Reviews by lesale08
Introduction
The Burson Playmate 2 is a loaned unit from Burson Audio and will be returned after the review. The select reviewers each have 2 weeks-time to do listening sessions and provide honest feedback and sound impressions. I would like to thank Bhavneet of Burson Audio and Kim from our local audio community for this opportunity.
Personal Preference and History
This is my first proper review of a dac/amp so I am going to give some information about my audiophile journey. (You can always skip this and head on to the Sound Impression section. Moving forward this will be removed
)
It was back in 2010, when I first discovered my passion for audio, I am really into portables, that is, daps and iems. I used to be a one set-up only guy who keep only 1 pair of iems and dap back then.
I then found out that a colleague of mine happened to be an audiophile as well and he’s helped introduced me to a lot of other iems, daps and headphones in his collection. He’s also a major influence on some of the music I use to listen and test out audio gears. We’re still very good friends to this date.
I had the opportunity of owning the previous legends in iems (IE8, TF10, UM3X, SM3) before the era of new TOTL iems breaching $1000 price. That continue to be the case until 2019. During that time, I only had the LCD 2.2 and Massdrop LCX+Sdac. Fast-forward to 2020, when the pandemic strike, I became more and more fond of using headphones since we started working at home. I was also loaned a modded HD800 by a good friend of mine for a period of 5 months, we call him “King of the North” of Audio by a group of friends because of the various collections he has ranging from iems, ciems, dac, amps and headphones and because of his generosity in lending his friends with various gears at length. Then late 2020, I purchased the legendary HD650 mainly for casual listening and oh you know, for vocal-oriented tracks.
In 2021, I wanted to buy a headphone with the end in mind, I wanted something that would last me years with audio bliss and that is with the HD800. Thanks to my generous friend for giving me enough time with his HD800. I was able to buy a new one last March when our local Sennheiser dealer went on sale. However, as most of us in this hobby, I could not let go of the itch, I have also acquired LCD 2C and LCD3F shortly after that for use when I wanted something very fun.
I used to have a Massdrop LCX+Sdac but replaced that with Questyle, Ifi and Little Dot dac/amps all in 2021.
I used to love bassy and v-shaped signature but as I grew older with this hobby, I began to appreciate all the sound signatures and started buying gears that would have different use when my mood calls for it.
We used to have regular audio meets before the pandemic so it really has changed in a while but our online groups are still very alive.
Packaging
The unit arrived in a very neat white box. This was already opened for obvious reason that this was a review unit. Upon opening the box, you will be greeted with a white styro foam to cover the entire amp thick enough to guarantee the safety of it during transport and delivery. Then there is the manual(attached to the white foam), certificate of clearance, a usb c to usb c cable, a tool to pry open the screws of the unit, 24-volt wall wart adapter and the power cable.
Build and Design
What can I say, everything is made out of metal. It feels very compact in the hand with just the right weight. It looks and feels premium to the hands as well.
The front of the unit has the volume knob, small screen, menu button on the right most part, 6.3 mm for headphone out, 3.5 mm for mic input, and the power button on the left most part. It has no 4.4 mm or 4-pin XLR balanced in.
The back has the RCA inputs, USB C port and Power port.
Sad to say that at this price point, you only have very limited way to connect from different devices. The Playmate 2 could also not connect through wifi. But hey, since this is the entry level amp from Burson, it just makes sense that the features were trimmed down.
One thing I noticed though is that volume knob is sometimes finicky to use, there are times when Volume gets up when turning the knob to reduce it and vice versa but definitely not something that will take away the great things that this amp is capable of.
You will also notice that there is a portion of the screen that flickers but not something that bothered me.
Features:
Some of the notable features are:
• Class A amplifier
• ES9038Q2M Dac chip
• Sound Filters
• USB C input
• Microphone input
• Opamp rollable
Gears Used
Sources: iPad Pro 2018, Xiaomi Mi10T
Dac/Amps: Playmate 2, ifi Zen Blue to Little Dot MKII, Questyle CMA600i
Cans: HD800, HD650, LCD2C, LCD3F
IEM: ER4SR
Music files used
I used to have a dedicated dap for music but have completely went streaming (Apple Music) this year. Apple Music, to my ears, have better quality compared to Spotify where I used to have a subscription. I have no experience with other streaming apps like Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, etc. The upgrade to lossless made it more easy for me to switch to Apple Music this year.
