[beyerdude]

  With all the good reviews here I just have to ask:
 
Has someone made a blind test with those opamps? Would be interesting to hear from people whether they could separate between the opamps just by listening, not knowing which opamp is built into the system
 
I cant believe it has such a drastic effect on the audio output since there are a lot of voices that say discrete opamps are
-not as good as normal IC opamps, just a lot more expensive
-dont change the sound at all.
-any sound difference is just an illusion because your brain wants you to hear that it is better. All the money and effort has to have a positive effect, right?
-all reviews I have seen just describe the Opamps with very subjective adverbs like more natural, clearer, and so on...
 
Has someone made some real measurements of the effects the Burson V5 have on the equipment?
 
I was playing with the thought of buying some V5s just to give it a try, but having a look at threads like below, I highly doubt there will be any improvement of sound.
 
http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/8987/op-amps-horrible-truth/p1
http://nwavguy.blogspot.de/2011/08/op-amps-myths-facts.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpTv2jAree8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYTlN6wjcvQ

In some cases I would agree that there are small differences between op-amps (they do change the sound - I tried many combinations with the E12DIY and the differences were there) and there is a lot of hype around certain 'classic' variants (OPA 627/Muses etc) (Both of which I have and like very much) - Its also very hard to tell small differences A-B ing unless the changeover is very quick and you are accustomed to 'memorising' the sound, even if the switch over is nearly instantaneous - I had a Metrum Hex and Octave and a switch over would reveal a similar sound signature (same source, both plugged in to same preamp and with certain headphones they sounded exactly the same - however with further listening and better headphones the difference was night and day - a quick blind test does not always reveal this.
 
My observation from updating my equipment from the stock opamps to 'better' opamps and then the v5's is that between opamps alone there are small (but quantifiable) differences and these in some cases are debatable - the top opamps (Muses especially) gave a clear improvement over stock.
 
- the differences between the v5 and standard opamps is however SO noticeable that any thought of A-B tests or blinds tests go out of the window. I also think that when people resort to 'technical' reasoning as to why something cannot sound better (CD vs Vinyl is a classic) due to it being inferior due to design or technical reasons the argument is lost - there are so many examples where this simply does not hold up (Vinyl/Tubes/Class D amps etc). It depends on whether you are in the camp of 'it looks good on an oscilloscope so it must be better' or 'I don't care what the measurements are I will trust my ears. I have heard plenty of duff equipment which measures well but simply has no 'soul' or involvement, equally I own and thoroughly enjoy a reasonable amount of equipment that uses outdated 'inferior' technology that is a joy.
 
The reason people (myself included) used expressions like 'clearer' and 'more defined bass' 'clearer treble but not boosted' is because that is exactly what we experienced. I was one of the early people to buy and review the v5's and tried them through a $5k set of speakers and corresponding amp/preamp source - the differences were significant and easy to hear. To me the v5's were small change, the DAC was a bargain (broken and then fixed by me) EE Minimax and hence my 'expectation bias' was non existent. To me the change over turned it from being 2 dimensional sounding with metallic/artificial treble and well and truly in the under 1k price bracket (5 years ago) to something that was a joy to listen to and had some of the hall marks of a more expensive DAC.
 
Hope this adds something to the debate

 

[dhruvmeena96]

1. V5 support most of the circuits without oscillating

2. Treble experience is due to 3xnoise filteration circuit rather than 1 in many other circuits

3. It is just to much high quality

4. Bass seems tighter and soundstage increase due to 1% tolerant capacitor and resistor


5. That circuit is a big opamp with internal opamp breaking dualchannel into 4, amplifying half voltage and adding them, removing insource noise(mp3 noise too)...

6. The most intelligent design


Competition is with sparkos lab ss series and texas instrument earsonic opa1688

 

[raoultrifan]

Hi guys, 
 
Hope you remember my post regarding O2 and SS V5-dual from here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/784790/burson-supreme-sound-audio-v5-opa-d-v5-opa-s-review/90#post_12384936. I did some "wiring" this evening and I was able o fit the Burson beast inside the O2, but I needed to remove the batteries (didn't needed anyway).

 ​

​

​

 
Gosh, sound is amazing and I can't believe that I am actually recommending an op-amp that costs about 50% the price of the O2. Anyway, the Objective2 headamp sounds three times the money it costs, perhaps this is why so many people is still purchasing it and with a Burson V5-dual placed in Voltage Amplification stage I get an increased soundstage and more details on top of a neutral sound.
 
P.S.: Hope you'll be able to find a 90 degree adapter, because doing this wiring inside O2's case might get you into troubles if you're not paying attention!

 

[zilch0md]

Amazing mod!  Congratulations!
 
I recall that the O2 runs on an AC power adapter, not DC, so I'm surprised it contains a space and connectors for two 9V batteries. Is it normally capable of portable use, also?

