This has to get more attention - a consumer DAC from RME

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The RME ADI-2 DAC USB driver sucks and Windows10's new USB Audio 2.0 driver doesn’t help.

 

I'll explain. Contrary to Mac OS X, Windows 7, 8 and earlier versions 10 didn't see external DACs as audio devices without an installed proprietary audio driver. With the driver installed, every DAC I know/tried automatically uses the sample rate and bit depth of the audio file being played in WASAPI exclusive mode. But not the RME ASIO driver for the ADI-2 DAC. It is not sample rate aware; it always plays the sample rate you selected in the app that comes with it, regardless of the actual resolution of the played file. That may be what sound engineers prefer, but for me it sucks.

 

Now the native Mac OS X audio driver in exclusive mode perfectly adapts to the file resolution with any DAC I know of and without any proprietary driver installed. This includes the ADI-2 DAC, which plays bit perfect and sample rate aware with my Mac Mini. Microsoft and RME promise the same functionality with the latest Microsoft Windows10 OSs that have the new class compliant Windows USB Audio 2.0 driver. But it doesn't work with the ADI-2 DAC.

 

I did a clean install of Windows 10 (home edition) version 1809 on a Lenovo laptop. Then I installed Foobar2000 with the latest WASAPI plug-in (version 3.3) and I installed the latest Tidal desktop application. And.. the ADI-2 DAC doesn't play with Foobar's WASAPI plug-in (it only plays in DS mode) and Tidal appears to play in WASAPI Exclusive mode, but outputs the Windows Shared mode sample rate and Windows volume control changes the volume.

 

Everything should be good. In Tidal exclusive mode is selected. In Foobar2000 ADI-2 WASAPI (event or push) is selected  as output. In the Windows control panel Sound dialogue for the ADI-2 both exclusive mode options on the Advanced tab are checked. The Enhancements tab is strangely missing so I can't check if Windows' sound effects are all turned off. But according to RME the missing tab is normal with Windows class compliant USB audio..

 

I'm currently out of options, except for upgrading to Windows10 Professional or Enterprise edition. Does anyone here successfully run the RME ADI-2 DAC with Windows10 (any edition) in exclusive mode? Any suggestions are much appreciated! 

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@chetthejet Yes, the ADI-2 DAC also works fine with my Mac Mini. The problem occurs (as I described above) with the new Windows10 USB Audio 2.0 driver. Exclusive mode with Tidal does not work as expected (Windows still dictates the output sample rate and volume). Foobar WASAPI doesn't work at all.

 

It may be a Windows problem. But other DACs have proprietary WASAPI drivers that support exclusive mode. The ADI-2 DAC only has an ASIO driver that outputs a single selected sample rate and doen't use the actual sample rate of the file being played. The new Windows10 audio driver should support WASAPI exclusive mode for all sound devices and use the file sample rate, but it doesn't.. 

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2 hours ago, Miska said:

ASIO driver certainly allows setting any of the supported sample rates, at least with my player. I just tested and I can play out at any of the supported PCM rates from 44.1k to 768k and also DSD from 2.8 MHz to 12.2 MHz.

 

Only WASAPI has the limitation that you need to manually change the rate if you want.

It's the other way around. ASIO has the limitation that it plays out only a single sample rate, the one you select by hand in the settings app that comes with the RME driver software. WASAPI (exclusive mode) normally has the advantage that it automatically plays out the sample rate of the input audio file. But it apparently does not do this with the Windows10 USB audio 2.0 driver.

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10 hours ago, Miska said:

No, ASIO plays out at any supported rate, at least with my player, with RME driver and with all other drivers I remember having tried so far too.

Yes, but you must select the output sr by hand with the RME ASIO driver (Madiface).

 

10 hours ago, Miska said:

Well, to be exact, rate of audio file and what rate plays out are not directly related...

Well, they should be, and they usually are, with WASAPI exclusive mode and a decent audio device driver (apparently not Windows USB Audio 2.0 driver).

 

10 hours ago, Miska said:

I personally play all my files at fixed DSD output rate, DSD256 in case of RME ADI-2. I can play out at any rate or format I want, regardless of input file rate or format.