Fleetwood Mac (Dreams, Gipsy, Everywhere)
Dire Straits (Money for Nothing, Sultans of Swing, Walk of Life)
Adele (Someone Like You, Chasing Pavement, Rolling in the Deep)
Billie Eilish (bad guy)
Bread (Welcome to the Music, Guitar Man, Aubrey)
Incubus (Are You In?, Megalomaniac, Nice to Know You)
Paramore (Careful, Turn it Off)
Rodrigo y Gabriela (Hanuman, Buster Voodoo)
Review Methodology
This is not going to be a review of measurements but more on how I perceived the sound through listening sessions. For measurements, you can find them elsewhere and I am by no means an expert in reading and interpreting what the measurements have to say. Though I do understood them a little. This would also not include any teardown of the internals of the amplifier. The previous reviews in headfi had that already.
Sound Impressions
I did most of my listening sessions in default configuration. Amp is on high gain, filter on MP FAST. All of the impressions are from the headphone out as well. I tried switching between the different sound filters available but heard very subtle difference with my own ears so I kept it at back at default.
Lows
The lows are clean with rounded notes to it. Sabre dacs are generally known to have clean bass notes that is not obtrusive and this is not an exception for the Playmate 2. It does have enough body and good speed and articulation of bass notes but felt like the sub-bass does not hit very deep. It’s more on the Neutral end of the horizon.
Mids
Vocals are forward and it’s very natural sounding and detailed enough from lower mids to mids transition but heard some graininess on the upper midrange particularly when listening to some female artists such as with Adele, where it sounded a bit distorted.
I’d say mids is very well represented here save for some occasion of graininess in the upper mids.
Highs
Moving on the High frequency, it has decent extension and has good details in it. Cymbals have natural crash in them. I used to own a dap with ESS9018 at the heart of it and it had this sabre glare. I had not noticed this very prominently with the Playmate 2. When using the HD800, it did not amplify the 6Khz peak that it’s known for and I’d say the Playmate 2 did better on this regard than the CMA600i. Overall, it’s very controlled and not sibilant.
Soundstage and Instrument Separation
Soundstaging is good. It has good enough depth and space in between the instruments. I am amazed how instruments are adeptly separated and could easily be pinpointed in your head. But I heard better.
Details
The Playmate 2 has good detail retrieval but only marginally better than my zen blue and littledot combo. It falls short compared to the older CMA600i.
Others
Sadly, I don’t have extra opamps to roll out with so all of this impressions were made based from the stock configuration.
Pairing
With HD800
The HD800 I have is un un-modded version since I got this new just this year and have no plans of modding them yet.
The chameleon of headphones in my collection. It sounded really differently plugged into different amps that I’ve tried. At first I was not a believer until I owned it personally. Listening volume is at 30-33 with the Burson amp.
The overall pairing is quite good. The one quirk with the HD800 being peaky at the 6Khz is a bit toned down by Playmate 2. It still on the thin sound of things. The bass has acceptable body to it, not something that will warm up the overall sound experience but you could hear that rounded bass notes. The HD800’s bass sounds thin when not properly amped. There is a bit of graininess in the upper mids to the highest frequency from what I heard. The soundstage is retained but not improved.
Overall, this pairing led me to my listening experience closely to how the tubes powered the HD800. It’s a good pairing but I would say that HD800 really benefits from tubes more.
With HD650
The HD650 is known to be very warm with rounded bass, very realistic vocal tonality and smoothed but extended high frequency response. It tends to be get crowded most of the time if I am listening with rock music. But for most of the genres, it sounded fine.
With the Playmate 2, my listening volume is between 33-42 at high gain. Anything above that is already beyond my tolerable listening loudness before I get dizzy or experience headache and fatigue.
