haloxt
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The Audio-gd Compass (Was: Designing an alternative to the Zero DAC/amp)
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Muji
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Quote:
Nope, the earth HDAM worked fine and I'm very pleased with how it sounds.
Quote:
Since I'm so pleased with the earth HDAM I don't think I will use the sun HDAM anyway so it would end up collecting dust somewhere. I just don't think it's worth their time and money. I might ask if and how I could repair it myself though.
| Originally Posted by ScottieB /img/forum/go_quote.gif That is not normal. You didn't have this distortion with the other HDAM? |
Nope, the earth HDAM worked fine and I'm very pleased with how it sounds.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by les_garten /img/forum/go_quote.gif Mine is in the L channel as soon as I switched after burning in the Earth and Moon. There seems to be a high failure rate for the SUN modules. Kingwa will send another one to you, no questions asked. Something with the SUN modules are an issue that results in significantly higher failure rates compared to Earth and Moon. Drop Kingwa an Email. |
Since I'm so pleased with the earth HDAM I don't think I will use the sun HDAM anyway so it would end up collecting dust somewhere. I just don't think it's worth their time and money. I might ask if and how I could repair it myself though.
ecclesand
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Quote:
It's not a problem because Audio-gd has a premium paypal account and they get charged a certain % whether the source of the payment is a person's CC or bank account. This is why Audio-gd charges the extra 4% for Paypal...to cover these fees.
| Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif
|
It's not a problem because Audio-gd has a premium paypal account and they get charged a certain % whether the source of the payment is a person's CC or bank account. This is why Audio-gd charges the extra 4% for Paypal...to cover these fees.
haloxt
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Whew that's what I needed to know, was confusing ty
.
DisgruntledVirus
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Quote:
Email them asking for a quote with using paypal.
| Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif Whew that's what I needed to know, was confusing ty
|
Email them asking for a quote with using paypal.
sandchak
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Are you surprised??.. Ecclesand's avataar is the coolest and wisest looking thing I have ever seen in my life !!..
| Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif Whew that's what I needed to know, was confusing ty
|
Are you surprised??.. Ecclesand's avataar is the coolest and wisest looking thing I have ever seen in my life !!..
ecclesand
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HAHAHA....that's actually me. I'm not much to look at, but I'm hell at climbing trees!
| Originally Posted by sandchak /img/forum/go_quote.gif Are you surprised??.. Ecclesand's avataar is the coolest and wisest looking thing I have ever seen in my life !!..
|
HAHAHA....that's actually me. I'm not much to look at, but I'm hell at climbing trees!
Ganderson
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Just wanted to share my initial experience with my new Compass.
Let me preface by saying that I am new to this head-fi stuff and though my setup has been evolving over the last few months as a work in progress, I don't have a vast frame of reference with a wide variety of gear at this point.
My amps up to this point have gone from DIY CMOY to DIY Grado RA1 Clone, (both battery powered) to the Compass.
Phones I've gone through: Grado SR80, SR225, Senn HD595 and for now settled on my Denon D2000 which I have recently "Markl" modded and recabled with Cryoparts TWcu wire from Craig at Whiplash.
My source has been my trusty 32GB iPod Touch 2G via LOD.
My Compass and extra Moon OPA arrived from China in perfect condition. It was very well packed and the box showed no signs of mishandling... and the shake-test revealed nothing loose inside.
Unboxing revealed a product that exceeded my expectations in appearance and build quality. I have seen all of the pictures and read the testimonies but in person you realize that it really is a well made and elegant looking unit with a clean, industrial design... plus it's just "more black" in person. As a frame of reference for my opinion on the build, I work for a high end intelligent lighting manufaturer as head of the Manufaturing Engineering Dept. so I am very familiar with manufacturing practices. Anyway... it's built like a tank and looks great as others have said.
Removing the top cover revealing the internals gave me the warm fuzzy feeling that I had purchased a product from a company who takes pride in it's work and knows what they are doing. It may be a superficial observation, but the clean layout of the wiring and quality of the solder joints inside really inspires confidence in the product from a build qualiy perspective. Whether built in China or the USA, a mell made product is a well made product.
