advertisement


Question about RME ADI 2 and possibility of user error

Seanm

Seanm

pfm Member
I’d like to try one of these primarily as a DAC into an integrated amp, but also sometimes as a headphone amp, still plumbed into the same system.

My question is, is there any possibility someone ( :)) might use it at high volume with headphones, forget about that, and blow the speakers the next time they used it through the main system?

In other words, is the analogue out level entirely separate from the headphone out level?
 
Last edited:
I found this in the manual - it suggests it depends how it's been set up but that the default operation is for the vol control to only operate the headphones.

rLnBMpW.png


Manual: https://www.rme-audio.de/downloads/adi2_e.pdf
 
I've owned one for a few years, AKM chip model.
Never used headphones though.

The volume control has always been operational for me for the balanced and RCA outputs.
In the menu there is an option to lock the volume level for each of the RCA, phones and iem.

When running the dac into an integrated I tend to set the dac around -12db.

Running direct into a power amp could present more of a risk with levels, depending on the power amp and speakers -40db could be extremely loud.

I like to have an analogue passive volume control in the chain for this reason.

The dac's volume scale seems to be -114db up to +6db.
 
Seanm said:
I’d like to try one of these primarily as a DAC into an integrated amp, but also sometimes as a headphone amp, still plumbed into the same system.

My question is, is there any possibility someone ( :)) might use it at high volume with headphones, forget about that, and blow the speakers the next time they used it through the main system?

In other words, is the analogue out level entirely separate from the headphone out level?
Click to expand...

If the DAC is set to fixed output level (volume controlled by the integrated amplifier) it will always ouput the analogue signal at its full level.

There could be a problem if you set the integrated amplifer to full and use the DAC's volume control.
 
Just looked in the menus again

Volume levels can be set at any level and then locked independently for RCA, phones and IEM.
When locked for the particular output the volume pot becomes ineffective.
 
If you’re referring to the ADI-2 Pro or ADI-2 DAC rather than the ADI-2 then they are highly configurable and probably fine for your use case. I’ve had the Pro fs acting as a pre directly into a power amp without issue, although I had the headphone out configured to drive a sub with basic high and low pass filters defined for the mains and sub respectively within the ADI-2 Pro.
 
Stuart Mason said:
If you’re referring to the ADI-2 Pro or ADI-2 DAC rather than the ADI-2 then they are highly configurable and probably fine for your use case. I’ve had the Pro fs acting as a pre directly into a power amp without issue, although I had the headphone out configured to drive a sub with basic high and low pass filters defined for the mains and sub respectively within the ADI-2 Pro.
Click to expand...

The ADI-2 also has variable level output - push and hold the output level button and it enters that mode
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top