The pairing is very good with the Burson. The HD650 retains its magical mids, the bass is still rounded but no major improvement in the sub bass so at times, it struggles to catch up with more complex songs. Highs are still very smooth, the veil is lifted a bit and still have what you would expect from these cans, inoffensive but well extended highs. On some rock songs with complex passages, the HD650 still struggles but I think this is more of the headphone limitation than the Burson amp. The soundstage is on the average side. Not as improved as when using them with tubes.
I would say not the best pairing if you really want to bring out the best out of the HD650 but will definitely suffice if you only want your HD650 driven properly and to produce good to decent sound.
With LCD2C
Pairing the Playmate 2 with the 2C presents a delicious bass presentation. Listening volume at 25-28 at high gain. I really love the 2C because of its bass character in that it sounds full but stops just before it bleeds to the mids, for the most part.
The vocals still sounds full particularly for the male vocals. I detect a bit of peak somewhere in the upper mids when listening to some female vocals though that at times, the vocals sounded wonky. This was not the case with LCD3F with the Playmate 2 pairing.
The bigger than average soundstage of the 2C is retained with this combo but will definitely not reach the HD800 territory.
The highs is just above the HD650 when it comes to openness and close to how the LCD3F sounds although the 3F has the upper advantage when it comes to refinement in presentation and during more complex passages which the 2C usually struggles.
Overall great pairing with LCD2C with some quirks but something that I can actually live with this pairing.
With LCD3F
Of all the headphones that I have in my collection, the LCD3F had the best synergy with it. The first time I plugged in the 3s to the Playmate 2, I heard what seemed to be the best synergy with this Burson amp in my collection. The sound is so much more alive and dynamic. Listening volume at 29-31 at high gain. The sub bass hits deeper, the mids opened up with the instruments having more definition than how I heard it from my other 2 set ups. The vocals, oh! They’re really sweeter with this combo. I’d say I like this better than my HD650’s vocals. The highs are pushed in a way that the sound is more livelier but still nowhere fatiguing. All the frequency is reproduced beautifully.
The LCD3F sounded flat and a little boring plugged into my Questyle amp which was not the case with the Playmate 2.
I really love this pairing and would definitely recommend this amp if you have the LCD3s.
With ER4SR
Plugging the ER4SR brought a very neutral presentation with just a bit of added bass elevation and definition and extension in the high frequencies.
I noticed that with ER4SR, the bass tone will depend mostly on where you pair it with and also how you insert it to your ears. It’s on the lighter side of things. Plug it shallow to your ears and the bass will take a hit and amplify the high frequency, at least from my experience with them.
The ER4SR continue to have its strengths with this pairing. I’d say still sounding sterile and a bit lifeless but if you want technicalities with IEMs, this is definitely very hard to beat.
Soundstage is still on the smaller side but you get improved instrumentation as it helps to extend both the end of the sound spectrums.
I heard no hissing from this combo as well. Overall this for me is a good pairing.
Comparison
At the time of this writing, I only have the Questyle CMA600i dac and amp and ifi Zen Blue DAC connected to Little Dot MKII tube amplifier.
Vs. Zen Blue DAC + Little Dot MK II (around $250 combined)
Both of my Sennheiser cans really love the tube amplification even if it’s just from an entry level tube amp. Although I should also mention that the LCD3F also loves them. The 2C on the other hand is the only can that did not sound so good with the Little dot combo I have.
The Playmate 2 just simply could not reproduce the bass fullness of Little Dot MKII when paired with the Senns. Both the HD650 and HD800’s bass response on the Burson are more than acceptable especially with HD800 as it’s known to sound thin on most solid state amps(from what I read and watch).
All I could say is that the Burson have the Littledot MKII bested when paired with My Planars cans. Even though the LCD3F also loves the tube pairing, I heard more fullness and dynamics pairing it with Burson. Same with the LCD 2C, although not as sublime with its pairing with CMA600i, it performed better with Burson than plugged on the Little Dots.
