To my ears, the Gugnir was more warm and less clinical then the rme. The rme sounded slightly more detailed, but I kinda enjoyed the more “analog” sound if you can say it that way. It’s like listening to a reel to reel tape, having an added warmness and slightly more natural sound. That being said, I would prefer the RME over the schiit, but the kitsune audio holo spring v2 level 2 outclassed the rme to my ears and memory because it was a perfect balance of detail and natural sound. But that’s 2x the price of the rme.
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Thanks, in the end the RME remains a really good option, I was also looking at the Yggdrasil A2 in addition to Holo, did you even hear this and compare it?
I have not heard the yggdrasil except at an audio show and it was too loud for me to judge the quality tbh
Perhaps check out the soekris dac1541 if you are also interested in a ladder dac
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The RMe is what I would choose. Also a good choice would be a SMDL D1.
Unless you go with a ladder DAC or some other specialty type DAC (sort of like the DAC version of tube amps) you’re looking at varying levels or transparancy.
That is, of course, wordplay. There are no degrees of transparancy. Something is either transparent or not. It seems to me that at the 1k+ level of DACs other components (I’m including ears in that list) will limit the performance of your signal chain before the DAC does.
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I made a thread today for the RME DAC. If you’re interested in the feature set, I’d recommend it. But if all you need are the essential functions, the Topping D70 is also worth considering because of its excellent measured performance.
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I chose the D70 to pair with my 789.
I’ll let you know how it sounds when the 789 arrives in January 2021.
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Thanks a lot to everyone for the answers, I had seen the D70, a very good DAC at a great price, the measurements are comparable to the RME, despite this I believe that the RME represents the best purchase between the two for the features, that once taken the hand could be very useful and therefore the flexibility of the DAC itself, I think I will go with this and then maybe in the future, to try, I will also take an R2R to match the rest. Thanks again for all your replies 
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If price was no object I’d choose the RME DAC. Another, newly measured DAC is the Sabaj D5. Similar to the RME, but at least worth a look.
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Easy. That’s Soekris 1541
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Any of the R2R offerings are going to be > AKM, Sabre, Wolfson, Burr Brown, CS… anything… I’ve gone back and forth so many times… and the R2R is just like an unflitered IPA, chunky bite… unadulterated… rich full flavor in your face everything with an unapologetic aura…
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I don’t know about that, because some sigma deltas are really excellent as well. It’s just a different sound signature as you described it, very much preference at this price point
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Until the airist I was in the “I don’t know about that” crowd… no more of that non-sense, I’ll be bringing my iFi Micro iDSD Black Label home to test the bit-perfect with my amps…
I think I will still take the RME ADI 2 DAC FS which will almost certainly my endgame in terms of Dac DS, we are already talking about a DAC that besides measuring perfectly and being perfectly neutral, has so many features to be extremely flexible. Maybe in the future knowing me, I will definitely take an R2R/Multibit to be combined with the RME and the rest of the audio gear .
Just remember the RME is not plug and play top shelf DAC it’s for tinkering with settings… you can play with its 100,000 different settings to find your perfect tuning… where the R2R’s are just plug and play…
This might sound weird but my spring 2 kte almost has to warm up. It sounds different after using it for an hr after turning it on from the next day. If I turn it off and on again after it’s already been on for a while it sounds the same, but I do think it changes if you compare it turning on for the first time that day and 15-30 min after. I don’t know if this is with all r2r designs (most likely not) but just something I’ve noticed
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Same here, schiit audio also has this issue with their multi-bit… before listening to music… I let the amp and the r2r play music overnight so I can wake up to that open sounding beautiful unfiltered deliciously addicting flow of raw natural sound.
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Well that’s good that I wasn’t going nuts then lol
I know, most DACs are just plug and play, some options and ends there, I think that anyway the RME is not so difficult to set as many people think, in the end if you don’t mind much, once set, you can leave it as it was originally, but if tomorrow you want to change something or adapt the audio signature of a headphone to your liking etc… with the RME you can do it, with other DACs you simply can’t, and maybe this is the strong point of that DAC, flexibility, besides the fact that it’s still a great sounding DAC. I’m getting a lot of information these days, apparently it also has an extremely accurate and well done manual from which you can learn all the functions of the DAC itself. I’m also considering the Gumby anyway.
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Guess this will be a continuation to my R2R mind blownage by the Airist… I literally been playing all day with m100, D30, SMSL SU-8, Gungnir AKM 4399 vs bit-perfect IFI iDSD Black Label and Airist…
Something is magical with R2R/multibit for plug and play… it just sounds so authentic… sending my gungnir in for multibit upgrade is next project… 10,000 days album wings for marie there’s a swirling soft audible fan like noise that’s extremely more pronounced with life along with lots of the instruments on the R2R/multibit… astonishing.
Next test… attach all to the rupert neve amp and give it another whirl…