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Shahinian Compass, 1 to 2

Mine are Compass 1 c. 2003 (…I was told by the seller and have the black mid-bass unit) and are by no means light! I've had two sets of Arcs at my place (1998 and 2003 versions) but not simultaneously nor driven by the same amp. To my ears, from what I am hearing these days, I think I prefer the Compasses in my room. Don't shoot me!
 
Rana said:
Mine are Compass 1 c. 2003 (…I was told by the seller and have the black mid-bass unit) and are by no means light! I've had two sets of Arcs at my place (1998 and 2003 versions) but not simultaneously nor driven by the same amp. To my ears, from what I am hearing these days, I think I prefer the Compasses in my room. Don't shoot me!
Click to expand...

What do you like better about the Compass?
 
Projection into the room is almost on a par with my previous Decware omnis (which replaced my last Arc). I also really notice that the Compass follows percussive beat better than I remember the Arcs doing - but that could be because I have better amplification now - although when I did a back to back between my Super Elves and the Arcs with the same gear, I also felt they (the Arcs) came off worse in that respect.
 
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Attached are some pictures of the Compass upgrade which was good fun and very satisfying. You can tell version 2 as it will have a black bass unit rather than clear and the new tweeter has smaller holes than the original one (not the other way around) I have a picture of them side by side so can post that. I have attached the picture of the new tweeter with smaller holes and what I think is the Seas Unit (white background) if you don't buy from Shahinian. In terms of the crossover I replaced the two big black capacitors, the manufacturer and spec is written on them so dead easy to get a direct replacement on the internet. Soldering is straight forward as they are so large and not fiddly at all. I took photos at each stage and bagged everything e.g. acoustic wool lower chamber so everything went back correctly. The only thing to be careful of if Shahinian sometimes use black cable for positive and red for negative. Positive terminals on the drivers are marked in red pen so just take pictures of everything so re-assembly is easier. Tweeters are glued in with standard wood glue. To take apart base unit out first and unsolder and then tap tweeter out from behind and then unsolder. You can then take out the crossover and pull cable through (they run through the whole in the brace. On re-assembly fit lower chamber wadding, refit crossover, solder and glue in tweeter, upper chamber wadding and then solder and refit new base unit ( you will need some rubber gasket for the base unit (Falcon Acoustics). Happy to give clearer guidance if needed.

And you can see the results with the new walnut veneer in the picture.
 
Thought I would chip in about John Burns who was mentioned earlier in the thread.
I mailed him for some information about a second hand pair I had.
Knowing there was no deal he promptly supplied all the info i was after we had a nice exchange about music in general.
A very pleasant person to deal with and i would remember this if in the market for Shahinian again.
No connection btw.
 
regafan said:
Thought I would chip in about John Burns who was mentioned earlier in the thread.
I mailed him for some information about a second hand pair I had.
Knowing there was no deal he promptly supplied all the info i was after we had a nice exchange about music in general.
A very pleasant person to deal with and i would remember this if in the market for Shahinian again.
No connection btw.
Click to expand...
Yes John is always helpful , always good for a chat , a great bloke all round.
 
For me my Compass mk1 with mk2 tweeters already do things my previous Arcs didn't do, and Arcs did some things my Compass don't do. On that basis i can't see Compass 2 being leagues better.... but i did have 2 sets of Compass at one time, one mk1 tweeter and one with mk2 tweeter. The difference was marked, however i'm sure that my original set had tweeters that were starting to degrade, which the mk2 do not do in the same fashion and half of the difference would be that. Like all handmade speakers, i doubt two pairs sound identical anyway!
 
John was brilliant helping me source all the parts for the upgrade and giving me some guidance. His advice was that the new base drivers was the most important thing to do. He did say the tweeter change and changing the crossover capacitors were not worth doing unless broken. Given it was only about £200 more to do them I decided to do everything in one hit so bar the cabinet shell I effectively had a new pair of Mk 2 speakers with new finishes, new drivers all round, new crossover components and grilles. No idea whether the extra was worth while in terms of sound. In total it cost me about £900, I originally paid £1,200 for the speakers new so in total it was still great value compared to pt exch and buying a new pair of Mk 2’s for £5,000.
 
Thanks Simon - very helpful photos. The previous owner of my Compass Mk1 (kevinrt who is brilliant by the way) has emailed that my bass drive units had previously been updated to latest spec and the tweeter was same as Mk 2. Was interested in your crossover mod, but in the light of what John has said...I'll wait for them to break! No wonder they sound better than my previous Arcs, I wasn't dreaming it after all.
 
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For anyone wondering which tweeters they have this is an image John Burns sent me so I could check which were in my speakers. Having checked my emails he did advise updating the tweeters and the bass units but not the cross over capacitors, I did those because they were 20 years old and they were out the cabinets (also Naim recommend they are replaced every 10 years), wasn't much money and was straightforward as long as you can solder at a basic standard. Excluding my cabinet refurbishment the upgrade cost me:

Tweeters £170 per pair
Bass Drivers £102 per pair
Bass Unit gasket £2.00
4 x capacitors C£30.00
Grille Fabric £15.00
 
Simon, is the cabinet stuffing just polyfill or is it wool? Just curious as I have seen both over the years. I appreciate your pics of this, the internal part of the cabinet and the bass loading part has had me curious for awhile.

Your Compass look really great!
 
It was more like long fibre wool, felt man made to me, the whole each of the four chambers was lightly filled. Not packed in tight but he whole volume was full.
 
I am so glad I found this thread! My Compass (bought used here some years ago) are the Mk1 version and now one of the tweeters does not work anymore. Pear Audio Analogue in Ljubljana mention one Shahinian dealer in Austria, so I phoned him and also sent a mail. He said both tweeters would have to be changed for the MK 2 version, but he was not sure if these were available anymore. He recommended to contact PAA directly and also forwarded my mail to them. No reply, so I sent them a mail myself- again no reply. All this was December last year. And then came this thread, and all the parts are available, obviously. So John Burns seems to be the man, as many of you warmly recommend. I am really tempted to do not only the tweeter but also the bass driver change (although these are in good working order). Unfortunately, I am not as handy as Simon W, and part of this will have to be done be a dealer. But I will have to do the preparations myself (dissasemble the speaker, having the bigger hole for the new bass driver by a joiner etc.). I hope for advice from John Burns and the experts here. Thanks in advance.
 
If you are a Shahinian owner, and are not from England or America, you are unfortunately in the rain.
 
I almost think we are in the rain in the US, hardly any support-obviously one can get questions answered by Vasken at Shahinian, but even that has been kind of iffy at times. Strange really. I do love their speakers though!
 
Well Rushboy, that's what I thought until I found this thread. No competent dealer in my country and no continental distibutor anymore, as it seems. But I do hope that John Burns/Pear Audio UK will be able to provide the tweeters I need (and send them to continental Europe). And the recommended bass drivers should be available at Falcon Acoustics. It worked for Simon W, so I hope it is still possible that way. I also found a dealer, although inexperienced with Shahinian products, is ready to do it.
 
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