Burson HA-160D Impressions from the Burson Loaner Program at Headfonia - Page 13

I am impressed by it every day. I did review some other DAC's and Headphone amps that are more expensive than 160D, but never something beaten 160D in terms of speed, musical details, punch and pure joy of listening. This thing alone makes me love 160D even more :-)

I use the Burson as a reference DAC and reference desktop amp.  Everything about the sound screams precision.  It keeps the music together better than any of my other gear.  I haven't delved into more expensive amps, but it is far and away the most impressive piece of gear I own.  

I use it to drive my Sennheiser 650s direct, my Woo WA6, and my Genelec 8040s through a CleanBox Pro.  My old rig (not really that old!) was an Apogee Duet, which struggles with echoes and transients.  The Burson is clean and spacious.  It's not even a contest.  The Apogee D/As, which make a lot of today's modern music, pale by comparison.

The solid state amp took the doors off the Woo WA6 with a standard tube set.  Once I put the Princess tube in, it became a closer match with the Burson still in the lead.  Subbing a GZ34 tube and they're virtually neck and neck (though the GZ34 still needs burn in time).  I doubt I could tell which is which in a blind taste test.  It's splitting hairs.  The bass sounds slightly cleaner on the Burson, which I tend to like.  But honestly, when you get to this level of performance, there's no right answer, it comes down to preference.  

The point being-- the Burson is dang-good.  The pre-amp is the best I've heard.  I could easily get by with just this box and be perfectly happy, but I love playing with the Woo.  Once the honeymoon fades, I could see myself selling the Woo down the road.  I'll be spending money on a pair of LCD-2s or Sennie 800s before I bother with the signal again.  If I were building a rig from scratch-- the Burson would be at the top of my shopping list.

Is there a new loaner program? anyone can confirm this? 

Not on Headfonia that I could see on their site, maybe one directly from Burson? Have you mailed them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ultrainferno 

Not on Headfonia that I could see on their site, maybe one directly from Burson? Have you mailed them?

Right, i saw something on their Fb page. This time is not with headfonia. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by fabio-fi 

Right, i saw something on their Fb page. This time is not with headfonia. 

Probably fabio is talking about the new loaner program with Audeze. They announced last week that they are running a new loaner program where people from Europe will have the chance to try the 160D+LCD-2 combo for a few days.

Registration ends on feb 28th, link here:

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/burson8/1.html