Just received my set of V5i.
Started the burning in immediately but the difference with the OPA627BP is tangible.
I will follow-up with further comments some time this week.
Thank you Burson!
I am an old fart (51 y/o) and I've just celebrated 34 years in the agricultural machinery business. Harvester combines are my favorite toys.
Nothing to do with hi-fi electronics, nor even with music, and probably my ears are not anymore as good as the ones of many of the headfiers here.
Therefore, please take this review with a grain of salt.
Recently I bought a Line Audio MG2, a Chinese 15V battery powered amplifier.
It comes standard from the plant with two OPA627BP (on the gain stage?) and two BUF634 as output opamp/buffer.
For my ears, this configuration in this specific topology, gives to the sound a warm, not fatiguing signature; trebles clearly rolled off and bass somehow a little bloated and not well defined.
I listen to the music mainly during my daily commuting to and from work, and in the evening, to relax,
The sound signature of this not expensive amplifier fits the purpose.
In spite of that, I found it a little bit too dark in driving the Senn’s HD650 or HD25.
While in my opinion, it is more balanced and synergic with my Grado SR125i or the AKG K550.
I had a very good experience with the Burson Lycan with the SS V5, so I decided to replace the OPA627BP with the SS V5i, as they fit into the small case of the MG2.
Received my two V5i by mail in one week from HK (I live in Shanghai) and I installed them immediately.
It took two good hours of burning in to start to have an idea of what were the changes made by the V5i on this little amp.
Then I let it playing consecutively for about 50 hours and start to use it on regular basis during my daily commuting to go to work.
In total now, the SS V5i have been used for about 100 hours.
Then I decided to make a real listening experience at home.
As a DAC I used the Burson Conductor and below you can find my impressions.
Music listened for the review:
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
Diane Schuur - Friends for Schuur
Dire Straits - Love Over Gold
Beethoven - Bernstein - The 9th Symphony
Al Di Meola - All Your Life
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
Oscar Peterson - We Get on Requests
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
Charlie Haden & Kenny Barron - Night and The City
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Miles Davis - Tutu
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxigen & Magnetic Fields
Avi Avital - Between Worlds
Jeff Buckley - Live at Sin-é
Salvatore Accardo - The Art of Salvatore Accardo
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
Eric Clapton - Unplugged
Joe Jackson - Body and Soul
Headphones: all the four above mentioned.
Compared to the OPA627, the improvement made by the SS V5i it is subtantial under every aspect; the ones below are my impressions.
The first thing that I noticed, is on the low frequencies: the sense of congestion that I had before is improved a lot.
Listening of Mezzanine, once not so pleasant with this amp, became enjoyable.
The finger picking of Charlie Haden's bass became pretty much realistic.
Highs. Extended and clear, never sharp and tiring.
Avi Avital's mandolin or Accardo's violin are sparky but never too aggressive, and I feel that the extension is there, without big roll-off, but not offensive to my ears.
Obviously this increases the soundstage, and I appreciated a lot in listening to the 9th symphony of Beethoven.
Again, here the V5i makes the difference as the soundstage became more airy, not a lot, but enough to reduce some of the "claustrophobic" sense that I had using the HD650 with the OPA627.
Mids. My very personal opinion is that by extending the extreems, also the mids, once pretty much forward but still well defined, became now more integrated.
The overall listening is more neutral, balanced.
Somehow like the music was flowing more naturally instead of being "pushed".
Conclusions.
In my opinion, the OPA627BP's are very good opamps, but with the V5i, everything gets a new dimension.
The instruments are now more defined and spatially identifiable.
The music is amazingly much more enjoyable, which is the ultimate purpose of our hobby.
Same sound signature of the siblings V5, even if to my ears not so refined, to me the V5i are a great compromise in case the space is a problem.
I strongly suggest everyone that wants to upgrade its own rig without spending a fortune, or who has space problems, to consider the V5i as a good option.
Cheers