After having a look around, I removed the foam from the OPA section (yes, it does leave a nasty residue which I will remove at some point). For my initial listening I set the jumpers to the "neutral" setting, the gain to "low" for my Denons, "Super" button pressed in and connected my iPod LOD cable to the line-in on the Compass.
Comfortable volume was produced at around 10 or 11 o'clock on the Compass volume dial. I listened for around 3 hours last night and my initial quick impressions of the amp section vs. what I've been using are: deeper bass extension, more full and lush mids and more extension in the highs (getting a little silibant on some songs). Soundstaging has also improved on the Denons in both width and depth and is basically more 3D. As an amp the Compass is definitely a significant step up for me, but it's so new that I'm going to give it a lot more time to burn in before getting too critical and analytical. The Compass has also revealed to me that the bottleneck in my setup at this point is my iPod as my source... but I knew this would happen and it's one of the reasons I chose the compass... to take advantade of it's DAC section with a better source.
So that is what is coming next for me, probably in the form of an Apple TV or Mac Mini based music server feeding the Compass DAC and controlled remotely by my iPod Touch. At that point I will get to see what the DAC can do, but for now I will just enjoy the iPod through the Compass amp.
Let me preface by saying that I am new to this head-fi stuff and though my setup has been evolving over the last few months as a work in progress, I don't have a vast frame of reference with a wide variety of gear at this point.
My amps up to this point have gone from DIY CMOY to DIY Grado RA1 Clone, (both battery powered) to the Compass.
Phones I've gone through: Grado SR80, SR225, Senn HD595 and for now settled on my Denon D2000 which I have recently "Markl" modded and recabled with Cryoparts TWcu wire from Craig at Whiplash.
My source has been my trusty 32GB iPod Touch 2G via LOD.
My Compass and extra Moon OPA arrived from China in perfect condition. It was very well packed and the box showed no signs of mishandling... and the shake-test revealed nothing loose inside.
Unboxing revealed a product that exceeded my expectations in appearance and build quality. I have seen all of the pictures and read the testimonies but in person you realize that it really is a well made and elegant looking unit with a clean, industrial design... plus it's just "more black" in person. As a frame of reference for my opinion on the build, I work for a high end intelligent lighting manufaturer as head of the Manufaturing Engineering Dept. so I am very familiar with manufacturing practices. Anyway... it's built like a tank and looks great as others have said.
Removing the top cover revealing the internals gave me the warm fuzzy feeling that I had purchased a product from a company who takes pride in it's work and knows what they are doing. It may be a superficial observation, but the clean layout of the wiring and quality of the solder joints inside really inspires confidence in the product from a build qualiy perspective. Whether built in China or the USA, a mell made product is a well made product.
After having a look around, I removed the foam from the OPA section (yes, it does leave a nasty residue which I will remove at some point). For my initial listening I set the jumpers to the "neutral" setting, the gain to "low" for my Denons, "Super" button pressed in and connected my iPod LOD cable to the line-in on the Compass.
Comfortable volume was produced at around 10 or 11 o'clock on the Compass volume dial. I listened for around 3 hours last night and my initial quick impressions of the amp section vs. what I've been using are: deeper bass extension, more full and lush mids and more extension in the highs (getting a little silibant on some songs). Soundstaging has also improved on the Denons in both width and depth and is basically more 3D. As an amp the Compass is definitely a significant step up for me, but it's so new that I'm going to give it a lot more time to burn in before getting too critical and analytical. The Compass has also revealed to me that the bottleneck in my setup at this point is my iPod as my source... but I knew this would happen and it's one of the reasons I chose the compass... to take advantade of it's DAC section with a better source.
