I repeated my experiment, this time with an analog cable loop... Your looped MP3 and a recording of the original with Deemphasis applied do sound very similar. This doesn't explain why an analog recording of a CD would sound bad. Does this affect all the line inputs? What about microphone signals?


Regards,
Daniel Fuchs
RME

It seemed to be the analog line ins having the problem (not the FF pre's).
But I didn't do testing to confirm that 100%. I was short on time to get it working before a session. I could be wrong.
I didn't test the digital I\O either.
D\A stage seemed fine other than the limiter distortion when the level was pushed.
I was on the newest driver when this happened, so I'm a little scared to update it again until I have a couple days free to make sure everything is cool.
I imagine if I replaced the system32 files after it would be fine though.

Good to see some RME folks here.

@RME Support, do you know if the op-amps in the upcoming ADi-8 QS have been changed from the DS?

Guess so, but I don't know the exact details of the board layout... You can expect quite an improvement, I'd say (not that the DS was all that bad... )

Regards,
Daniel Fuchs
RME