• PH1NB
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Topic: ADI-2 Pro FS BE. Balanced Headphones + SPDIF out volume control?

Hi all,

I have a ADI-2 Pro FS BE with a balanced headphone connected through the front 2 jacks and and which works brilliantly. Rear main out 1/2 are now auto muted but that's fine as I have nothing connected there.

Now I have bought 2 Neumann KH120 II active near field monitors, which besides an analogue balanced XLR in have a SPIF RCA in. I have connected the Neumanns with the ADI-2 through the break-out cable RCA SPDIF out.

Now the issue... I tried to read the manual over and over but I just can't figure it out. When I hooked up the Neumanns I had FULL VOLUME out through the SPFIF and as you can imagine, not ideal.

The manual says to set the option Digital out source  to "Main out" to send the processed main 1/2 signal to all the digital outputs so I've done that. The thing is, when balanced headphones are connected you can not adjust the volume of 1/2! It just says BAL on the bottom on the screen... Presumably as the rear main 1/2 are muted anyway.

I CAN adjust the volume of main 1/2 out when I remove the headphone plugs and the unit disables balanced mode. So currently I can have either balanced phones working OR SPDIF working with volume control.

Again, I don't mind if the analog main 1/2 out are auto muted, what I would ideally like is:
1) Balanced headphones working, with volume control, though the front jacks, and at the same time
2) Active digital speakers working, with volume control, through SPDIF.

Apolgies if it sounds confusing, hope it makes sense what I'm trying to do here. Any gurus out there who can help me out please?

2 Reply by KaiS (edited by KaiS 2023-11-23 20:15:25)

  • KaiS
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  • Registered: 2020-02-05
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Re: ADI-2 Pro FS BE. Balanced Headphones + SPDIF out volume control?

ADI-2 Pro has 2 DSPs, signal processing units which include volume control, for it’s outputs.

Both DSPs are occupied when using the balanced ‘phones option, so non left for SPDIF volume control.


This gives you the following options:

• Change between headphones and speakers, e.g. by switching “Presets” for each.
This can be done by a single button, see below.


If you really need ‘phones and speakers at the same time:

• Connect the ‘phones single ended.
When using a 4-wire cable (instead of the common single ended 3-wire cable) I promise you won’t hear a difference.

• Connect the speakers to an external DAC with volume control on ADI-2’s SPDIF out.
These come in various flavors and prices.

• Switch to ADI-2/4 Pro SE, which has a dedicated balanced headphones output that uses just one DSP, leaving the other one for analog and/or digital volume control.



How to toggle through 2 or more Setups with one single button:
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 94#p193294

You can store and use a “Setup” for each configuration.
If you enable “ Load Volume with Setup” you get what you want.
Read manual page 29 (DAC), 30 (Pro) or 29 (2/4 Pro SE).
Loading certain “Setups” can be assigned to a button push on the device or remote.
Read manual page 26 (DAC), 28 (Pro) or 30 (2/4 Pro SE).
Watch out:
The  “Remap key” configuration is part of each individual “Setup” and needs to be set for each individual “Setup”.
This can be used to toggle through 2 or more Setups with one single button.

Works like this:
As the button assignment isn’t global, but part of each “Setup”, you can even have different assignments to the same button in each Setup - a nice feature that we can use for the following:
Choose ONE single button that you usually don’t need.
In Setup 1 assign: “load Setup 2”
In Setup 2 assign: “load Setup 1”
Now this single button toggles between both Setups.

This method can be extended to load even more Setups if needed, like:
In Setup 1 assign: “load Setup 2”
In Setup 2 assign: “load Setup 3”
In Setup 3 assign: “load Setup 4”
In Setup 4 assign: “load Setup 1”
Now the single button circles through Setup 1-4, clever, isn’t it?!

As for loading Setups ADI-2 asks for confirmation, a double-push is needed to execute the load.
Holding the button more than 1s, the button‘s original function is available.
Therefore I typically assign the SETUP button to load Setups – sic!

KaiS's Website

3 Reply by PH1NB (edited by PH1NB 2023-11-23 20:22:37)

  • PH1NB
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Re: ADI-2 Pro FS BE. Balanced Headphones + SPDIF out volume control?

Hi KaiS, many thanks for your quick and thorough reply.

The balanced phones mode is not a hard requirement for me, it was more a “nice to have” since the Pro supports it and I was already preparing myself to give up on it.

However, your suggestion for the one button toggle between setups is *brilliant* so I’l go down that path first. It probably even has the additional benefit that it will mute the speakers when I’m going to use the cans. Much appreciated!

P.S.  yeah, should have gone for the 2/4.

  • Registered: 2023-06-30
  • Posts: 64

Re: ADI-2 Pro FS BE. Balanced Headphones + SPDIF out volume control?

PH1NB wrote:

Hi all,

Again, I don't mind if the analog main 1/2 out are auto muted, what I would ideally like is:
1) Balanced headphones working, with volume control, though the front jacks, and at the same time
2) Active digital speakers working, with volume control, through SPDIF.

Apolgies if it sounds confusing, hope it makes sense what I'm trying to do here. Any gurus out there who can help me out please?

Yes, it does sound a bit confusing. Why do you need sound from both the balanced headphone output and your speakers at the same time?

You can have separate volume settings for your main out and your headphones if you drop the requirement of outputting sound to them at the same time. You can toggle between your digitally-connected speakers and your balanced headphones by holding Volume dial (or VOL button on the remote) for a second. In my setup this works with the following settings:

Dig. Out Source = Main Out
Balanced Ph. Mode = Auto
Toggle Ph./Line = Ph 3/4
Mute Line vs. Phones = 1/2 & 3/4

It's also can be useful to refer to chapter 14.1.4 in the manual.

  • PH1NB
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Re: ADI-2 Pro FS BE. Balanced Headphones + SPDIF out volume control?

I don’t need to have sound from the phones and the speakers at the same time, preferably not actually, but never thought there could be such an elegant solution and just assumed I had to use another volume of sorts to manage the active speakers.

Anyway, I just took over the settings from your setup and it works very nicely indeed. I like that I can just push the nice big volume control to switch between cans and speakers and even more the gentle ramp up in volume when I do the switching. Many thanks for sharing the settings.