[keithw]

I've had my Denon D5000's for a few day now and they're pretty awesome. Right now I'm driving them with a Yamaha A/V receiver, which works okay but it's not ideal obviously. So, I'm looking to buy my first headphone amp. What I want is a full-sized desktop amp with a built in DAC for use with my PC. After a little research I'm down to two models that interest me: the Audio-gd Compass and the Meier-Audio Corda Cantate.2

The Compass seems really popular around here and fits my budget perfectly. I like its versatility (I'm going to be using USB anyway but the option for S/PDIF is nice) and it just seems like an all around great unit.

On the other hand I haven't seen much info on the Cantate. Aesthetically I like it way more than the Compass, it's really beautiful. The built in crossfeed also seems like a useful feature. No optical or coax inputs is kind of a bummer but like I said I'm probably sticking to USB anyway.

So I guess it comes down to this: which one sounds better? I don't mind paying the extra $100 or so for the Cantate, but is it worth it? Do either of these pair particularly well with the Denon's? Please help me decide, head-fi!!

 

[Currawong]

I thought that the Compass was a better match with Denons than the (better) C2C because of the Denon's strong bass being brought out by the more powerful amp. If you listen to, say, old jazz recordings, crossfeed is very handy, as those recordings seem to have the instruments mostly on the left or right, which can be irritating to listen to. The other thing is, if you're in Europe the cost of the Cantate will be different.

The only comparison of the Compass with any of Meier's amps that I've seen was the Opera here.

 

[twylight]

Compass - easy as pie to resell if you get the sickness and upgrade to bigger stuff later

 

[keithw]

Any more opinions?

 

[Seba]

Go for the Compass, you won't regret it.