I'v purchased some Burson products in the past and so they offered to let me evaluate the Burson Play in its lowest stock form. I naturally took the opportunity as I'm very happy with their opp-amps in my current setups. I initially heard they were a good upgrade to the Xonar Essence STX so I picked up some V5 Dual's and was blown away how it sounded compared to the stock JRC2114. After that I got the XD-05 for portable use that I am happy with using a V5i Dual in it vs the Ti OPA1612 it came with. I also have the 2015 version NFB-11 with USB 32v2 and the TXO upgrades. I put the Play against all of these in it's stock form.
First the specs:
Second the Packaging, Accessories, Build and Looks:
It comes with a tool to open it (I just used my own driver with a H2.5 for the front face and a T9 for the back), some very nice looking and feeling RCA cables, a USB cable for desk use, a USB cable for PC case use that terminates into a USB 2.0 header to go straight into the motherboard, and a bracket for the PC expansion slot that is a pass through of the RCA to the inside of the case and unit.
Build:
It feels very solidly built with only 4 screws (2x front/2x back) that need to come out to make changes to the opp-amps in it. It uses a hook and slot shape on the top cover so that it can only fit one way on the unit and stay secure on the sides. nothing feels loose on the outside.
Looks wise it is very subtle with a clean face that is all black when off and when on only shows the volume level in blue LED numbers. The sides have a slight slight indentation of lines to break up some the flat look. The sides also have 4 holes for mounting within a 5.25" bay. The back has a USB B, RCA preouts, large power switch, a barrel connector for desk power and a MOLEX connector for PC power use which I really think should be SATA as not many devices use MOLEX besides some pumps nowadays. The bottom has four rubber feet that you could remove for case use if needed.
Usability:
Desk use: It is a very nice size for a desk as it is the size of a standard optical drive. You only need to have the USB and and power from the included adapter rated for 12V-6A which are both in the back for good cable management.
Internal Use: It just mounts like any 5.25" device then you power it with a PSU MOLEX connector and use the USB B to USB 2.0 Header cable to plug it directly into your Motherboard. If you will be using the preouts then you will need to also install the rear slot pass-though bracket and plug that into the RCA's on the back of the unit. You want to mount it where it gets good airflow as it will get as hot or hotter then a HDD.
The volume wheel is a infinite spinning digital wheel that can also be pushed for mute.
Driver Setup:
For a Windows machine you only need to use the driver from there support site (https://www.bursonaudio.com/downloads/). Once you have that you can turn on and setup the device in your playback devices appropriately. I used 24Bit 44.1Hz for all my OS testing and for music it was WASAPI in Jriver MC 24 with no DSP's.
Sound:
Stock: While Stock compared to my NFB-11 which is pretty wide in sound-stage and slightly bright I would say the Play is narrow (a good thing for gamers) and neutral making imaging excellent. If you are a gamer and want to do some serious FPS gaming and want to hear just footsteps ect, it will work very well. The Play is just as detailed as the NFB-11 as well.
Opp-amp Rolling: This is one of the key features of the Play in my opinion because if you have either Bursons or another companies opp-amps in an older unit already and just want a solid hardware platform to switch to and experiment with the implementation of the XMOS chip in this one is very OS friendly.
Power: While having no gain control I would say all my current headphones (M50, PortaPro, K7XX, TH-X00, M1060) are pretty easy to drive but it still has plenty of room to spare for some higher impedance ones. I mostly spend on the 10 mark and 16 mark if the AC is on. This is out of 99. It does not distort at the higher volumes either and seems clean in the whole range.
IEMs:
My IE80 is my only go to IEM for use today but it and my M300s have a small bit of static on the noise floor of this amp so I would expect all lower impedance ones would. This can probably be minimized depending on the opp-amps used in the unit but I was asked to review it stock so that's what I heard. Even with the louder noise floor it was still clear though at all volume levels.
Since Black Friday I snagged some AF180's will will update on whether those have the same noise floor or not when I test them.
