[Dankerz]

I remember cranking the dial with my dt-770 80 ohm a couple of times within the first two days. I never go above 11 or 12 on any recording now.

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dankerz /img/forum/go_quote.gif I remember cranking the dial with my dt-770 80 ohm a couple of times within the first two days. I never go above 11 or 12 on any recording now.

Mine started strong, went real weak. Like I thought it was dying. Went strong and weak again. And now seems to have stabilized. Never seen any Gear do this before. I think it may have taken a few weeks to get all the Chinese electrons flushed out, I heard they are 180 degrees out of phase.

.

 

[Sganzerla]

I (and some friends) noticed some diference in volume between Moon and Earth, and I think as harshness goes with burn in people tend to use a higher volume too.

 

[wdoerr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by arcer63 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Really? The same thing happened for mine, but I highly doubt that Franklin, IL (middle-Illinois) is a DHL hub but that there isnt one in the Chicago area, where I live. Did you get that answer from Cherry or DHL? Andre

That's Franklin Park, in an industrial park right next to O'hare airport.

 

[RedSky0]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moodyrn /img/forum/go_quote.gif They are maxed. Everything's fine now. It wasn't that I didn't get enough volume yesterday, I just had to turn the knob higher than what most people reported. This was straight out of the box however, but now, my senns never see anything past 11:00. And my 600 ohm sextetts are plenty loud at 12:00. My dt770/sounds fine at 9:00, and plenty loud at 10:00. The setting on all of my pcs are the same as yesterday. It is a little odd. I wouldn't have thought burning(well a little) would effect output, but apparently it did.

Yeah I was almost certain it was the switch from the Windows Mixer to ASIO that changed it, but switching back now the volume doesn't suddenly drop. Seems way too big of a jump to be burn-in, although since it happened maybe an hour into use, it's possible. Although, if I remember correctly on the audio-dg site, all units are burned in prior to being shipped.

Another thing that might to be relevant to some people which I didn't see anyone mention in this thread is that the DAC does positional audio for FPSs quite well. It's too much effort for me to A/B right now, but playing a few matches of CSS/CoD4, I can still position footsteps just as well. If anything, it's more clear as expected I guess for a higher quality DAC and amplifier. My comparison is only to EAX 2.0 though, as my Creative sound card for reference is pretty old.

I'm starting to really enjoy the sound of it too. It's immediately apparent that it gives a much more up front sound compared to with using my modest portable amp with the HD600s. I can't say it consistently lets me hear detail I couldn't previously but there are definitely tracks where this is true, or alternatively sometimes I can actually identify the instrument being played as opposed to just hearing it as a distant back melody. I'm loving the lack of buzz in the signal for quiet jazz/classical tracks, surprisingly helpful. In fact those are the two genres that probably benefit the most, as opposed to metal/rock. The less anemic and more full bodied sound of a better amped HD600 really conveys a better sense of realism to wind and string instruments. Less so to synthesised instruments in metal/electronica. Faster paced metal does benefit from slightly tighter bass, probably not to the degree I expected, it doesn't turn the HD600s into the ER4Ps (and I shouldn't be expecting that of course). It's definitely much easier to follow in say complex death metal sections as well as in full orchestral arrangements that would previously sound muddled and meshed together but again I was probably anticipating a bigger improvement here. Soundstage oddly feels significantly improved in some songs, again particular classical and jazz, although much less so in metal but I guess that speaks more of the recording quality and the limitation of that. Bass is also a bit weak in punch for my liking, as usual adjusting the EQ in foobar even slightly causes clipping so I'm kind of stuck with what it is it seems, although it's hardly weak. Finally the way it sounds nicely rounded off and almost smoothed out is a huge boon, it makes it much nicer to listen to at louder volumes without coming off as abrasive.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Redsky0...only 100 hours of the 600 needed is done before shipping your unit (or anyone else's) out from Audio-gd.

You still have a long way to go before the Compass is settled 100%.

Please see Curra's FAQ for a post link that explains it a little more in depth.

Peete.

 

[tim3320070]

Quote:

Originally Posted by arcer63 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Really? The same thing happened for mine, but I highly doubt that Franklin, IL (middle-Illinois) is a DHL hub but that there isnt one in the Chicago area, where I live. Did you get that answer from Cherry or DHL? Andre

This is Franklin Park north of the City...

 

[arcer63]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tim3320070 /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is Franklin Park north of the City...

That makes so much more sense, now I justwonder why they didnt fly it into O'hare. It went through Ohio. I take the train through there on my way home, it'd be awesome if I could pic it up. Except for the whole death by parents part.

 

[ecclesand]

I must say I am digging the Compass with the Moon HDAM and the neutral setting. I'm currently listening to metal (Nightwish, Edguy, Crematory, Diluvium, Edenbridge) on my Ultrasone Pro900s. The bass is well extended with EXCELLENT impact but not as layered as my previous setup. I'm hoping this will improve with more burn-in. The soundstage is very nice...both horizontally and vertically. I get the sensation of the music being all around me, however, I'm able to pick where each instrument is. Of course, this may be part of the S Logic on the Ultrasones which is all I listen to anymore.

