Congratulation for the new gear .

Glad you like it. You can try ALL the opamps and I pretty sure one of it will suit your listening preferences very well. You have another 2 more opamp to try with, and hope one of them is better than the silver amp .

just 1 step / 7 o'clock on Silver amp? Wow, it is insanely too powerful for my UM3Xs.

Ooo.. next DAC upgrade.... look no further... the Benchmark's DAC-1 HDR. . Have balanced ouput too. .. and even the 'Audio Critic' loves it.
http://www.theaudiocritic.com/plog/

hehe with that price i will get Audio GD Phoniex+REF1 with additional some top up
I had play around with 3 OPAMP so far i like Earth more. So i burn Earth opamp 1st. For jumper, i like Soft1 mode.
at this moment i like Compass DAC+AMB Mini3+UM Quaddie combo, much cleaner sound i can hear some extra sound again from some of my fave tracks, although it is faint but with Compass DAC i still can hear it. Last time with Alien DAC it is not noticeable at all.

Silveramp is twin 9V power. so it is darn powerful! but battery life is like 20hrs. So u not using it so much for traveling, i using it as desktop amp at home
Mostly for me, Alien DAC+Fiio E5 is good enough for traveling

why u dont use compass dac out rather than hp output?

yup already using compass dac out now. now using crap cable planning for better 1.
HP output isn't good at all thanks for the tips.

Ooo.. That is bad. Wondering why after many feedbacks from head-fiers, but the hp out is bad. BTW, generally the op-amps if for the headphone out. Can you describe the how 'bad' it is? You still have some burn-in, and hope you like it.



Aha, you now are now start listening 'thing', which was invisible or not exist previously. Good gears are scary but satisfying. This is what we called resolution or details.

Thank you.

This post has been edited by bahathir: Aug 30 2009, 04:38 PM

u got me wrong,
Compass HP output to Silveramp is no good sound. But when Compass DAC output to Silveramp is good.
But Compass DAC/Amp is good either but Silveramp is better than Compass Amp IMO.
Anyway i cant make conclusion 1st. Still in burning process.

Today i try Compass DAC>Fiio E5>UM Quaddie.
WOW superb too! man this small amp turn into a beast. beware the volume too need to tune to the lowest 1st.
I found E5 cant produce good treble compare to Mini3/Silveramp,

This post has been edited by jkleejk: Aug 30 2009, 07:37 PM

so you feel that mini3 actually better than compass build in amp?

I just like the sound Compass DAC+Mini3 (more cleaner SQ).
Compass DAC/AMP (Earth) still under burning process.
So right now i can't made conclusion.

compass generally is a budget dac/amp (other than zero dac)..

when u connect compass hp to silveramp..ur already double amp..thats why dac out is have better sq

try to run your compass with Bright or Neutral mode for the amp. perhaps the result will be cleaner.

hehe, i consider Compass isn't a budget dac/amp (as price has gone up after promotional period)>there is many more similar DAC gadgets available in china. There is good Matrix DAC, Yulong DAH1, Xindak DAC5 & etc (for DAC alone), but if come to DAC/AMP wise Compass maybe the best bang for the bucks. Overall i am still satisfied with it overall as i like the rollable HDAM & jumper things.

I agree it is double amp that is why it is sound like crap.

---

Added on August 31, 2009, 8:45 ami tried the setting i prefer bright setting with Earth compare with neutral.
Both Neutral+Earth is very close with Mini3, I slightly side towards Mini3 for slightly more clearer sound, Compass bass is a bit heavier sunken some treble.
Later i will try other Opamp like Moon/Sun again to judge further. thanks for the tips

This post has been edited by jkleejk: Aug 31 2009, 08:45 AM

bro get reference dac 1 with audio phoenix.....using cast ....
they will able to beat some of fully balanced amps....

cost me arm & leg

Anyone one here interested with COMPASS, do PM me ~~~ got few ready units. RM1150 with one free Canare coaxial cable.

Wah good news, but not really interested. Now i am looking for tube amp.

Please open a thread for the Compass sale as not many people come into this thread

My COMPASS is now well over thousand of hours in use so can say it really shows what it is good at...

BTW, I have been doing some tweaks to my setup of the Compass unit after doing some research on the Net and at Head-Fi. All are mostlly done externally no messing around with the internals of the COMPASS. It's just to enhance what is already a very natural sounding DAC output.