In summary, the tonal characters of both the LCDs that I have is more realistic paired with Burson than on the Little Dot but the Sennheiser undoubtedly sound more preferrable with the Little Dot tubes.
Vs. Questyle CMA600i (around $1000)
Let’s talk about the build, the Questyle has more heft to its body as it’s bigger but the feel is really more premium compared to the Playmate 2 amp. They’re both made of all metal housing but I’d give a nod to the Questyle here based on personal preference.
When it comes to sound, the Questyle is the more leaner and more technical of the 2. When using the HD800, there is a noticeable reduction in the upper mids when playing it with the Burson. The sound is never fatiguing unless you go beyond the average normal listening volume. The Questyle on the other hand will present you all the details of the music. It extract more details than what the Burson can but at the cost of sounding a little hotter up top. I could only listen at average to low volume levels with the Questyle amp but could do louder with the Playmate 2 as it’s more tamed up top.
I have to note that the Questyle dac/amp has this occasional popping up when changing songs and even sometimes during a song when connected via USB. It’s very audible that I used to be annoyed with it but eventually grew accustomed to it. None of that is present with the Playmate 2.
In summary, I would pick the Questyle when I want to listen to technicalities and desire for more detail and extension on both ends. The Questyle will tend to sound sibilant at times than with the Burson paired with HD800 but is relatively ok with HD650 and LCD3F. LCD2C sounded based paired with CMA600i.
I would pick the Burson if I want something a bit fun to listen, decent sound quality, to save some desk space, and if I just want to relax and don’t want my music to get into my head that much.
Conclusion
At $550 to $700 pricing of the Playmate 2, this amp is really a good starting point if you have that budget. If you want great build and would not take that much of space on your desk, has very decent sound quality and would pair quite nicely and power most headphones out there, this is the amp to go.
Although I was not able to do opamp rolling, this Amp lets you tweak and experiment with the sound to your liking. The limited connections may be a deal breaker for some but the overall sound performance and good synergy with most headphones should give this amp a great value until you are ready to move on to more bigger things in this hobby. This experience got me curious to have a try to the Playmate 2’s bigger and more expensive siblings.
The Burson Playmate 2 is a loaned unit from Burson Audio and will be returned after the review. The select reviewers each have 2 weeks-time to do listening sessions and provide honest feedback and sound impressions. I would like to thank Bhavneet of Burson Audio and Kim from our local audio community for this opportunity.
Personal Preference and History
This is my first proper review of a dac/amp so I am going to give some information about my audiophile journey. (You can always skip this and head on to the Sound Impression section. Moving forward this will be removed
)It was back in 2010, when I first discovered my passion for audio, I am really into portables, that is, daps and iems. I used to be a one set-up only guy who keep only 1 pair of iems and dap back then.
I then found out that a colleague of mine happened to be an audiophile as well and he’s helped introduced me to a lot of other iems, daps and headphones in his collection. He’s also a major influence on some of the music I use to listen and test out audio gears. We’re still very good friends to this date.
I had the opportunity of owning the previous legends in iems (IE8, TF10, UM3X, SM3) before the era of new TOTL iems breaching $1000 price. That continue to be the case until 2019. During that time, I only had the LCD 2.2 and Massdrop LCX+Sdac. Fast-forward to 2020, when the pandemic strike, I became more and more fond of using headphones since we started working at home. I was also loaned a modded HD800 by a good friend of mine for a period of 5 months, we call him “King of the North” of Audio by a group of friends because of the various collections he has ranging from iems, ciems, dac, amps and headphones and because of his generosity in lending his friends with various gears at length. Then late 2020, I purchased the legendary HD650 mainly for casual listening and oh you know, for vocal-oriented tracks.
In 2021, I wanted to buy a headphone with the end in mind, I wanted something that would last me years with audio bliss and that is with the HD800. Thanks to my generous friend for giving me enough time with his HD800. I was able to buy a new one last March when our local Sennheiser dealer went on sale. However, as most of us in this hobby, I could not let go of the itch, I have also acquired LCD 2C and LCD3F shortly after that for use when I wanted something very fun.
