[gogohuskies]

I have a ha 160d. I left this audiophile community three years ago. I just checked back and find out ha 160d seems to be a dinosaur here now. It still drives my hd 650 and d 7000 great. I do like burson sound signature but is it worth $1500 more in terms of sound difference? Anyone who has had both ha 160d and conductor virtuoso please chime in

 

[jamesng45678]

I am using a Lehmann audio BCL with a external dac but when i tried the burson conductor, the sound quality is not as good as my current setup. The midrange is lacking but the bass is tighter and stronger. I do not think upgrading to a conductor is an upgrade but more like a side grade. What do you guys think?

 

[iDesign]

  I have a ha 160d. I left this audiophile community three years ago. I just checked back and find out ha 160d seems to be a dinosaur here now. It still drives my hd 650 and d 7000 great. I do like burson sound signature but is it worth $1500 more in terms of sound difference? Anyone who has had both ha 160d and conductor virtuoso please chime in

The HA-160D works very well with the HD-650 and I believe there is enough appreciable synergetic increase to justify making the financial investment into the Conductor Virtuoso. However, if you're considering upgrading to newer/different headphones like the HD-800 thats where the HA-160D may leave you looking at other amplifiers on the market.

 

[fb24601]

Further comments after spending the weekend to burn in the virtuoso (9018):
 
1) Originally I think the bass is not particularly emphasized on the Virtuoso. However, upon changing the stock power cable into the audioquest ngx upgrade power cable, I can hear an improved bass to my satisfactory level
 
2) Regarding the background noise, I can now hear a little bit of it for akg k812, which is very subtle, but can still be noticed upon focusing. It can be identified upon comparing when the power is switched off. When I changed into th900, the background noise become quite apparent.
 
3) The virtuoso have enough current to drive the low impedance low sensitivity akg k812 very well. I am using sony uda1 to drive k812 and th900 before upgrading into virtuoso. The burr brown 1795 of uda1 can produce a very clean and musical sound, and under uda1 the easier driven th900 seems to be more appealing than k812. I don't know what is the full potential of k812 but the virtuoso makes it flying and to me it wins back over th900 on an open sound and better dynamics and with a very close bass performance.
 
4) I am thinking about if I can eliminate the background noise (for th900 and others) by adding an impedance adapter say for 32 ohm?
 
Maybe virtuoso is better for higher impedance headphones such as hd800, t1, LCD3 etc?

 

[Dark Ayla]

Further comments after spending the weekend to burn in the virtuoso (9018):

1) Originally I think the bass is not particularly emphasized on the Virtuoso. However, upon changing the stock power cable into the audioquest ngx upgrade power cable, I can hear an improved bass to my satisfactory level

2) Regarding the background noise, I can now hear a little bit of it for akg k812, which is very subtle, but can still be noticed upon focusing. It can be identified upon comparing when the power is switched off. When I changed into th900, the background noise become quite apparent.

3) The virtuoso have enough current to drive the low impedance low sensitivity akg k812 very well. I am using sony uda1 to drive k812 and th900 before upgrading into virtuoso. The burr brown 1795 of uda1 can produce a very clean and musical sound, and under uda1 the easier driven th900 seems to be more appealing than k812. I don't know what is the full potential of k812 but the virtuoso makes it flying and to me it wins back over th900 on an open sound and better dynamics and with a very close bass performance.

4) I am thinking about if I can eliminate the background noise (for th900 and others) by adding an impedance adapter say for 32 ohm?

Maybe virtuoso is better for higher impedance headphones such as hd800, t1, LCD3 etc?

I find it hard to believe that power cable has impact on bass!
What AudioQuest cable are you using? Is it worth it?

I will wait to get my Conductor to make my final judgement.

 

[Wnuwk Siphon]

Hello,

Has anyone tried using a airport express to stream Tidal music to the Virtuoso. I had the original Conductor and it could not reliably stream had clicks and drops. Ended up with the Cetrance DACmini since it was able to support streaming.

I have zero experience with Conductor or Tidal, so please take this with large quantities of salt, but for reliable streaming it's better to use Apple TV instead of Airport Express.

 

[earthpeople]

 
2) Regarding the background noise, I can now hear a little bit of it for akg k812, which is very subtle, but can still be noticed upon focusing. It can be identified upon comparing when the power is switched off. When I changed into th900, the background noise become quite apparent.