That's exactly what I do not want. I want my audio driver to play the sample rate and bit depth of the input file/stream. 

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10 hours ago, Miska said:

No I don't, my player changes it. Never touched the RME ASIO driver's control panel.

...

Well, my experience is that I must set the sample rate by hand with the RME ASIO driver, and that's what RME told me to do when I inquired about it. I don't use HQPlayer.

 

10 hours ago, Miska said:

OK, that's your preference.

 

I do upsampling in player software and specifically don't want to send the file as-is to the DAC, because I want best possible performance out of the DAC.

Hm, I want as little processing as possible done by the PC to keep it as electrically quite as possible, with less noise potentially invading the DAC through the USB connection.

 

Anyway, I have Foobar2000 working with the Windows10 UAC2 driver, with output set to WASAPI PUSH Speakers ADI-2 DAC at 32 bit.  24/96 plays nicely and the ADI-2 displays the correct sample rate. It now seems that the problem with the Windows Tidal app not playing the correct sample rate is a problem of the Windows Tidal software and not necessarily of the USB Audio 2.0 driver..

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9 hours ago, Miska said:

Works for me perfectly fine, and I'd assume it works with other applications supporting ASIO as well.

...

Nope, it's a known issue or trade (depending on your point of view) of the RME ASIO driver. I inquired why ADI-2 DAC didn't play 96 kHz files as such, and according to Matthias Carstens (RME): "You need to manually set the DAC to 96 kHz in its Settings dialog, all explained in the manual. If you use Roon with Tidal you can use ASIO, then it will work under Win 7 automatically. Otherwise it also works with Windows 10, without the RME driver."

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9 hours ago, Miska said:

I know Matthias. If you read that carefully, that applies to their WASAPI driver, not to the ASIO driver... He's saying there that with ASIO driver you can get the sample rate switched from the software. With their WASAPI driver not.

...

As far as I know there exists no RME WASAPI driver for the ADI-2 DAC. Can you provide a download link?

 

9 hours ago, Miska said:

You can anyway try it out at any time without cost if you like, HQPlayer has free trial mode.

...

I might try it.

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9 hours ago, Miska said:

 

It is in the very same driver package as the ASIO driver. The installer installs both...

 

  2018/12/07 17:05:01 Open WASAPI endpoint GUID: {0.0.0.00000000}.{eb2af813-d0d7-4e4d-91db-cb7af2c4f2ea}
  2018/12/07 17:05:01 Currently using: 'Analog (1+2) (RME ADI-2 Pro)'
  2018/12/07 17:05:01 Output type: Default
  2018/12/07 17:05:01 WinMiniEngine8 initialized
  2018/12/07 17:05:01 Discover rates for 2 channels
  2018/12/07 17:05:01 Format available: 44100/24 (32)
  2018/12/07 17:05:01 Format available: 44100/16 (16)

 

 

Here's link to one step newer driver than what I have installed:

http://rme-audio.de/download/driver_madiface_win_09680.zip

 

OK, that makes sense.. Nevertheless, the Windows 10 UAC2 driver also does automatic sample rate detection/switching. At least it works with Foobar2000 (but not with Tidal). And the question remains, why doesn't the RME WASAPI driver do automatic sample rate switching whereas any other WASAPI DAC driver I know does this, even in Windows 7 and with Tidal?  

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On 12/11/2018 at 9:14 PM, Ralf11 said:

Let's start a list of comparisons of the RME:

 

1. easily bests the now dated NAD M51 

2. does HiRes, unlike the Eastern Electric DAC

 

what others have people compared?

 

if you did a full-on single or double blind listening test, please note that (otherwise assume it was a listening comparison)

I think people should also indicate if they are using a preamp after the DAC for volume control. (To use a preamp after the ADI-2, the output volume of the DAC should be set to 0db.) And is USB or SPDIF input to the DAC used?

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11 hours ago, Miska said:

... For DAC and ADC use, only USB input is used. I use ADC and the S/PDIF inputs as input to HQPlayer (thus either ADC -> USB or S/PDIF -> USB path in which case the DAC is not used).

I think that not using the ADI-2 DAC disqualifies as a DAC comparison.