What I did and impressions:

1. At GodLuvSxS' suggestion, I put the COMPASS on four Vibrapod Pods and Cones Isolators. Removed the feet that came with the unit.

2. Use some RCA plugs, and put some resistor inside to short the live and ground pins together. These I put on the unused INPUT RCAs on the Unit. (NOT OUTPUT! Doing so will damage the unit!) These helps to reduce RFI & EMF interference from the unused jacks picking them up. I use 75ohm resistor for the plug to the COAXIAL input (since I use the TOSLINK for connections) and 5K1 resistors for the plugs to the RCA INPUT jack.

3. Use some Blu-Tack and made a small ring around the plug head of the TOSLINK cable connecting to the unit as well as the cables at the DAC output to reduce micro-vibrations travelling via the cable from the PC to the Unit.

The overall result of these tweaks resulted in a very clear (analytical) natural organic and most importantly CLEANER sounding Compass. There's a bit more air noticeable around the instruments and performers, and more sense of the recording's acoustic space. Also there's more variety of textures to the highs, mids, and bass.

Overall, what is already quite good with the COMPASS, I felt is further enhanced. Highs are extended yet airy, bass is tight and whomping....soundstage has widened and increased with a bit more 3D depth to it...More PRAT I suppose.

These tweaks were meant to isolate the unit from micro-vibrations or stray interference leaking in from the unused RCA jacks which apparently affect the sound quality.

One thing I did try earlier and then discarded was using blu-tack on the ICs chips and capacitors of the unit. At first it sounded good but then I realised that too much air and dynamics of the music is gone so I removed them.

Also I did try the Marigold VTS tuning Dots for Electronics on the ICs only. These works, and do change the sound quality but I didn't like them because it make the sound compressed and thin so I removed them as well.

It was better I supposed to isolate the whole unit .

The FLACs from CDs which I used as reference during tweakings are:

1. Sheffield Drive - Sheffield Lab
2. James Newton Howard & Friends (Using this to test the difference is quite interesting. Drums and cymbals sounded much more realistic compared to
earlier.
3. Tutti [Reference Recordings] Orchestral Sampler
4. Beethoven - Symphonies - Karajan (SACD rip) Massed violins sounded great...more like a whole bunch of violins playing

Oh yeah....it seems good practice to use a proper power supply unit. I didn't realise that my voltage regulator was a factor here until I got an APC voltage regulator... the improvement in sound quality is simply dramatic. Before this, there's an odd hollowness, grey sounding to the overall sound. Once I switched to a good voltage regulator, the sound is fuller sounding, airier in the highs, and the soundstage seem more 3D. I am using Copper Colour Penny II Power Cord at the moment, but I am thinking of getting Audio-Gd's Power cable with the Compass to the see if it actually works better since Kingwa did develop the unit with the cable in mind....

I know that there have been many arguments about the effectiveness of cables, etc and power supply affect audio reproduction. It's up to an individual. I was skeptical but I tried them out. Works for me, and I do hear differences, so no problem.


UPDATE (10 September '09):

I didn't realise that the optical connection from Prodigy HD2 to the Compass was not set-up properly. In the control panel of the HD2, there is a tab that switches the control bit of digital connections from Consumer to Professional. I accidentally used the Professional setting, which adds pre-emphasis to the audio signal.

Once I switched it back to Consumer, the audio sounds much more neutral and better.

This means that of all the tweaks I applied to the above, the one using RCA plugs is now redundant. I tried them on and off and now prefers them not on the RCA sockets at all.

As of now, the Compass is really showing its true colors, good soundstage and dynamics.

This post has been edited by damieneo: Sep 10 2009, 12:34 PM

1st impression:

It's bigger than my D2 Viper. ._.

something i found out strange today.
using Compass DAC/AMP>built in amp speakers.
when i tune my compass volume more, the sound seems to be more clearer & nicer.
but when i tune my speaker volume more, the bass is start overwhelming & muffled.
but this is like fun to know, but i am not sure what is going on here, maybe some sifu can explain more...

maybe pre-amp for built-in speaker not that good (i assuming ur using pre-out rather than dac out). mind to tell ur speaker is?

speaker cap ayam, planning on Hivi T200B next mth.