RME ADI-2 direct to amp

Am I losing "resolution" bits?

They say 70% or more of full up is fine.

Full is 0 and lowest is 100?
Then 30 is fine 16 even better

Cheers George

About an hour in I hooked it up direct and so far I believe I prefer it that way. Seemed like everything tightened up and a little more detail. Nothing harsh or digital about it.

 Exactly what should happen, more transparent, dynamic, and controlled. Bad recordings maybe less to your liking though.
If any harshness become apparent on good recordings, it’s the fault of the source, amp or speakers, not because your going direct. And that "can" be "band aid" fixed with a preamp in the system that’s less detailed and softens things somewhat.

Cheers George

Really impressed how the RME sounds going direct, bypassing a separate preamp.

Yes 9 times out of 10 going direct is a clear winner, with better transparency/detail/pin point imagining, tighter deeper bass and better dynamics.
But "if" your system has problems somewhere with harshness/hardness, then sometimes it "can" be accentuated by going direct, then the right preamp colouration may put a bandaid fix on these and colour/soften them so they’re not so obvious.

Cheers George

mofojo OP Which MSB do you have George? Do you run amp direct with it?

The MSB Discrete R2R Ladder Dac that I do run direct, because it’s remote control digital domain volume is a few clicks off full up so (no bit stripping) at the level I listen to.

If I have far more efficient speakers or amps with higher sensitivity in the system,   so the volume of the MSB then is far lower, and then probably ( bit stripping), then I would use my passive in between dac and amp, set it’s level, so then the MSB is back up near full again and use it’s remote volume control again.

Cheers George

When I tried it 10 years ago with my Wyred it worked as well, just sounded hard albeit more detailed.

My mate has a WFS and it too is hard when doing PCM Redbook compared to my discrete R2R MSB, which has even more detail and dynamics. I think it more the WFS dac being exposed when direct.

Cheers George

What I mean is one says it, then another and another.
It’s an unwritten law the output to input ratio should be 1:10 or better eg: 1:100

Not many look at the specs to see if the ratio of what the RME output impedance is (100ohm), and if it 10 x less or more than the input impedance of the power amp it sees, in this case the Rogue at 100kohm! so 1000 x less, so absolutely problem at all.

Cheers George

I’ve been using my RME ADI 2 Pro as a preamp direct to power amp (tube, soild state, and class D) for a few years, as well as a headphone amp, without issue.

This should never have been bought up in the first place, the REM ADI 2 has 100ohm output impedance, with enough voltage to drive ANY amp into clipping, balanced and SE. Shows how things snowball without any reason to.

Cheers George

gakerty
I’ve run my ADI-2 directly into my poweramp (Rogue ST100) and it sounded good, albeit a bit drier and less full

Definitely can’t be a impedance issue, your Rouge is 200kohm input and only needs 1v in to for full power out, no problem going direct

I think dryer tighter is a good thing, maybe just need a re-tune speaker position a little closer to the back wall maybe, system/room/interconnects.

Also did you stay with the 4ohm taps on the ST100? Because the 8ohm now maybe fuller richer and far more powerful also.

Cheers George

Yes definately try direct, you may be very surprised.
Just looked that dac, it is the swiss army knife of dacs and uses a AKM (Asahi Kasei Microdevices) dac, not bad for a delta sigma dac, I prefer R2R ladder dacs.

Cheers George

mofojo
RME ADI-2 direct to amp

No problem at all if you can get enough volume, it will be the most transparent/dynamic way, your RME has 100ohm output impedance, and will be fine for any amp.

Cheers George