The M3 are really nice, they sound amazing spatialy (completely  3 dimensional!)  bass is punchy but not overbloated, very clean detailed sound.  They are my go to in ears~

Bass is bad, Isolation is bad, Comfort is bad, Overall sound signature is abysmal.  I bought them believing they would be decent portable headphones but they  were not~  Even at home in a quiet environment they still sounded meh.  The sound was coherent, but weak.  It did not sound like a...

I got my M3's when they were first released, and put them through alot of  wear and tear.  They survived alot of abuse, but they survived THIS far before crumbling in my bag.  The suckers are pretty darn resilient.   I am going to buy another pair, seriously these little ear phones don't...

My ranking in SQ   1. Bifrost, perfect dac imo.  It doesnt add, doesn't subtract.  Its not sibilant, its not anything bad. 2. NFB-2 - Basically the bifrost, but warmer cutting off some higher registers.  3. Compass 2  -  In the sabre config it is slightly sibilant.  Pairs well with my...

mmm, I might swap to the WM chip I remember it having a more pleasant sound.

Quote: No popping, no distortion, perhaps the unit clicks when locking in a new sample rate but I never noticed it with headphones on nor do I have a huge selection of music with varying sample rates.   The unit handles both of my headphones like a champ, but it pairs better with a...

Quote:   Foobar2000

might sound stupid but on the phoebus sound card, how do I properly set up Dolby HTv4 to always output the best surround mix.  Its confusing, with little visuals as to if its working properly and even less documentation.

Instead it sounds like someone messed up in the construction of the device.  I would try and get a replacement.  I had an expensive component do that to be as well, sent it back to shop and they figured out the issue.   I have a high end Asus board, and have no problem with their USB 2.0...

I find that super cheap USB dacs doesn't really sound much or any better than a good PCI-E sound card unless you have a super cheap motherboard.   Many of them coming with built in HPA's     Sounds like your unit is broken though, no USB Dac or amp should sound like that.  I have heard...

The amp in the compass 2 makes the LCD-2 shine quite a bit. Doesn't bring out any sibilance from the sabre either.    I have used the LCD-2 extensively with the Matrix M-Stage, Concerto, Lyr, and Taboo MK2.  And the Bifrost/NFB-2 dacs.

J river, runs everything with 0 configuration.  Cost money but totally worth it for convenience.   Its built for high quality video output while maintaining the level of throw everything at it VLC.   Audio output from lossless to plug ins is more robust than even foobar with plugins.

on my PC I can run on WASAPI or Asio using the lowest buffer values without any drop outs.  EVEN when I am playing a game(muted of course )  So I guess its very much dependent.   My only issue with USB32 is how finicky it is with USB controllers, especially USB 3.0 which have no issue...

Ultrasone Signature DJ   It pairs fairly well with it but I find any headphone with even borderline sibilance to be a big nono.

What was originally less punchy with the right headphones on the compass is significantly more so.  Seriously, solid state is awesome and the convenience of this unit makes it doubly so since it sounds really good.  My original analysis of it was way off base.   I cant wait to try them with...