I used to have a Massdrop LCX+Sdac but replaced that with Questyle, Ifi and Little Dot dac/amps all in 2021.
I used to love bassy and v-shaped signature but as I grew older with this hobby, I began to appreciate all the sound signatures and started buying gears that would have different use when my mood calls for it.
We used to have regular audio meets before the pandemic so it really has changed in a while but our online groups are still very alive.
Packaging
The unit arrived in a very neat white box. This was already opened for obvious reason that this was a review unit. Upon opening the box, you will be greeted with a white styro foam to cover the entire amp thick enough to guarantee the safety of it during transport and delivery. Then there is the manual(attached to the white foam), certificate of clearance, a usb c to usb c cable, a tool to pry open the screws of the unit, 24-volt wall wart adapter and the power cable.
Build and Design
What can I say, everything is made out of metal. It feels very compact in the hand with just the right weight. It looks and feels premium to the hands as well.
The front of the unit has the volume knob, small screen, menu button on the right most part, 6.3 mm for headphone out, 3.5 mm for mic input, and the power button on the left most part. It has no 4.4 mm or 4-pin XLR balanced in.
The back has the RCA inputs, USB C port and Power port.
Sad to say that at this price point, you only have very limited way to connect from different devices. The Playmate 2 could also not connect through wifi. But hey, since this is the entry level amp from Burson, it just makes sense that the features were trimmed down.
One thing I noticed though is that volume knob is sometimes finicky to use, there are times when Volume gets up when turning the knob to reduce it and vice versa but definitely not something that will take away the great things that this amp is capable of.
You will also notice that there is a portion of the screen that flickers but not something that bothered me.
Features:
Some of the notable features are:
• Class A amplifier
• ES9038Q2M Dac chip
• Sound Filters
• USB C input
• Microphone input
• Opamp rollable
Gears Used
Sources: iPad Pro 2018, Xiaomi Mi10T
Dac/Amps: Playmate 2, ifi Zen Blue to Little Dot MKII, Questyle CMA600i
Cans: HD800, HD650, LCD2C, LCD3F
IEM: ER4SR
Music files used
I used to have a dedicated dap for music but have completely went streaming (Apple Music) this year. Apple Music, to my ears, have better quality compared to Spotify where I used to have a subscription. I have no experience with other streaming apps like Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, etc. The upgrade to lossless made it more easy for me to switch to Apple Music this year.
Fleetwood Mac (Dreams, Gipsy, Everywhere)
Dire Straits (Money for Nothing, Sultans of Swing, Walk of Life)
Adele (Someone Like You, Chasing Pavement, Rolling in the Deep)
Billie Eilish (bad guy)
Bread (Welcome to the Music, Guitar Man, Aubrey)
Incubus (Are You In?, Megalomaniac, Nice to Know You)
Paramore (Careful, Turn it Off)
Rodrigo y Gabriela (Hanuman, Buster Voodoo)
Review Methodology
This is not going to be a review of measurements but more on how I perceived the sound through listening sessions. For measurements, you can find them elsewhere and I am by no means an expert in reading and interpreting what the measurements have to say. Though I do understood them a little. This would also not include any teardown of the internals of the amplifier. The previous reviews in headfi had that already.
Sound Impressions
I did most of my listening sessions in default configuration. Amp is on high gain, filter on MP FAST. All of the impressions are from the headphone out as well. I tried switching between the different sound filters available but heard very subtle difference with my own ears so I kept it at back at default.
Lows
The lows are clean with rounded notes to it. Sabre dacs are generally known to have clean bass notes that is not obtrusive and this is not an exception for the Playmate 2. It does have enough body and good speed and articulation of bass notes but felt like the sub-bass does not hit very deep. It’s more on the Neutral end of the horizon.
Mids
Vocals are forward and it’s very natural sounding and detailed enough from lower mids to mids transition but heard some graininess on the upper midrange particularly when listening to some female artists such as with Adele, where it sounded a bit distorted.
I’d say mids is very well represented here save for some occasion of graininess in the upper mids.