Overall The product is excellent and I have not had any short comings with it and it's trick to be in a case is going to be be a must for some specific people and a great desk combo regardless that has that Burson build and quality sound.
I again would like to thank Burson for letting me evaluate a part of there market I did not even realize they were in.
First the specs:
Second the Packaging, Accessories, Build and Looks:
It comes with a tool to open it (I just used my own driver with a H2.5 for the front face and a T9 for the back), some very nice looking and feeling RCA cables, a USB cable for desk use, a USB cable for PC case use that terminates into a USB 2.0 header to go straight into the motherboard, and a bracket for the PC expansion slot that is a pass through of the RCA to the inside of the case and unit.
Build:
It feels very solidly built with only 4 screws (2x front/2x back) that need to come out to make changes to the opp-amps in it. It uses a hook and slot shape on the top cover so that it can only fit one way on the unit and stay secure on the sides. nothing feels loose on the outside.
Looks wise it is very subtle with a clean face that is all black when off and when on only shows the volume level in blue LED numbers. The sides have a slight slight indentation of lines to break up some the flat look. The sides also have 4 holes for mounting within a 5.25" bay. The back has a USB B, RCA preouts, large power switch, a barrel connector for desk power and a MOLEX connector for PC power use which I really think should be SATA as not many devices use MOLEX besides some pumps nowadays. The bottom has four rubber feet that you could remove for case use if needed.
Usability:
Desk use: It is a very nice size for a desk as it is the size of a standard optical drive. You only need to have the USB and and power from the included adapter rated for 12V-6A which are both in the back for good cable management.
Internal Use: It just mounts like any 5.25" device then you power it with a PSU MOLEX connector and use the USB B to USB 2.0 Header cable to plug it directly into your Motherboard. If you will be using the preouts then you will need to also install the rear slot pass-though bracket and plug that into the RCA's on the back of the unit. You want to mount it where it gets good airflow as it will get as hot or hotter then a HDD.
The volume wheel is a infinite spinning digital wheel that can also be pushed for mute.
Driver Setup:
For a Windows machine you only need to use the driver from there support site (https://www.bursonaudio.com/downloads/). Once you have that you can turn on and setup the device in your playback devices appropriately. I used 24Bit 44.1Hz for all my OS testing and for music it was WASAPI in Jriver MC 24 with no DSP's.
Sound:
Stock: While Stock compared to my NFB-11 which is pretty wide in sound-stage and slightly bright I would say the Play is narrow (a good thing for gamers) and neutral making imaging excellent. If you are a gamer and want to do some serious FPS gaming and want to hear just footsteps ect, it will work very well. The Play is just as detailed as the NFB-11 as well.
Opp-amp Rolling: This is one of the key features of the Play in my opinion because if you have either Bursons or another companies opp-amps in an older unit already and just want a solid hardware platform to switch to and experiment with the implementation of the XMOS chip in this one is very OS friendly.
Power: While having no gain control I would say all my current headphones (M50, PortaPro, K7XX, TH-X00, M1060) are pretty easy to drive but it still has plenty of room to spare for some higher impedance ones. I mostly spend on the 10 mark and 16 mark if the AC is on. This is out of 99. It does not distort at the higher volumes either and seems clean in the whole range.
IEMs:
My IE80 is my only go to IEM for use today but it and my M300s have a small bit of static on the noise floor of this amp so I would expect all lower impedance ones would. This can probably be minimized depending on the opp-amps used in the unit but I was asked to review it stock so that's what I heard. Even with the louder noise floor it was still clear though at all volume levels.
Since Black Friday I snagged some AF180's will will update on whether those have the same noise floor or not when I test them.
Overall The product is excellent and I have not had any short comings with it and it's trick to be in a case is going to be be a must for some specific people and a great desk combo regardless that has that Burson build and quality sound.
I again would like to thank Burson for letting me evaluate a part of there market I did not even realize they were in.
