[cyberidd]

So does anyone have any modding plans for the Compass? If it is as good as it appears to be, I can only imagine how it would sound once modded.

 

[doping panda]

Great review, Peete!

I'm even more excited about getting one than I was before.

 

[dBs]

I like the sound of the collaborated modification proposal.

 

[Tyson]

Peete, if you like the Compass, you really should check out the CAST gear they offer. I'll stick by my assertion of 400 hours breakin for the preamp and dac, but the C1 took much, much longer. In fact if you check my sig, you can see that I moved the C1 to drive the bass woofers on my VMPS speakers for the past several months. I'd put them there because I liked the VTL amps a bit better for the mids/highs.

On a lark I recently moved the C1 back to running the mids, and I like it better than the VTL's, which is pretty shocking. Just as smooth and real sounding as the tube gear, but with better focus and overall tidier presentation. You hear everything, but you hear it in a pleasant, musical fashion.

 

[HammerSandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif Gain: 9db/15db Voicing: Completely neutral. What do people think?

Good here.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

I'd love to hear it no doubt with your excellent ref system Tyson.

It has piqued my curiosity, even more so having experienced the trickle down topology benefit the Compass clearly enjoys some of the fruits of from it's bigger brother.

Amazing revelation that the C1 has surpassed the VTL's...wow...

Peete.

 

[sennsay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pricklely Peete /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm for it (obviously). Peete.

Ok, I'm in! S-Man

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by doping panda /img/forum/go_quote.gif Great review, Peete! I'm even more excited about getting one than I was before.

Thanks !!!!

Peete.

PS I'm off to bed.....I sent off a proposal to Kingwa about sacrafising one of the current soft modes for a bright setting and leaving the current neutral setting as is. I thought soft 3 would be the obvious choice for this switch.

 

[Serpentd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandchak /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1000 bucks I feel is a lot of money to start this hobby - atleast I consider myself fotunate to have compass for the price of 258 + ship, to me its a steal really.. I have learnt something from my past experiance and I'll share that with you, if I have a budget of USD500 for some particular equipment, and I find one for USD250 which is really good and suits my need, I wont be stuck on the 500 budget and keep looking for something that costs that much.. I would rather spend the savings on something else or just keep it aside.. So, if you have a decent source or a PC which you would use, I suggest keep your savings as of now and as time progresses, you can think about upgrading, in this way you will also feel the difference as you upgrade.. its like you grow with the system.. just my opinions and the way I would approach things..

Hey there sandchak, I wanted to thank you for the sound advice. Thanks for reminding me to stay patient and keep both my feet planted firmly on the ground. I appreciate the advice, which I plan on following. Cheers man.

To Peete, dude that review of yours was mind blowing. It was really cool to read about the music you used. I'm a music junkie and had most of everything you used in either cd or vinyl. For you to use Dream Theater with one of my top 5 drummer influences "Mike Portnoy" was too awesome (I've been a drummer for over 25 years), by the way they would be considered Prog Metal, though genres can be subjective especially when it comes to metal. Not to mention somebody else that owns Dead Can Dance is quite rare. Some of the most intense and unique music I've ever heard. I doesn't have a "genre" I don't think.

Anyway, for your review coming from a beginners point of view to this type of equipment was very intriguing and also very humbling. I thought I knew a little bit about home audio, which I do, however you put into perspective on how little I really know. This is very exciting to me as I tend to Master and move on to the next hobby all too often withing a few years. You put this in perspective that this can be a life long hobby if you choose. Something I would love to do. I would love to have a neighbor like yourself and be able to pick your brain, even if it was for one evening.

Anyway, that is by far one of the best reviews I've ever read even if I only understood some of it (at least when it came to your equipment). It feels as though I came into this hobby at a perfect time in my life and your review got me very excited in many different ways. Can't wait to read it again! Cheers man.

 

[Drosera]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've just been having a chat to PP about gain settings, voicing and other bits and pieces, and here's what we've come up with as to what the final version of the Compass should have: Gain: 9db/15db The current settings are 13/19 which are quite high. 19 seems to be very high even with 300 Ohm headphones. 13 seems to us a bit low for the highest setting, especially if people want to (foolishly) blast their ears out with hi-impedance headphones, but is still quite high, so 15 seems to be a good balance. Voicing: Completely neutral. At present the default has slightly rolled-off highs. Compared to the ST3 and C2C, the sound of the headamp in the compass is a little closed with some headphones because of the roll-off. Since the soft settings take care of people with very bright headphones, for the default it's best to have the sound completely neutral. What do people think?

Although I haven't clearly experienced the rolled-off highs myself, I think both these solutions are excellent. Complete agreement here.
I guess we can leave to Kingwa to do the final labeling. If a brighter setting than the 'neutral' it has now, is not 'neutral' anymore to him, he can always call that 'bright-1'. Just so long as the options are there.

(EDIT: Oh wait, the suggestion was already sent off. Hmmm, different time-zones here Peete.)

 

[csroc]

I can't really verify whether the highs are significantly rolled off in the neutral setting or not. From how Kingwa talked to me it sounds like some of those things are easily tweakable but I'm not sure.

Has anyone contacted him regarding the current desire for 9/15dB gains and the absolutely neutral neutral mode? I would myself but I'm not sure if it hasn't already happened. If you're reading this and interested I encourage you to email Kingwa and let us know you did so.

 

[bjorn]

Thank you Pete for your fantastic review!

One small suggestion; two of the images in the review has ended up on the same row and that affects the text formatting in a bad way (the text rows will get the same width as that row). If you simply put the second image on a new row it would fix it.

 

[decayed.cell]

I'd got as far as saying it was mind blasting Serpent. I asked if we could get Ear Out removed from the front panel, waiting for a reply. Getting the font changed also seems to be costly according to Kingwa

 

[sandchak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chu /img/forum/go_quote.gif Quick question about the update posted on their site: "Thanks all peoples give me advice of those buttoms. Basing on Carl's web survey, I think put the Bypass on the front panel, the other functions on the rear. But we can make by customers special order of front button free, only need an extra week." Can someone translate that to english a little better? I'm very confused about what he's actually trying to say.

I think its been corrected now, but what he means is that going by the polls conducted here, he will keep the bypass (super) switch on the front panel, but if someone wishes to have the preamp or gain switch on the front panel and not the bypass switch, he will do that free of cost, but it will take him an extra week to process the order..

 

[csroc]

The Compass page isn't loading for me, anyone else having the same problem? Perhaps they're updating it.