RME ADI-2 fs against Topping D90SE

👌

i had them both in early/mid 2020, sold both within a month - was the d90 mqa model and the akm-chipped rme 

they sound similar, extended top, leanish mids, decent but somewhat nondescript bass, not much harmonic richness, i preferred a chord 2qute and then an ayre codex, then a schiit gumby to either, all more musical less overtly digital sounding

neither the topping nor the rme could image properly, narrow and shallow

rme is a good headphone amp though, and that manual gave no quarter to the old bellsouth yellow pages ...😂

Mine has the AKM chip (2 yrs old) and is much more 3Dish than the Topping. I believe AKM are back in business and have developed a new chip even better than the previous but again the technology is moving fast and I find differences in units very hard to distinguish until you get up the 'ladder' (with ladder technology). The way we hear these things has a lot to do with what we integrate them with.

I just replaced the RME with a non OS unit that is 16 bit.  My brain and ears are at odds .   It shouldn't sound this good but it does.   

The following is the system I have the Topping D90LE setup on. Damn fine listening experience. I got this so I can listen in bed, the RAAL SR1a headphone is not bed friendly.

I think my streaming setup really pushes this to a very high level, even though the amp is not the best.

- Schitt Jotunheim R headphone amp (used $400)
- Topping D90LE DAC ($719)
- EtherRegen ($640) (I use this in reverse order)
- Sonore OpticalRendu ROON ONLY + LPS ($1400)
- Sony XDR FM tuner (modded $500)
- RAAL CA-1a headphone ($2000) + RAAL Jotunheim cable

I have a ’better’ DAC in the Musetec 005 which I need to listen more with 2 RAAL specific amps, the Schitt Jotunheim R and the incredible RAAL VM-1a. At this point I am leaning towards the Benchmark DAC3B and Topping D90LE for the headphones.

Matching gear is the most important consideration and comments in isolation about gear are "comments in isolation" 😀