External DAC?

@prashanth13485 

you made a good call imo

the rme is remarkably clear and clean sounding, while still coming across as fairly natural and relatively non fatiguing - benchmark dacs are cut from the same cloth tonally but cannot compete with rme on value - the rme sounds just as good but does so much more and costs less

you have identified tne only, quite minor weakness of the rme being its highly centered image with inadequate width and height... depending on other gear this can be compensated for

have fun listening, you have chosen a winner

@prashanth13485 Congrats on the new DAC, enjoy. I was going to chime in and recommend the Qutest since I just got one and I am very happy. I thought the Node 2i was a nice piece on its own for the money, but a nice DAC just takes it to a whole different world. If you're still looking at testing, try a Qutest. I am amazed at the impact. I hear so many things, but what comes to mind is clean, detailed, black backgrounds. Each note is so defined and clean, yet not a hint of analytical or sterile or bright at all, and I haven't even played with the filters, I am using the incisive neutral. It is also soooo much more open, each instrument more separated from the rest. Just some food for thought if you still want to experiment.

@jjss49 thank you so much. Quick question on volume settings on the RME. 
I’d like to use my Marantz to adjust volume. I see a couple of options in the RMe and wasn’t sure what should I go with.  I guess I’ll have to lock the volume and switch off auto ref level. But then what should I set as the reflevel and volume in the dac? I have it at +1 dbu and 0 dB volume. Any suggestions?

I believe page 62 in the manual talks about this.

Congrats on the good decision to keep the RME. Try headphones and IEMs with it too. Manufacturers charging more than RME's price are in trouble :-) I believe that with digital to audio conversion you can only do so much... Even if you were spend 1 million dollars, what can it do "even better"? The rest depends on the quality of the recording itself, speakers, headphones etc. WRT output levels consult the excellent https://forum.rme-audio.de/index.php

Setting is different between using RCA cables vs balanced. I am getting better results w/ balanced cables into MF M6si. I change volume both on the RME and the amp.