[Frank I]

The Conductor  did very nice last night with the new Hiifman HE1000 prototype I hav ein the house. I was  impressed with how easy they were to drive and musical, A very nice match as is every headphone I have tried so far with the conductor. Musical  and Organic.

 

[JackarlTwo]

Such a nice looking amp. Got the old Conductor last week and have been enjoying it a lot. Only issue is the crackling sound when adjusting volume, which is supposedly fixed in Virtuoso. I'm curious if there are any sonic improvements over the old Conductor.

 

[Frank I]

The cracking sound is gone. The new Conductor has quiet volume control

 

[jespersen]

Hello Frank (and others who have the virtuoso)...
 
I'm on the verge of buying this thing, but lack of reviews and not having the option to pre-listen makes is difficult for me.
 
Feedback on how the virtuoso with the ESS9018 sounds with the Sennheisser HD800 would be very appreciated. Comparisons with other amps (on the HD800 would also be rather helpful.
 
Also any added info on any white noise at low levels that was previously mentioned in this thread would be interesting.
 
Thank you

 

[Frank I]

I can do that for you today Jesperen and let you know. So far with every headphone the Burson has delivered big time. The dac is excellent

 

[jespersen]

Thank you!
For reference I have so far been able to listen to the Senn HD800 with the Bryston BHA-1, which I liked a lot, but its more expensive than the virtuoso here in europe and I would need a DAC on top of the price bring the package out of my budget sphere. I also tried the HD800 on a few "smaller" amps like a Nuforce and Teac (cant remember the models) and did not like that at all and stopped listening after 3 seconds.
 
Again thank you in advance!

 

[Frank I]

I been listening this morning with the HD800 and can say it  has excellent synergy and also does veyr well with the T1 . I really enjoy  the Buron it is world class dac with a discrete amp that is dead quiet and does everything well. Built to last  and like a battleship will provide many years of service. Compared ot other in the price range the Burson stands out because of the excellent implementation of the dac and it is reference quality,

 

[HiFiGuy528]

  Such a nice looking amp. Got the old Conductor last week and have been enjoying it a lot. Only issue is the crackling sound when adjusting volume, which is supposedly fixed in Virtuoso. I'm curious if there are any sonic improvements over the old Conductor.

 
The volume on Virtuoso is nothing like the previous Conductor, no pops when you change the levels.  

 

[montanari]

  Hello everyone, Burson Audio are happy to respond to a few of the questions you've raised.
 
 
Regarding the noise that Tokoyo mentioned, the last model Conductor had three levels of selectable gain to overcome the limited steps of the original volume control. But it wasn't ideal because the idle-current of the amplifier could only be optimised for one of the three settings. In the previous Conductor the idle current was optimised for the mid-gain level and the noise floor of the previous Conductor reflected that.
 
 
We're happy to answer any further question you may have.
 
Thank you,
Burson Audio

 
so the same happen to the Soloist (optimized for mid gain setting) ?

 

[Frank I]

I  will be hooking the Conductor up to the 2 channel system today and reporting on how it does streaming using a macbook as a source and also headphone listening has been superb. Quiet unit.

 

[Dark Ayla]

I am about to order the Conductor and would like to ask few questions before doing it:
a- Is this a good match with LCD3 Fazor and HD650?
b- I know that the ESS DAC is more detailed compared to the PCM DAC, so which one is better for me? I like airy, warm and bassy sound. It is hard to mix airy and warm but I hope to get this combination. I have issues with bright sound due to fatiguing and boring sound signature (I am looking for musicality).
c- What about the overall quality of the DAC (alone) and Amp (alone)?
d- Any technical issues that you have experienced with this product? 
 
Thanks 

 

[Dark Ayla]

More questions 
a- Why there is no gain selector on the amp?
b- What is the minimum and maximum impedance headphones this amp can drive?
c- Does the sample rate appears on the amp? 
d- Does this amp/DAC support DSD? If not, is it true that you will release a new amp/DAC that supports DSD?
e- Can I use the amp ONLY or DAC ONLY?

 

[xident]

That's a lot of questions...
 
To answer some of those for you: The "display" only shows volume, no sample rate information. At the moment there is no DSD dac/card available for it. No idea if they are planning to do one. You can easily use it as a DAC or amp only. There are two analog inputs on the back, and there is both a DAC-out and a Pre-out, so you can choose whether to use this unit as an "all in one" headamp, a DAC only or as a preamp for your power amplifier in a speaker system.
 