 
 
This is interesting to me. I have a non-Virtuoso Conductor and I use my TH900 with it regularly. It is absolutely silent, regardless of what the gain setting is at. Maybe it has to do with the new volume control? As far as I understand, the amp and DAC sections are unchanged. 

 

[fb24601]

I find it hard to believe that power cable has impact on bass!
What AudioQuest cable are you using? Is it worth it?

I am not sure why Burson didn't manage to eliminate the noise, SHAME!

It may have improved overall but just the bass can catch more attention. The aq power cable is only the entry grade ngx. I may further upgrade into a even thicker diy cable.

At the shop I have tried the unit they have also displayed the marantz hd-dac1. The shop has used a power cable as thick as the thumb for the marantz. They said it can boost the bass and is trying to make the performance more balance for the two demo units. But of course the virtuoso still outperforms the hd-dac1 by a wide margin.

 

[fb24601]

This is interesting to me. I have a non-Virtuoso Conductor and I use my TH900 with it regularly. It is absolutely silent, regardless of what the gain setting is at. Maybe it has to do with the new volume control? As far as I understand, the amp and DAC sections are unchanged. 

As they have explained they improved in circuit and there is no more gain settings with improved sound and a +2db noise floor.

But now, it seems that it is not silent for some of the headphones especially low impedance and sensitive ones.

Anyone with experience to use impedance adaptors to share? I have browse through the web and have read some 32ohm may be applied to control most noise.

 

[earthpeople]

Right, I understand they removed the gain switch but it is otherwise still a Soloist amp section as described on Burson's website. The setting now corresponds to medium gain on the old Conductor as I understand it, but I do not hear any noise with my TH900 even then. I could even use my Sennheiser IE8 (which hiss with almost any amp I've owned) and there was no trace of background noise. 
 
Not that I'm planning to get a Virtuoso (don't really need any of the new features), just curious about what could be causing the background noise.  

 

[PetarCV]

I haven't tried the adapters, but I am also interested in whether they'd make a significant improvement. I agree with you that Virtuoso is apparently better for high impedance headphones, as by now we've established there's a lot of noise with sensitive phones like LCD-X, PS1000, and TH-900. I can also detect a miniscule noise with 250ohm DT990 when I plug and unplug them, but it is almost silent and unnoticeable with music on. Haven't tried any 100-ohm or so headphone (like LCD-2 and 3), but I wonder what the noise-level would be with them: I'm guessing much less than with PS1000, TH-900 or LCD-X, but probably not as quiet as I assume T1 and HD800 would be.

 

[fb24601]

I am curious to ask is a subtle noise generated by a high power amp generally acceptable to an audiophile? It generally cannot be heard when music is on. 
 
While the noise k812 on virtuoso is very subtle, I think the level of background noise for th900 (and of the likes) cannot be accepted as hifi standard. That's way I am trying to find out if impedance adapters can help.

 

[Dark Ayla]

  I am curious to ask is a subtle noise generated by a high power amp generally acceptable to an audiophile? It generally cannot be heard when music is on. 
 
While the noise k812 on virtuoso is very subtle, I think the level of background noise for th900 (and of the likes) cannot be accepted as hifi standard. That's way I am trying to find out if impedance adapters can help.

I didn't receive my Burson yet, so I can not talk about the noise issue. 
 
Let me tell you this, I have a $4500 Dac/Amp. This amp considered as one of the best, it generates noise at the last quarter of volume level. 
If the Conductor will act in the same way, then it is normal. 

 

[Dark Ayla]

  I am curious to ask is a subtle noise generated by a high power amp generally acceptable to an audiophile? It generally cannot be heard when music is on. 
 
While the noise k812 on virtuoso is very subtle, I think the level of background noise for th900 (and of the likes) cannot be accepted as hifi standard. That's way I am trying to find out if impedance adapters can help.

Did you contact Burson?
Why you didn't return it back?
 
Burson must say something about this issue ASAP. I am wondering if they are still monitoring this thread. 

 

[fb24601]

 
I didn't receive my Burson yet, so I can not talk about the noise issue. 
 
Let me tell you this, I have a $4500 Dac/Amp. This amp considered as one of the best, it generates noise at the last quarter of volume level. 
If the Conductor will act in the same way, then it is normal. 

The background noise is different with the volume sensitive noise. It is there and stay at the same level whatever the volume tuning is. 
 
As far as I can heard the background noise won't change when tuning the volume up.