These are all initial impressions with only around 8 hours of listening time. I'm sure it will improve as the Compass stabilizes based on the feedback in this thread. But as others have stated already, the bang for the buck of this unit is exceptional....VERY EXCEPTIONAL.

More impressions later. I'm finding it hard to get any work done while listening because I keep getting caught up in the music. Good Stuff!

 

[driftingbunnies]

Man i can't wait to get mine...Cherry said she's shipping mine on the 4th. That makes it almost 2 months after paying.

 

[wdoerr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by arcer63 /img/forum/go_quote.gif That makes so much more sense, now I justwonder why they didnt fly it into O'hare. It went through Ohio. I take the train through there on my way home, it'd be awesome if I could pic it up. Except for the whole death by parents part.

That airport in Ohio is like FedEx's airport (I forget where it is). It's a hub for overseas freight shipping, no passengers. Hundred's of overseas flights come in, and out, loaded with freight. The freignt is then sorted, per destination, loaded onto planes and flowned to its destination (which in your case is O'Hare). It runs like clockwork. There may be several flights a day to Chicagomon.

 

[lowlevelowl]

Received mine today, so I'm sure some others did as well. Came in a box, perfect cosmetic condition except for the "residue" on the top which wiped off easy with a damp paper towel.

Configured mine with moon hdam and neutral after about 10 mins of the default earth/bright config. Enjoying the sound so far, but the difference between hdams is slight IMO. Maybe I'll notice a bigger difference once I get more accustomed to the sound.

 

[AudioPhewl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chum_2000_uk /img/forum/go_quote.gif At the moment I have it connected that way (pre amp out from Compass with pre amp switch to on), but when I separate the NAD amp via the jumpers - therefore using the NAD purely as a power amp for the speakers I do get a fair amount of humming through the speakers. If I dont separate the amp and just use the Aux in then I dont get any hum from the speakers.... however I think overall the quality of the music is noticeably less detailed etc (as you would expect I guess, the pre amp of the Compass should be better than the pre amp of the NAD?) I'm guessing that the humming could be caused by something like potential difference between the compass and my NAD amp? Is there any way to minimise/get rid of the humming or will I just have to live with it if I want to connect the Compass and amp in this way?

Morning, young man.

Peete likely has hit it on the head. For reasons beyond my comprehension, so many "mainstream" amplifiers run with just the live and neutral wires. I've not heard the hum through the speakers, but I had problems years ago when recording tapes - I'd have a background hum on them.

On the back of many amplifiers is a screwpoint with an earth symbol. The answer is to run an extra wire from that, down to the earth prong on your plug.

If you can't find an earth point on the amplifier, then find a case screw that makes contact with the metal base, and attach the wire to that.

The earth wire doesn't need to be very big. You could rob it from an old mains cable, or likely even get away with using some old speaker cable, though mains cable would be better than the 9-strand rubbish speaker cables from a typical UK mini-system

.

If you haven't got any old cable lying around, give me a shout and I'll try and dig something out for you. Though you'd likely get a metre or two of flex cable from Wilkinsons or Wickes for a quid or less...

~Phewl.

 

[Starguard]

Just got my Compass...

Pictures can not prepare you for just how awesome this thing is. It's huge and it's heavy.

I couldn't get the Optical working (I blame Creative) so I just went for USB. At first I pretty underwhelmed... But then--holy ****. It just kind of hits you. There are things I'm hearing for the first time in songs that I've heard hundreds of times.

But one thing:

Should I be hearing a low buzzing from my headphones when I'm plugged in?

Edit: it's not audible during louder songs but during low volumes it's pretty noticeable. I made sure the OPA was plugged in properly and it seems fine.

 

[lowlevelowl]

So looks like I got a defective Compass. It runs for about 25 minutes and then the sound starts breaking up, almost like the sound of a record skipping. Left running, eventually the sound cuts out all together and all you hear are popping noises. I have reseated both HDAMs (moon and earth), looked all over the interior of the unit and haven't seen anything abnormal. It really is almost like it is overheating, if I let it cool off for about 5 minutes and turn it back on, it plays fine for another 25 minutes.

Now this could be shipping damage, but the unit is in pristine condition inside an out. Not even any cosmetic damage. Even the box made it from China to the US with no dented corners etc. Frankly I think it was a dud at the factory. If so, I question Audio-gd burning these in for 100 hours as this is something that would have come to their attention pretty fast.

Given the cost to ship it back to China, I'm certainly not going to ship it back for repair or replacement. The 25 minutes prior to the "defect" sound really good though, so I'm sure a working unit is a good product. I'll email Cherry and see what they can do for me, but I'm not hopeful that anything can be done without me incurring more expense.

I think I'll stick to US manufacturers from now on just for the convenience factor. Live and learn...