After seeing so much positive chatter over the past few years on the impressive sound for the money brought by the RME ADI-2 DAC , I am still unable to pull the trigger due to a concern directly related to a rarely seen DAC user control feature, that IMO, clearly sets it apart from anything else out there. Again this is a DAC that could be put as my primary source AND it seemed, allow for an easy “set and forget” Loudness/ EQ leveling that are user set to “kick in and influence “ the original signal at different volume levels!
As for the integration of any other potential LOUDNESS feature-Hasn't it always been said that making it dependent on VOLUME level as the best case solution? Again just for those of us still stubbornly clinging to EQ and tone controls!?( isn't a variable loudness feature representative of even an audio “holy grail” in the search for peace among the audio purists and tone junkies??)
Simple right? Just Buy it. Done. Well this RME has thrown a curveball into this seemingly perfect ideal by forcing any potential buyers looking for proper LOUDNESS to seemingly HAVE to employ the RME as the PRIMARY volume control for the whole system.( NOT as a stand alone DAC into a preamp)
NO , Im not interested driving DAC straight to my amp in order to just be able to utilize the loudness feature of a DAC!
So for those of us wanting to still use a preamp I am in search of solutions.
1- For example-could I just set my preamp volume to 10 or 11 o’clock and then control volume exclusively from the RME?
2-Will this on paper do what I am thinking or am I possibly now messing something up by not having primary source level maxed out?
3-Does anyone have any other ideas? Because otherwise -What good is an adjustable volume dependent loudness DAC if I cant effectively UTILIZE IT(volume)?
