demanding is already saturated and all gears in factories are fully loaded to do engineering and assembling. I just worried about the future trend might get affected somehow. Newcomers will get whatever they can get and start recording/music production, and they are less and less likely to get an RME because they just simply can not be found in the market. Hopefully RME can get out from supply problem soon and get back to shelves of bigger sellers like Thomann/Amazon/Sweetwater.

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

I was wondering what the latest situation was regarding the supply of RME UFX interfaces?

I'm looking at purchasing a rackmount one in a couple of month's time, and my pick has been narrowed down to either a UA and RME, with the RME being my favourite because of TotalMix.

However, you can't get any RME's anywhere (and for sometime it would appear). I've seen UK Shops saying specific dates from 14-16 Feb, or alternatively 3+ months. What is the truth?

I just want an honest idea of timescales before I lose patience and buy a UA. Q1 2023, Q2 2023...?

Re: Official statement regarding the current stock situation

Tullochard wrote:

I was wondering what the latest situation was regarding the supply of RME UFX interfaces?

I'm looking at purchasing a rackmount one in a couple of month's time, and my pick has been narrowed down to either a UA and RME, with the RME being my favourite because of TotalMix.

However, you can't get any RME's anywhere (and for sometime it would appear). I've seen UK Shops saying specific dates from 14-16 Feb, or alternatively 3+ months. What is the truth?

I just want an honest idea of timescales before I lose patience and buy a UA. Q1 2023, Q2 2023...?

I think the status of converters seems to be better now some are in stock on various shops.  And it seems to be similar on some other vendors too.  Many audio devices uses xilinx and have AMD acquisition the company and they might have changed focus.
Sound cards might need to redesigned to use some other FPGA's.