Highs
Moving on the High frequency, it has decent extension and has good details in it. Cymbals have natural crash in them. I used to own a dap with ESS9018 at the heart of it and it had this sabre glare. I had not noticed this very prominently with the Playmate 2. When using the HD800, it did not amplify the 6Khz peak that it’s known for and I’d say the Playmate 2 did better on this regard than the CMA600i. Overall, it’s very controlled and not sibilant.
Soundstage and Instrument Separation
Soundstaging is good. It has good enough depth and space in between the instruments. I am amazed how instruments are adeptly separated and could easily be pinpointed in your head. But I heard better.
Details
The Playmate 2 has good detail retrieval but only marginally better than my zen blue and littledot combo. It falls short compared to the older CMA600i.
Others
Sadly, I don’t have extra opamps to roll out with so all of this impressions were made based from the stock configuration.
Pairing
With HD800
The HD800 I have is un un-modded version since I got this new just this year and have no plans of modding them yet.
The chameleon of headphones in my collection. It sounded really differently plugged into different amps that I’ve tried. At first I was not a believer until I owned it personally. Listening volume is at 30-33 with the Burson amp.
The overall pairing is quite good. The one quirk with the HD800 being peaky at the 6Khz is a bit toned down by Playmate 2. It still on the thin sound of things. The bass has acceptable body to it, not something that will warm up the overall sound experience but you could hear that rounded bass notes. The HD800’s bass sounds thin when not properly amped. There is a bit of graininess in the upper mids to the highest frequency from what I heard. The soundstage is retained but not improved.
Overall, this pairing led me to my listening experience closely to how the tubes powered the HD800. It’s a good pairing but I would say that HD800 really benefits from tubes more.
With HD650
The HD650 is known to be very warm with rounded bass, very realistic vocal tonality and smoothed but extended high frequency response. It tends to be get crowded most of the time if I am listening with rock music. But for most of the genres, it sounded fine.
With the Playmate 2, my listening volume is between 33-42 at high gain. Anything above that is already beyond my tolerable listening loudness before I get dizzy or experience headache and fatigue.
The pairing is very good with the Burson. The HD650 retains its magical mids, the bass is still rounded but no major improvement in the sub bass so at times, it struggles to catch up with more complex songs. Highs are still very smooth, the veil is lifted a bit and still have what you would expect from these cans, inoffensive but well extended highs. On some rock songs with complex passages, the HD650 still struggles but I think this is more of the headphone limitation than the Burson amp. The soundstage is on the average side. Not as improved as when using them with tubes.
I would say not the best pairing if you really want to bring out the best out of the HD650 but will definitely suffice if you only want your HD650 driven properly and to produce good to decent sound.
With LCD2C
Pairing the Playmate 2 with the 2C presents a delicious bass presentation. Listening volume at 25-28 at high gain. I really love the 2C because of its bass character in that it sounds full but stops just before it bleeds to the mids, for the most part.
The vocals still sounds full particularly for the male vocals. I detect a bit of peak somewhere in the upper mids when listening to some female vocals though that at times, the vocals sounded wonky. This was not the case with LCD3F with the Playmate 2 pairing.
The bigger than average soundstage of the 2C is retained with this combo but will definitely not reach the HD800 territory.
The highs is just above the HD650 when it comes to openness and close to how the LCD3F sounds although the 3F has the upper advantage when it comes to refinement in presentation and during more complex passages which the 2C usually struggles.
Overall great pairing with LCD2C with some quirks but something that I can actually live with this pairing.
With LCD3F
Of all the headphones that I have in my collection, the LCD3F had the best synergy with it. The first time I plugged in the 3s to the Playmate 2, I heard what seemed to be the best synergy with this Burson amp in my collection. The sound is so much more alive and dynamic. Listening volume at 29-31 at high gain. The sub bass hits deeper, the mids opened up with the instruments having more definition than how I heard it from my other 2 set ups. The vocals, oh! They’re really sweeter with this combo. I’d say I like this better than my HD650’s vocals. The highs are pushed in a way that the sound is more livelier but still nowhere fatiguing. All the frequency is reproduced beautifully.
