[murphyb74]

My Compass is at about 330 hours. As others have mentioned (and stated in the FAQ) I have noticed some sonic changes in the last week. My Compass is close at hand on the desk top and I have noted how warm it gets from time to time (usually warm to touch). During the last couple sonic changes (loss of sound quality) I noticed the Compass had cooled - just about to room temp. It wouldn't last very long and I would check back in about a half hour to find a warm Compass and sound quality returned. Have any of you noticed these temperature swings corresponding with the sonic changes during burn-in?

 

[OnceLostHorizon]

Hey guys, just wondering how do you achieve surround sound with the Compass for games/movies.

I'm still deciding between a compass and a Xonar STX for my HD 650. The difference in prize is almost double (600 vs 300 NZD)!!

I'm considering getting a separate DAC, Amp setup somewhere down the line so may just save up for the time being. My first choice is still the compass, but I don't know whether the improvement in sound quality sufficiently justifies its cost over the STX.

This may very well come down to a coinflip for me haha.

 

[Currawong]

Hi OnceLostHorizen,

The Compass will only work with 2-channel sound, so surround-sound is out of the question.

 

[OnceLostHorizon]

bah, I just found out that STX doesn't take optical in (PS3), so I gotta start lookin all over

actually, are there ways to emulate surround using dolby headphones or cmss3d etc?

 

[SoFGR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnceLostHorizon /img/forum/go_quote.gif bah, I just found out that STX doesn't take optical in (PS3), so I gotta start lookin all over actually, are there ways to emulate surround using dolby headphones or cmss3d etc?

yes x-fi hardware features like cmss3d and hardware openAL support pass through spdif just fine,although i prefer disabling all these effects in games atm because headphone cmss3d sounds very muffled ( even when it's set up correctly Guru3D.com Forums - View Single Post - X-Fi CMSS-3D Headphone ) plus i get really bad clipping with some sounds when my master volume is set to 100% instead of 75% (weird yea )

 

[MadMan007]

Quote:

Originally Posted by invisiman /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just switched to my Moon OpAmp, and I'm enjoying it very much. More bass with my K701's, and there seems to be a lot more detail on the cymbals as well. Very nice so far

Hmm that's strange, after burning in my Moon I felt that the bass was a bit decreased - it was there just not as much. Tried this with both headphones (SR-80) and speakers. It seemed like a bit of a SET tube amp sound, I didn't listen enough to really check out midrange changes.

For burning in OPAs is it best just to use the Compass or will any piece of gear burn them in? I take it the latter is true but I don't know if there would be any negative consequences.

 

[ssbkk]

Has anyone try remove the Power Supply module from the unit? I would like to know if the input voltage could be changed from 220V <--> 110 V by just soldering and de-soldering some wires or not. Would appreciate the picture of underside of the power supply module. I plan to buy one unit to be used in both Thailand and USA. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssbkk /img/forum/go_quote.gif Has anyone try remove the Power Supply module from the unit? I would like to know if the input voltage could be changed from 220V <--> 110 V by just soldering and de-soldering some wires or not. Would appreciate the picture of underside of the power supply module. I plan to buy one unit to be used in both Thailand and USA. Thanks for sharing.

I'm fairly certain it's either 120V or 240V...

Email Kingwa about this to make sure. It's possible the transformer has 120/240 primaries but I can't be certain of it.

Peete.

 

[Superfrag]

Its available in 220V also.
I live in India, and I specifically asked kingwa to make it 220v.
He did so..
Also, about the games, Im a hardcore gamer, and the Compass doesnt disappoint.
Believe it or not, it gives better positional audio than the X-Fi, the footsteps are so clear(CSS/1.6), just wish it was more portable for LAN.
and im talking about competitive play, not pubbing.
The SQ in other games are also brilliant, however I use it out of my X-Fi, ( Flexijack Port, 3.5mm to coax converter) and in audio creation mode, with bit-matched playback.
Ive yet to try the realtek SPDIF out, but it should do brilliantly in games.
Ive used with a PS3 also, optical out, and the SQ is awesome.
I use ATH-AD700's btw.
Also, I use the moon OPAMP, it has slightly better soundstage than the Earth, thus resulting in better positional audio.
Although for the first 50 hours or so, the soundstage was not fully proper, it was confusing.
But when the opamp was burnt in, the soundstage was brilliant.
Either way, both the Earth and the Moon have good soundstage, not to mention my HP's also have good soundstage, which leads to sound wallhacks if you know what I mean!!! lol.

 

[driftingbunnies]

Has anybody compared the DAC of the compass with other stand alone DACs? I've seen the comparison with the stello but I was wondering whether or not there are other DACs around the 400-500 price range that would greatly improve upon the compass DAC.

 

[haloxt]

The $480 dac19mk3 might be for you. It has super-high dynamics but doesn't add a lot of musicality alone by itself, so you might want to pair it with gear you know sounds musical and can benefit from more dynamics. The majority of gear in the price range of the dac19mk3 are probably more musical and less dynamic, so pairing them with the dac19mk3 would give great synergy. The dac19mk3's dynamics would compensate for other gears' lack of dynamics while other gears' coloration would add musicality. I only have ~400 on the dac19mk3 and I am burning it in along with other things, but I think it is shaping up very nicely, boundaries of the soundstage is expanding and I like the sound signature very much even with a very transparent headphone amp and very transparent headphone.

 

[Rise To The Top]

nvm

 

[murphyb74]

I just finished about 400 hours of burn-in on my Compass with the Earth op-amp - sounds very nice with my Denon AH-D2000! Just put in the Moon op-amp. I am impressed with this right out of the box! I had read there was some synergy with the Denons and on first listen, I agree. I need to get some hours on Moon and A - B with Earth.

 

[obentou]

Has anyone tried the PK1's with the Compass?

Right now I'm using the AKG K701 but I want to make room for some cash, without suffering too much of a loss on quality. Any ideas?

 

[rds]

What ever happened to all the hype about 'buy it now before it goes up to $500' and that it was priced so low as an introductory offer?
Looks like the upgraded version has gone up $60 over the original super low introductory price.