Build quality appears to be excellent. I have had mine for a few weeks and it has been playing 24/7. Does not get hot and volume control and buttons/connectors feel good. I was recommended the 1793 DAC option by the (norwegian) distributor as the most "musical and analog sounding" compared to the ESS option. As it is also cheaper, I have not regretted the choice. I can always get the ESS card later if I feel like it, or use an external DAC.
 
I can't tell you whether it's a good match for LCD-3. I have an LCD-X in the mail that I am hoping will be good with this, but so far I am using it with Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80ohm and Fisher Audio FA-002W. My only complaint is that the noise floor is a bit too high for my taste with these sensitive headphones, and I wouldn't expect it to be very different with the LCD-X. I would have loved to have a "pitch black" background to the music. But that's the trade-off for all that power I guess. Don't get me wrong though, other people who have listened to my setup have made no mentions of the noise-floor, only raved about the power and dynamics of the sound.
 
I'm not sure why you would get this in addition to or to replace the Oppo HA-1 and Moon Neo 430HA in your signature though...? I strongly considered the Oppo but the asking price on it in Norway is currently almost double the US price, so that disqualified it.

 

[Dark Ayla]

  That's a lot of questions...
 
To answer some of those for you: The "display" only shows volume, no sample rate information. At the moment there is no DSD dac/card available for it. No idea if they are planning to do one. You can easily use it as a DAC or amp only. There are two analog inputs on the back, and there is both a DAC-out and a Pre-out, so you can choose whether to use this unit as an "all in one" headamp, a DAC only or as a preamp for your power amplifier in a speaker system.
 
Build quality appears to be excellent. I have had mine for a few weeks and it has been playing 24/7. Does not get hot and volume control and buttons/connectors feel good. I was recommended the 1793 DAC option by the (norwegian) distributor as the most "musical and analog sounding" compared to the ESS option. As it is also cheaper, I have not regretted the choice. I can always get the ESS card later if I feel like it, or use an external DAC.
 
I can't tell you whether it's a good match for LCD-3. I have an LCD-X in the mail that I am hoping will be good with this, but so far I am using it with Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80ohm and Fisher Audio FA-002W. My only complaint is that the noise floor is a bit too high for my taste with these sensitive headphones, and I wouldn't expect it to be very different with the LCD-X. I would have loved to have a "pitch black" background to the music. But that's the trade-off for all that power I guess. Don't get me wrong though, other people who have listened to my setup have made no mentions of the noise-floor, only raved about the power and dynamics of the sound.
 
I'm not sure why you would get this in addition to or to replace the Oppo HA-1 and Moon Neo 430HA in your signature though...? I strongly considered the Oppo but the asking price on it in Norway is currently almost double the US price, so that disqualified it.

 
I getting this because I LOVE this hobby and want to test as many as possible of hardware. This will help me to build the perfect gear. 
 
I also want to try the PCM DAC. The Oppo has the ESS, which is sooo revealing and might be harsh with bright recordings. 
 
You mentioned the noise floor, my LCD3 is 110 Ohm, HD 650 300 Ohm so I think I will be safe RIGHT? What do u think?
I will use it also with my EL8 Closed design 30 Ohm, which might be an issue, what do u think?
 
What about the lack of gain selector? Why Burson did it like that?!!
 
I noticed in the web few units of Conductor with transparent (glass/plastic) top cover, is this an option that I can request from Burson?
 
 
Thank you so much  

 

[xident]

I wouldn't worry about the "noise floor"-thing unless a pitch black background for ALL headphones is one of your key requirements, and it would be my guess that the list of amps to choose from wouldn't be very big.
 
I can hear a faint noise floor in the DT770's (80ohm/96db) when there is no music playing or there is a pause in the music, but it does not get higher when the volume is turned up. It is higher, and uncomfortably so, with the FA-002W (64ohm/105db) and IEM's (Dunu DN-2000 16ohm/102db), but the amp is clearly not designed with these in mind. I would expect it to be dead silent with less efficient headphones.
 
As far as efficient planar headphones go, I have no first hand experience yet. However Mike Mercer has been very positive about his experience with this amp and the open back Audeze EL-8 in another thread. For example:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/749214/audeze-el-8-the-el-8-is-a-must-hear-at-ces-2015/2700#post_11354436
http://www.head-fi.org/t/749214/audeze-el-8-the-el-8-is-a-must-hear-at-ces-2015/2715#post_11356084
 
Would love to hear from anybody using Fostex TH 900 with this amp..?