[ag8908]

Does anyone here understand the physics/electrics of the Conductor?
 
My ears seem to tell me that, although the following two configurations have the same volume, the latter is warmer/bassier.
 
#1 -- Gain set at highest (level three), volume on Conductor at 50%, volume on computer set at 38/100.
 
#2 -- Gain set at middle level (level 2), volume on Conductor at 100%, volume on computer set at 16/100.
 
It might be my imagination, but I think #2 is noticeably warmer/bassier, but I have no idea why that would be so.
 
I wish I could understand the electrics of all this to confirm if it's something real or my imagination.

 

[roskodan]

yes, it's typical
 
on the violectric too
 
it's just how the headphone behave
 
probably because the higher gain gives more headroom
 
i sometimes set the conductor to low gain, 100% volume, and than regulate the volume from foobar2000 digitally
 
sounds warmer, bolder, a little less expansive soundstage but more focused in the middle

 

[ag8908]

Interesting thanks

 

[Tony1110]

That's because you are going deaf from how loud you're running your dual Plasma setup. 

Going deaf from listening to rubbish like Diana Krall

 

[citraian]

Going deaf from listening to rubbish like Diana Krall

Don't know why but I was sure this post was coming at some point )

 

[ag8908]

If possible, is anyone willing to share how they set these four items when listening to music on their computer:
 
(a) gain on the Burson Conductor (low, medium, high)
 
(b) the Conductor's volume knob setting
 
(c) their computer's volume setting?
 
(d) the sampling rate you use in windows (e.g. 32 bit 192 kHz) when playing streaming music or music from CDs
 
Thanks very much. Please let me know if someone already did this survey.
 
I'm trying to figure out how all these different ways of putting out an otherwise identical volume level affect the character of the sound.

 

[roskodan]

i had that phase too, OCD i know you well, most do not have golden ears like we do

 
(a) lower gain gives you a more lose, mellow sound VS punch and control with a higher gain (this is because different cans have different power requirements and not because the amp may have a different "sound", at least in most cases

), so on an amp the lcd3, hd800 will need high gain to sound tight while the lcd-x and th-900 will do well on low gain too
 
(b) the more it's open the higher the dynamic range should be, but since it's analog, there is the same infinite dynamic range from 0 to 1 as from 0 to 10, but it could introduce some noise and therefore lower SNR thus lowering the DR, it's complicated 

 
(c) on the other hand this one is simple, the lower the volume the lower the DR, but again it's complicated 

cos dacs are optimized to reach best performance, linearity, distortion and SNR, at certain output levels, bit depth and sampling
 
the differences in sound we experience are most probably exclusively related to the difference in gain levels between settings and in the power demand of the headphone, since lowering the volume in the dac/pc digitally equals to lowering the overall gain
 
from my experience the most consistent results are achieved by matching the amp's gain setting to the hp used, and to use the amp's attenuator for volume adjusting, leaving the digital volume at 100%

 

[ag8908]

  i had that phase too, OCD i know you well, most do not have golden ears like we do

 
(a) lower gain gives you a more lose, mellow sound VS punch and control with a higher gain (this is because different cans have different power requirements and not because the amp may have a different "sound", at least in most cases

), so on an amp the lcd3, hd800 will need high gain to sound tight while the lcd-x and th-900 will do well on low gain too
 
(b) the more it's open the higher the dynamic range should be, but since it's analog, there is the same infinite dynamic range from 0 to 1 as from 0 to 10, but it could introduce some noise and therefore lower SNR thus lowering the DR, it's complicated 

 
(c) on the other hand this one is simple, the lower the volume the lower the DR, but again it's complicated 

cos dacs are optimized to reach best performance, linearity, distortion and SNR, at certain output levels, bit depth and sampling
 
the differences in sound we experience are most probably exclusively related to the difference in gain levels between settings and in the power demand of the headphone, since lowering the volume in the dac/pc digitally equals to lowering the overall gain
 
from my experience the most consistent results are achieved by matching the amp's gain setting to the hp used, and to use the amp's attenuator for volume adjusting, leaving the digital volume at 100%

 
So basically you set the computer's volume to maximum, use the highest gain for your LCD3 and HD800, and the lowest gain for your TH900 and LCDX. If anyone else has an answer that would be great. Everyone has to set these items to something and I'm just seeing what everyone else is doing. Don't worry you won't catch Roskodan's OCD if you respond to the survey.