So that is what is coming next for me, probably in the form of an Apple TV or Mac Mini based music server feeding the Compass DAC and controlled remotely by my iPod Touch. At that point I will get to see what the DAC can do, but for now I will just enjoy the iPod through the Compass amp.
haloxt
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I contacted usb-audio to try to get advice on making it work with Vista. They recommended I get 2.8.15, older than the current 2.8.7 and after just ~10 crashes I got it to work with no more complications. Will do tests now yey.
Jackbush
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since this is targeted for more beginners, 24/96 support probably isn't a big priority (unless it doesn't add much to the cost). If it adds a significant amount to the cost it's probably better to leave it out.
haloxt
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My goodness, usb-audio has cannibalized my asio4all, it plays but it keeps clicking now. I guess I won't be comparing usb-audio vs asio4all after all
luckily after an hour of comparisons I feel certain it's superior to asio4all, maybe better than my cd player, and it apparently makes the once-big difference between different media players smaller. Later I will test the dreaded "latest foobar asio to see if it might sound closer to the other asio's.
cyberidd
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Quote:
Does the USB ASIO work with various media players? I primarily use Itunes right now, but sometimes use foobar, and have been considering moving to Media Monkey, so it would be nice if ASIO worked with all of them.
| Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif My goodness, usb-audio has cannibalized my asio4all, it plays but it keeps clicking now. I guess I won't be comparing usb-audio vs asio4all after all
|
Does the USB ASIO work with various media players? I primarily use Itunes right now, but sometimes use foobar, and have been considering moving to Media Monkey, so it would be nice if ASIO worked with all of them.
iTetragrammaton
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Unfortunately yes. My Compass is connected to Swans M200mkiii active speakers. When using pre out I get the hum when the volume on the Swans is 25% or higher. When using DAC out (with the Super button pressed in) there is absolutely no hum or hiss, even at 100% on the speakers.
So instead of using the preamp on the Compass, I now use the volume control on the speakers - UNLESS there is a fix? I've checked all cables etc., no problems there.
If anyone has contacted Kingwa on this, please inform us of the response. Otherwise I'll do it myself.
| Originally Posted by punk_guy182 /img/forum/go_quote.gif i have a noticeable and verry annoying low hum with compass in preamp mode. Has anyone else experienced that? |
Unfortunately yes. My Compass is connected to Swans M200mkiii active speakers. When using pre out I get the hum when the volume on the Swans is 25% or higher. When using DAC out (with the Super button pressed in) there is absolutely no hum or hiss, even at 100% on the speakers.
So instead of using the preamp on the Compass, I now use the volume control on the speakers - UNLESS there is a fix? I've checked all cables etc., no problems there.
If anyone has contacted Kingwa on this, please inform us of the response. Otherwise I'll do it myself.
Skorpitarius
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I cannot get ASIO to do anything . I have a year old HP pc with the stock sound card in it. I have Winamp playing via "directsound" for headphones and speakers .
I download the ASIO4ALL and it wouldn't do anything . Downloaded the proper usb-audio ASIO and parts of the interface window are greyed out, doesn't wanna do anything . Yeah, i'm a newbie to ASIO/tweaking computer audio but shrug, dunno .
Sounds great tho as is but hope to decipher this ASIO voodoo ...
I download the ASIO4ALL and it wouldn't do anything . Downloaded the proper usb-audio ASIO and parts of the interface window are greyed out, doesn't wanna do anything . Yeah, i'm a newbie to ASIO/tweaking computer audio but shrug, dunno .
Sounds great tho as is but hope to decipher this ASIO voodoo ...
Shoreman
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Quote:
This should help:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/as...nation-221237/
| Originally Posted by Skorpitarius /img/forum/go_quote.gif I cannot get ASIO to do anything . I have a year old HP pc with the stock sound card in it. I have Winamp playing via "directsound" for headphones and speakers . I download the ASIO4ALL and it wouldn't do anything . Downloaded the proper usb-audio ASIO and parts of the interface window are greyed out, doesn't wanna do anything . Yeah, i'm a newbie to ASIO/tweaking computer audio but shrug, dunno . Sounds great tho as is but hope to decipher this ASIO voodoo ... |
This should help:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/as...nation-221237/
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