 

[raoultrifan]

Thanks zilch0md!
 
Most people would call it "transportable" and not portable, because of its weight and size. Anyway, we all know that the PSU of a headamp may influence the sound, so O2 working on batteries might improve the sound, at least theoretically (though, I wasn't able to find any differences between the AC adapter and the internal batteries).

 

[peter123]

My take on the V5i:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/burson-audio-supreme-sound-opamp-v5i/reviews/16675
 

 

[cleg]

I've made a video about V5i

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1KiXaKRXE0[/VIDEO]

text review will be later

 

[cleg]

And, actually, a text http://www.head-fi.org/products/burson-audio-supreme-sound-opamp-v5i/reviews/16969

 

[Yethal]

This might be a good place to ask the question. Did anybody here experience high level of noise (clearly audible through the track, not a quiet background hiss) when using v5i duals? Level of noise in my Soundblaster makes them unlistenable.

 

[raoultrifan]

Hi Yethal, 
 
I did in my Matrix M-Stage HPA-3B, but I'm still burning them in into my ASUS Essence One where it seems to work perfectly.

 

[Yethal]

The singles work just fine and I like them but the doubles have so much noise it's actually audible through the speaker outs of my X7.

 

[Dutchamps]

  

 
 
Hello all,
 
Changed my Opamps in a Chinese Da converter, i did not have read all topic pages and maybe this dac has been seen before.
years back i already had a V4 opamp and was very please with the change.
Now in this Dac i have put in the V5 in the current-Voltage stage right behind the dac chip to V5 and of the cost and had one V4 left over, the Opa2604 changed to the V4.
Well if the audio set is real good (all tubeamps) the change of opamps to Bursons is amazingly.
More depth more space near the speakers and the digital sound is more to vinyl of course vinyl is in my opinion still the way to listen to music.
Yes the opamps are not to be compared in costs and electrical`s but i wanted to go for the best sound i can get out of a 200 euro Dac.
I am very pleased to listen to digital today.
 
Thanks Burson it is a very good upgrade

 

[Audio Addict]

Okay, they have had some time to settle in to the Apache.  I am not that great at explaining the changes but let me put it this way, it puts a smile on my face when I listen.  

I was at Axpona last weekend and I can say while I enjoyed my time at Ear Gear and in the various main system rooms, when I sat down for an extended listening session yesterday while my wife was gone for a few hours, the Apache with the v5 sounded every bit as great as the megabucks systems at Axpona.  Of course I am probably a little biased   

Well, one of my flex legs' wire broke from the bend so I have 4 single v5i on order.

 

[Faber65]

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!

 

[raoultrifan]

Hello,
 
I've done some tests with my ASUS Essence One MUSES BURSON MKii DAC by upgrading existing opamps with V5i received recently from BURSON (thank you BURSON for providing me the chance to make this test).
- WASAPI was used instead of ASIO (don't trust ASIO for this test)
 
Music used for the tests:
- ATB
- Kenny G.
- Best of Chesky
- Head-Fi And HDtracks
- Ultimate Demo Disk
 
Results:
- When using 2 x V5i in Low Pass Filter and 2 x V5i in Voltage Amplification Stage (from headphone amplifier) difference was noticed from the very first second:

1.   first impression was like volume is louder than before (which is not, measured three times)
2.   stage is larger and layering is better
3.   bass seems a bit more "rounded", with better definition, a good improvement for "bass shy" headphones (ATB bass and imaging can really shine with V5i opamps!)
4.   Kenny G.'s saxophone stands out a bit more with V5i and layering is way better, same I can say about staging/imaging

- When using 2 x V5i in output buffer I couldn't find a real difference to talk about, although it's been a small difference in sound, but can't explain it right now.
 
I've also attached some pictures to reflect that using V5i opamps in LPF, VAS and also output buffers is not inducing any oscillations or odd harmonics (tough I don't have access to Audio Precision equipment, I've used a decent scope to test this). Screenshots where taken while using my PicoScope 2204A with default probe connected to Essence One headphones output, -3dB test signals and volume button to about 10 o'clock.
 

No oscillations up to 10 MHz bandwidth while 1 KHz signal applied​	20 Hz applied, 24 KHz bandwidth, no strange harmonics occurs​
1 KHz applied, 24 KHz bandwidth, no strange harmonics occurs​ ​	20 KHz applied, 24 KHz bandwidth, no strange harmonics occurs​ ​
Those V5i solid-state opamps are looking so beautiful!

Regards, 
Raul.
 
P.S.: V5 is even more detailed when used in LPF & VAS, stage is about the same...perhaps a slight advantage to V5, layering would be a slight advantage to V5 too, but this really depends on the track you're choosing.