Article: RME ADI-2 DAC FS Review

[firedog]

19 hours ago, JoshM said:

I didn’t specify this in my review, but all of my DACs are plugged into a CalDigit TS3+ thunderbolt interface, which is in turn hooked up to my Mac Mini. However, I don’t think it impacts sound so much as stability, and I’m puzzled as to what you think is necessary for a DAC to work properly. I can assure you than many albums today are recorded with modest audio interfaces plugged directly into a Mac, many of the DAC measurements one finds online are done via analyzers attached directly to a Mac or PC, and many of the DAC reviews in places like Stereophile are carried out with the DAC hooked up to a Mac or PC via USB. Most DACs today should have sufficient jitter rejection that a dedicated source isn’t necessary, since that’s not most people’s use case. Moreover, I have several well-measuring USB to SPDIF converters on hand, including a Schiit Eitr and Matrix X-SPDIF2, which I try to see if the sound through them into the DAC is superior to the sound through the DAC’s own USB input. 

In the last year Stereophlle has reviewed the Innuous Statement and one of the Wolf servers (model number escapes me at the moment). Both are 5 figures and "audiophile optimized". 

JA couldn't measure any difference between them and his MAC when using a decent DAC like a Mytek. If you "read between the lines" of his subjective impressions, he couldn't hear any difference either, although he apparently wasn't willing (or able) to say this. 

[firedog]

4 minutes ago, asdf1000 said:

 

The below is a reality every one of us faces at some point in life, but don't want to talk about...

 

Irrelevant. Has zero to do with the issue at hand. 

 

And btw, if it was relevant, then almost every audio review written is useless, as there are almost no reviewers under 25, and dare I say, 40. Same for almost all the listening impressions posted here in that case. All of these people report hearing all sorts of differences in mids and highs. So if you want to make that point about JA, it applies equally to almost every subjective listening impression posted about audio. 

[firedog]

32 minutes ago, asdf1000 said:

 

I'm not sure how you can say "irrelevant" when it will affect all of us at different stages in life...

Because listening and hearing are two different things.

I've lost the ability to hear lots of high frequencies, but I can still hear lots of stuff when I listen that younger people can't. Listening is a learned skill.  Hearing isn't. Lots of people can "hear" things, but they don't perceive them because they haven't trained their brains to listen. IME, trained listeners, even when older, can tell you what you need to know about a component. 

There are people on this site whose impressions I'd trust, and also some reviewers.