RME have released a new firmware update for the ADI-2 Pro and AE (Anniversary Edition), allowing for automatic sample rate changes when switching between playback via USB and SPDIF.
The RME ADI-2 Pro has quickly becoming a firm favourite with both professional audio engineers and Hi-Fi users, who are looking for the highest quality of audio conversion. And as is typical of RME, they’ve just released a new firmware update in response to a request made by Hi-Fi users in particular, who wanted to be able to switch freely between USB and SPDIF at different sample rates (no small task!). This is of course the second update in a the last few months, as RME continues its tradition of listening and responding to customer requests, with new features and tweaks being added on an ongoing basis.
As Matthias Carstens (head designer at RME) explains in the forum post, “[the HiFi guys] expected to be able to just switch the input from USB to SPDIF and back. As we all know this is usually not possible. The interface (AD/DA, digital I/Os, FPGA, DSP) runs with a common clock, and getting SPDIF from a CD-player needs the interface to change to the clock of said player. Now if you just played back files via USB at 192 kHz, changing the hardware to 44.1 would wreak havoc on whatever operating system you use, as fully unexpectedly either the hardware is removed, or put into a state that the OS’ audio engine can not handle.”
“One often found solution is to use a sample rate converter for the incoming SPDIF signal, so the interface can stay at the current USB sample rate, and one can still listen to the SPDIF signal. Unfortunately the first thing a ‘HiFi guy’ does is to disable said SRC. Oops! But even if not, the SRC will fail when USB is used with higher than 192 kHz, as the SRC in the ADI-2 Pro is limited to these 192 kHz.”
So if you’re an owner of the RME ADI-2 Pro or the ADI-2 Pro AE, you’ll want to take immediately take advantage of this latest update. And if you’re not yet an ADI-2 Pro user but you’re interested in finding out more, you can check out the reviews from Sound On Sound and Headfonics, both of whom we’re pleased to report had plenty of nice things to say about this feature-laden headphone amp and USB-DAC!
We also spotted this great quote on the Gearslutz mastering forum from an ADI-2 Pro user named Jochen, who’s kindly allowed us to repost his words here;
“I’m using the ADI-2 Pro for several months now and I really think it’s one of the biggest bargains in audio today. The conversion quality is stellar and it has more options than most of the much more expensive units. The headphone output also sounds better (for my taste) than everything I owned before (SPL Phonitor, Neve RNHP,…). I don’t often rave about gear, but it’s well deserved.”
You can read more about the full changes made via the firmware update from Matthias Carsten’s post on the RME forum here.
The firmware update itself can be downloaded from the RME ADI-2 Pro page on the RME website here.
Find out more about the RME ADI-2 Pro
Find out more about the RME ADI-2 Pro Anniversary Edition
If you’d like to know more about RME’s pro audio solutions, give us a call on 01727 821 870 to speak to one of our team or to arrange a demo.
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