 

[nemomec]

I was buying a used Burson Conductor but with huge problems with the DAC section. Only the optical input has the full function, the coax input make some clicking noise and the usb input has distortion, the analog inputs works. I connect the burson on a mac mini MacOS 10.9 with a short nuforce usb cable and installed the driver from the burson page sometimes it works, sometimes it works with distortion, sometimes the burson is not visible on the mac!?
 
Has this issues any other here and is there a solution? The device is out of warranty and burson tells me that i need to buy a new dac board for 330,- € + custom fees.

 
I take a picture of my device, only one led is on the dac board on, the other is every time off but it works after test?
 
I made some meassurements, the voltage on the two 12V pins of the board is a little bit more than 15V, on the 5V pin is it ok.
 
Thanks for your help!
 

 

[roskodan]

i've been trying to reach burson at info@bursonaudio.com
 
but emails keep coming back and schiit
 
does anyone have a phone number or alternate email contact?
 

 

what knob do you use with the khozmo attenuator?
 
are there alternative knobs i can order and use with the khozmo, where?
 
i see yours have a red case, is that an upgrade option?

 

[MIKELAP]

  i've been trying to reach burson at info@bursonaudio.com
 
but emails keep coming back and schiit
 
does anyone have a phone number or alternate email contact?
 

what knob do you use with the khozmo attenuator?
 
are there alternative knobs i can order and use with the khozmo, where?
 
i see yours have a red case, is that an upgrade option?

i use the stock knob ,when i had it installed guy told me he  couldnt use the stock knob because hole was to small he didnt try to hard to be honest.so he put a smaller one it was ugly as hell so i looked at the stock knob it has a plastic bushing the fix was as easy and sanding the interiour by hand with a rolled up piece of sandpaper until it fits on the attenuator shaft ,be careful you want it to be tight on shaft you know theres no screw on the knob  the Khozmo 50k attenuator is the latest model that why its different . I had the job done at Parts Connexion  they sell knobs there but like i said the one they had put on had a screw but was smaller and i didnt like it .

 

[roskodan]

thx for the info, "mr. burson" must be very busy, looks like i'll get a 3rd party attenuator as well, there are a lot of knobs on ebay too
 
does the khozmo turn any smoother than the conductor's stock attenuator? i really hope so

 

[MIKELAP]

  thx for the info, "mr. burson" must be very busy, looks like i'll get a 3rd party attenuator as well, there are a lot of knobs on ebay too
 
does the khozmo turn any smoother than the conductor's stock attenuator? i really hope so

Its smooth compared to stock  i had a rubber band on the knob with stock attenuator , with no knurling fingers slipped  on the smooth surface but no need for that anymore.

 

[Herueyes]

 

   
Someone broke into your place and stole your HD800 and conductor? wow.

 


No, nothing like that, I just made a trade with a scammer on head fi (my HD-800's and $450 of my money for his LCD-X's) and he got my money and HD-800's and vanished into the night, never to be heard from again.

 
 

   
Sorry to hear. Lots of scumbags on the internet. Even on Ebay, if you sell stuff, they can technically lie and claim you sent them an empty box or something. But at least ebay has feedback.

 
 
Damn that's a real tough one... For future reference sell your hd800's (or whichever cans you want to get rid of) on ebay with "buy it now" or start the bidding at a reasonable price and just put that together with the $450 cash and get a pair of LCD-X's from musicdirect. They usually have demos on sale from time to time which come with the full manufacturers warranty.
 

 
P.S. Thanks for sharing Yo... It's hard to admit to things out in the open... Let's hope others can and do learn from your experience.....
 
- Peace... 

 

[RubyTiger]

   
 
 
 
Damn that's a real tough one... For future reference sell your hd800's (or whichever cans you want to get rid of) on ebay with "buy it now" or start the bidding at a reasonable price and just put that together with the $450 cash and get a pair of LCD-X's from musicdirect. They usually have demos on sale from time to time which come with the full manufacturers warranty.
 

 
P.S. Thanks for sharing Yo... It's hard to admit to things out in the open... Let's hope others can and do learn from your experience.....
 
- Peace... 

What's really bad this guy will probably stay away for awhile and ease back in when he think's he's safe. Do they keep I.P. addresses here at head-fi? That I.P. address should be banned. Just my two cents. What was his name?