The LCD3F sounded flat and a little boring plugged into my Questyle amp which was not the case with the Playmate 2.
I really love this pairing and would definitely recommend this amp if you have the LCD3s.
With ER4SR
Plugging the ER4SR brought a very neutral presentation with just a bit of added bass elevation and definition and extension in the high frequencies.
I noticed that with ER4SR, the bass tone will depend mostly on where you pair it with and also how you insert it to your ears. It’s on the lighter side of things. Plug it shallow to your ears and the bass will take a hit and amplify the high frequency, at least from my experience with them.
The ER4SR continue to have its strengths with this pairing. I’d say still sounding sterile and a bit lifeless but if you want technicalities with IEMs, this is definitely very hard to beat.
Soundstage is still on the smaller side but you get improved instrumentation as it helps to extend both the end of the sound spectrums.
I heard no hissing from this combo as well. Overall this for me is a good pairing.
Comparison
At the time of this writing, I only have the Questyle CMA600i dac and amp and ifi Zen Blue DAC connected to Little Dot MKII tube amplifier.
Vs. Zen Blue DAC + Little Dot MK II (around $250 combined)
Both of my Sennheiser cans really love the tube amplification even if it’s just from an entry level tube amp. Although I should also mention that the LCD3F also loves them. The 2C on the other hand is the only can that did not sound so good with the Little dot combo I have.The Playmate 2 just simply could not reproduce the bass fullness of Little Dot MKII when paired with the Senns. Both the HD650 and HD800’s bass response on the Burson are more than acceptable especially with HD800 as it’s known to sound thin on most solid state amps(from what I read and watch).
All I could say is that the Burson have the Littledot MKII bested when paired with My Planars cans. Even though the LCD3F also loves the tube pairing, I heard more fullness and dynamics pairing it with Burson. Same with the LCD 2C, although not as sublime with its pairing with CMA600i, it performed better with Burson than plugged on the Little Dots.
In summary, the tonal characters of both the LCDs that I have is more realistic paired with Burson than on the Little Dot but the Sennheiser undoubtedly sound more preferrable with the Little Dot tubes.
Vs. Questyle CMA600i (around $1000)
Let’s talk about the build, the Questyle has more heft to its body as it’s bigger but the feel is really more premium compared to the Playmate 2 amp. They’re both made of all metal housing but I’d give a nod to the Questyle here based on personal preference.
When it comes to sound, the Questyle is the more leaner and more technical of the 2. When using the HD800, there is a noticeable reduction in the upper mids when playing it with the Burson. The sound is never fatiguing unless you go beyond the average normal listening volume. The Questyle on the other hand will present you all the details of the music. It extract more details than what the Burson can but at the cost of sounding a little hotter up top. I could only listen at average to low volume levels with the Questyle amp but could do louder with the Playmate 2 as it’s more tamed up top.
I have to note that the Questyle dac/amp has this occasional popping up when changing songs and even sometimes during a song when connected via USB. It’s very audible that I used to be annoyed with it but eventually grew accustomed to it. None of that is present with the Playmate 2.
In summary, I would pick the Questyle when I want to listen to technicalities and desire for more detail and extension on both ends. The Questyle will tend to sound sibilant at times than with the Burson paired with HD800 but is relatively ok with HD650 and LCD3F. LCD2C sounded based paired with CMA600i.
I would pick the Burson if I want something a bit fun to listen, decent sound quality, to save some desk space, and if I just want to relax and don’t want my music to get into my head that much.
Conclusion
At $550 to $700 pricing of the Playmate 2, this amp is really a good starting point if you have that budget. If you want great build and would not take that much of space on your desk, has very decent sound quality and would pair quite nicely and power most headphones out there, this is the amp to go.
Although I was not able to do opamp rolling, this Amp lets you tweak and experiment with the sound to your liking. The limited connections may be a deal breaker for some but the overall sound performance and good synergy with most headphones should give this amp a great value until you are ready to move on to more bigger things in this hobby. This experience got me curious to have a try to the Playmate 2’s bigger and more expensive siblings.
