[Necrolic]

Alright, so I plan to upgrade my DAC and amp very soon, and was planning on an $1800 budget, but before I go through with that I wanted to check here to see if, in my particular situation, the upgrade would be worth it.

So obviously at first the new components will be powering my heavily modded D5000s (they are LA5000 Lite, so markl modded, Lawton cups, and JMoney pads), and in the future I plan to upgrade to the LA7000. At no point in the near future do I see myself buying an extremely neutral, analytical headphone like the HD800s or T1, mainly because some of the music I listen to fairly frequently (older punk stuff) is fairly poorly recorded.

I also have a lot of music that is extremely difficult to find in CD form, so all of my music is listened to from my PC in 320kbps MP3 form downloaded from Millisong.

Now all that being said, would it be worth my while to drop that much upgrading my gear?

 

[Justice Strike]

no

 

[Bullseye]

Definitely no!

What you have is very good. If you feel like getting somewhere else, buy a new pair of HPs.

 

[Necrolic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bullseye /img/forum/go_quote.gif Definitely no! What you have is very good. If you feel like getting somewhere else, buy a new pair of HPs.

The amp in the Compass is mediocre at best, improvement could definitely be had.

Would I be better off splitting the budget and completely upgrading my rig, like $800-$1000 on amp/DAC and the rest on new cans?

The modded D5000s are VERY good headphones, especially for my kind of music, and the only upgrades I could really think of are LA7000, DX1000, and possibly RS1is although it's debateable which of those two are better as they're drastically different. Obviously there are better headphones than those as far as imaging, detail retrieval, accuracy, etc., but for just plain old fun headphones I really can't think of anything. Stuff in my budget like HE-5, T1 and HD800 don't really suit my types of music and would make the poor recordings far too obvious.

Alternatively I could use the money to go balanced.

 

[Justice Strike]

have you listened to the hd800? i've listened to it... at no point did i think... this is too neutral and analytical. Yes it's detailed, but it's not cold.

 

[krmathis]

Yeah, I would say so.
Never heard the Compass myself, but from what I have read around here it provide great value for the money but not the end of the road performance wise. So considering you enjoy the D5000 it seems like a fair deal to improve the DAC and amplification part.

 

[Necrolic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justice Strike /img/forum/go_quote.gif have you listened to the hd800? i've listened to it... at no point did i think... this is too neutral and analytical. Yes it's detailed, but it's not cold.

Every person I've spoken to has not recommended it for rock and electronic music.

 

[jenneth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrolic /img/forum/go_quote.gif Every person I've spoken to has not recommended it for rock and electronic music.

I actually don't think the HD800 is that bad for rock and electronic music. It's not as intimate as something like the RS1, but it is still quite good.

 

[Justice Strike]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrolic /img/forum/go_quote.gif Every person I've spoken to has not recommended it for rock and electronic music.

not to be repeating record but... if everyone you have spoken said that you should jump from a building, would you do that?

However if you are dead set on replacing your compass... i've always felt that simplicity is the best way to go. So i would buy either a good dac, or a good amp. But not something that is a bit of both.

 

[gevorg]

Your Compass does not show the full potential of your LA5000. I would rate Compass with D5000 as 3.5 out of 5 stars performance (or 3 stars if you use USB input or subpar SPDIF). As a DAC/amp combo, Compass gives decent mid-range sound.

You can definitely upgrade to a better DAC and amp, and D5000 will scale up nicely. There is nothing wrong with preferring D5000/7000 over HD800, they have quite different sound signatures. Whether HD800 is detailed or cold is highly subjective, so YMMV.

 

[Bullseye]

First, from what I have seen regarding RMAA, the Compass is not completely flat in all the FR (has some roll off), but in most cases it is perfectly fine. Improvement might be had, but not spending $1800 on it. If you want to get a flat FR curve (that is what better means here), you might want to buy a CKKIII or M^3, but not those 1 grand ones, there are others for less money than that that are as good as the rest.

Second, going balanced is a waste of money. You are getting 6dB more, nothing else. But it seems that for some people "louder is better", and you should know that is not the case.

For that kind of money you can also get a speaker setup, which will be a great compliment to your current headphone setup.

Oh and in any case what I am recommending you is so that you keep enjoying your music as much as possible, without hurting your wallet. I am not winning any money by giving you this advice.

Finally, a recommended rig that you might like is a Stax system (even the 2050 is very good). Stax can be fun as well!

Hope you don't regret your purchase and see yourself trying to find differences from your current setup that are not there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrolic /img/forum/go_quote.gif The amp in the Compass is mediocre at best, improvement could definitely be had. Alternatively I could use the money to go balanced.

 

[Currawong]

Bullseye: All DACs roll off to zero at 22kHz. The roll-off itself is inaudible but necessary for technical reasons to do with the way DACs work. Just thought I'd mention that.

 

[Necrolic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justice Strike /img/forum/go_quote.gif not to be repeating record but... if everyone you have spoken said that you should jump from a building, would you do that? However if you are dead set on replacing your compass... i've always felt that simplicity is the best way to go. So i would buy either a good dac, or a good amp. But not something that is a bit of both.

If I were to get HD800s there is no way in hell I would drive them with my Compass. A flat frequency curve means nothing if the amp is not powerful enough to drive the headphones properly.

It doesn't matter if the amp is neutral if it doesn't have the power to drive the headphones to their full potential, and the Compass simply doesn't have that power, and on top of that it isn't even somewhat neutral.

 

[beamthegreat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrolic /img/forum/go_quote.gif I also have a lot of music that is extremely difficult to find in CD form, so all of my music is listened to from my PC in 320kbps MP3 form downloaded from Millisong.?

320 kbps? Thats sound the same as FLAC or any other type of lossless files.

 

[stang]

Buy as many CDs as possible haha

You say they are difficult to find on CD, just try to get as much as you can

No harm done there. Upgrading DAC would be a great start as long as you have some kind of lossless music. Sure, most cannot tell the diff between 320kbps and FLAC, but I am sure with good equipment, the difference will be noticeable. Maybe not a big diff, but it should be there. I listen to poorly recorded metal with the equipment in my sig, I reckon it still sound great. As soon as I upgrade my DAC, I will probably start to notice the flaws, that is why I will start listening to music form other genre's

You could always buy a different pair of cans like Grado's too.