[sandchak]

strictly off the topic : I hang around sometimes in Kingwa's Chinese forum and I must say they have one particular very good caricature artist.. so it was nice to see a Chinese caricature of Peete after his review came out..

interesting .. wonder if it has any resemblance to Peete...

 

[winzzz]

guys what do u think compass pair with grado cans ? which one better for compass high or low impedance cans ?

 

[dBs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by winzzz /img/forum/go_quote.gif guys what do u think compass pair with grado cans ? which one better for compass high or low impedance cans ?

It has different gain modes for both low impedance and high impedance phones. It should do fine with Grados I would think on account. The sound has been tailored to be neutral so I would think that would be a fair match sonically as well.

 

[Drosera]

Quote:

Originally Posted by winzzz /img/forum/go_quote.gif guys what do u think compass pair with grado cans ? which one better for compass high or low impedance cans ?

Hard to say. In my personal (and limited) experience I feel that low-impedance headphones (say, under 100ohm) sound somewhat 'overcontrolled' from powerful SS amplifiers like the Compass. But that may be a personal thing.

However it may be, after the impedance changes the final version of the Compass will drive both lower and higher impedance cans fine.

 

[Currawong]

Ok, I spent a couple of hours at a friend's place comparing the Compass to the Benchmark DAC1 as promised. To compare, we used his electrostatic headphone set-up, which alone is probably worth more than all the other electronics we were using put together.

MacBook Pro -> Van Den Hul Optocoupler ->
Compass or DAC 1 ->
Van Den Hul The Orchid interconnects -> Stax SRM-717 -> SR-007
Audio-gd power cables were used with the Benchmark and SRM-717.

The first impression of the set up with the Benchmark is how clear and detailed the sound is with it. With electrostats, there are no questions about clarity, separation or speed, these things are a given, so it's all up to the source to provide the goods.

We listened to some tracks from a binaural Stax demo disk, Chesky demo disk and various tracks from our music libraries.

What was apparent switching to the Compass (with Earth HDAM) was the very black background around the music, as if the sound were floating in a black space. However the music was filling a smaller portion of that space than with the the very open and wide sound that came using the Benchmark, instruments and vocals seeming less spread out and separate. Switching between the Sun and Earth (I'd forgotten to bring the Moon) it was apparent how the Sun has slightly less bass and treble, giving it a more forward and smooth presentation that emphasises the mids.

While it's hard to describe the degree of difference between the two units, if we rate an iPod at 5 and my Northstar at 100, the Nakamichi Dragon DAC gets 120, the Lavry DA-10 and Benchmark DAC 1 come in at 95, the Zero DAC (stock) would be about 60 and the Compass would be an 80.

This is a good example of the law of diminishing returns. I'd say I was quite right that to get a significant upgrade from the Compass, you'd need to spend somewhere around the $1000 mark, which is what the Benchmark and Lavry cost. There are still quite a few DACs which fall in between, however. Audio-gd's Ref 3 DAC at under $800 will predicably beat it too, not to mention their other DACs that use a multi-bit DA processor.

 

[Joeoboe]

Regarding using two lower gain settings, I had suggested this in my review with another possible benefit. Kingwa had said he was going to put in a relay that would swich to lower gain whenever you hit the preamp mode. I was hoping with 2 lower gain structures, we could avoid the relay altogether. Has anyone asked Kingwa about this? I suspect we are a bit late for these suggestions since he was intending on shipping in another 1-2 weeks!

 

[sandchak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif While it's hard to describe the degree of difference between the two units, if we rate an iPod at 5 and my Northstar at 100, the Nakamichi Dragon DAC gets 120, the Lavry DA-10 and Benchmark DAC 1 come in at 95, the Zero DAC (stock) would be about 60 and the Compass would be an 80. This is a good example of the law of diminishing returns. I'd say I was quite right that to get a significant upgrade from the Compass, you'd need to spend somewhere around the $1000 mark, which is what the Benchmark and Lavry cost. There are still quite a few DACs which fall in between, however. Audio-gd's Ref 3 DAC at under $800 will predicably beat it too, not to mention their other DACs that use a multi-bit DA processor.

Hey Curra, those comparisons really say a lot about Compass, taking into account the rule of diminishing returns. Compass may not be a giant killer, but sure gives them a good run for the money. Thanks for the compare, it sure feels good to have one sitting beside me..

 

[decayed.cell]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandchak /img/forum/go_quote.gif strictly off the topic : I hang around sometimes in Kingwa's Chinese forum and I must say they have one particular very good caricature artist.. so it was nice to see a Chinese caricature of Peete after his review came out.. interesting .. wonder if it has any resemblance to Peete...

Well the chinese is like Australian friend's review... Peete's not aussie is he lol

 

[Crikey]

Hm,
Either he seems to have mixed people up, but I think he's referring to Currawong. Because it says "The Review from our Australian friend" (switched and edited to accomodate english grammar). But the pics he draws are just awesome. I've also seen several where King wa is drawn

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandchak /img/forum/go_quote.gif strictly off the topic : I hang around sometimes in Kingwa's Chinese forum and I must say they have one particular very good caricature artist.. so it was nice to see a Chinese caricature of Peete after his review came out.. interesting .. wonder if it has any resemblance to Peete...

EDIT: Shoot! decayed.cell beat me to it

 

[sandchak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by decayed.cell /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well the chinese is like Australian friend's review... Peete's not aussie is he lol

Well, then it might be Curra.. hoorah!!

 

[Currawong]

Weird, very weird. Now I wish I could read Chinese. I might have to try running some of it through Google. What's the url for the forum post with that pic?

Edit: I had a look through the forums using Google. Very interesting.

 

[sandchak]

Here curra, the link is : Translated version of http://bbs.audio-gd.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=2&id=21082&page=1&star=4

and the post starts off as " Compass Assessment Abroad" (Google translated)

 

[Crikey]

Here ys go Curra:
Compass¹úÍâ²âÆÀ[ºÎÇ컪DIY¼¼ÊõÂÛ̳]

EDIT: Why is everyone replying the same thing before me?

EDIT2: Mine's the untranslated version.

 

[Drosera]

Interesting to see all our impressions reposted there. We are truly writing our reviews for the world. (Still, no pressure eh...)

 

[Currawong]

Ahh, I just found myself quoted about the ST3. I had another listen to it today, now that I am back to listening and reviewing. What happened when I posted my comment was that I had plugged in my Denons to the ST3, which seem to have a bit of bass boost as well. This made them sound boomy, which wasn't so great. Plugging in HD-600s, the ST3 sounds better, because of the slightly stronger bass and treble. I haven't tested for detail yet. For that I'll put it between my Northstar and Stax.

I'm thinking actually, of building an M^3 for myself to compare things with, as I don't have a proper benchmark to compare against, except other Audio-gd gear at the moment (or a Corda Move, which will naturally be bested by all this gear).