[spacelion2077]

How does Soloist sound comparing to Audio gd M19? M19 sounds a little soft but soundstaging is wonderful.

 

[MakubexGB]

How does Soloist sound comparing to Audio gd M19? M19 sounds a little soft but soundstaging is wonderful.

By "soft" do you mean it doesn't have a lot of power (ie. Volume doesn't go very high) or do you mean dynamics or what?

 

[spacelion2077]

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By "soft" do you mean it doesn't have a lot of power (ie. Volume doesn't go very high) or do you mean dynamics or what?

I don't think it lacks power, it outputs 9w at 40 olm. I used to have a A90, the sound is very linear but it doesn't have a lot flavors and soundstage, I upgraded it to Audio gd M19. The soundstage has improved a lot, but the sound doesn't slam as hard, the bass is a little flat. How does burson soloist sound in general?

 

[MakubexGB]

I d


I don't think it lacks power, it outputs 9w at 40 olm. I used to have a A90, the sound is very linear but it doesn't have a lot flavors and soundstage, I upgraded it to Audio gd M19. The soundstage has improved a lot, but the sound doesn't slam as hard, the bass is a little flat. How does burson soloist sound in general?

The good thing about the Soloist is that you can modify the sound somewhat by rolling opamps. The Soloist definitely slams. I also used to have the A90 (which I enjoyed) and I would say there's a lot more separation on the Soloist. A big difference to me coming from the A90 to the Soloist was not having everything be so forward. The A90 felt like it put every frequency in the forefront. With the Burson I hear more layers. Initially it felt weird because some things I was used to hearing on the same plane as everything else were placed differently. Some softer and in more in the background. It took a bit of getting used to .

 

[Blackbriar0216]

I agree with that. And if you really crave bit of intimacy, you can always bypass soloist volume stage and use as power amp.

 

[Blackbriar0216]

Whats your budget towards amp? If you have budget double the cost of soloist 3xp, i would recommend sparkos aries amp too. Project86 has got review of it here.

 

[spacelion2077]

The good thing about the Soloist is that you can modify the sound somewhat by rolling opamps. The Soloist definitely slams. I also used to have the A90 (which I enjoyed) and I would say there's a lot more separation on the Soloist. A big difference to me coming from the A90 to the Soloist was not having everything be so forward. The A90 felt like it put every frequency in the forefront. With the Burson I hear more layers. Initially it felt weird because some things I was used to hearing on the same plane as everything else were placed differently. Some softer and in more in the background. It took a bit of getting used to .

Yeah I'll give Soloist a shot then. It should approximately the same with M19. A90 is clean but not really enough to drive my 1266 tc. If Soloist 3x has the soundstage of M19 and slam of A90, I'll be very be happy.

 

[krude]

Yeah I'll give Soloist a shot then. It should approximately the same with M19. A90 is clean but not really enough to drive my 1266 tc. If Soloist 3x has the soundstage of M19 and slam of A90, I'll be very be happy.

I have it paired with 1266 tc. What dac do you use? Buy it with the Supercharger PSU to save yourself some time, the treble can be too sharp on the standard PSU. I really enjoy this pairing. I find 1266 to benefit from smoother DACs as well. I went from Hugo 2 to Holo May L2 and while Hugo 2 is excellent the smoothness of May refined the experience a lot.

 

[screwdriver]

So i caved in and bought the burson soloist 3xp. I currently have a soncoz sgd1 dac and a modded gl2000 headphones as my starter gear. I guess i have to get some balanced xlr interconnect and balanced headphone cables.

 

[MakubexGB]

So i caved in and bought the burson soloist 3xp. I currently have a soncoz sgd1 dac and a modded gl2000 headphones as my starter gear. I guess i have to get some balanced xlr interconnect and balanced headphone cables.

What kind of mod do you have on your GL2000's?

 

[spw1880]

I do know what you're talking about in regards to the mids, where it can get a bit shouty (at least on the VC).

The Staccato don't really smooth things out but it is more linear. It might be a better match for the VO (I don't have VO btw). But the Staccato does have some trade-offs I talked about in one of my earlier posts here somewhere (you can just search it). So, if you're okay with that then it's worth a try.

I wouldn't get classics tbh. Although they have a much more overall smoother treble response, they have an emphasis in the lower treble which make it prone to sibilance. It's also very intimate in the mids so that might not help there.

In regards to the input/output, I'd say experiment. From my testing, placing them on the output offers a more noticeable change/difference. Placing it on the volume input stage, offers minimal change. But that's not to say it's not worth trying. Because if you, for example, prefer the Vivids the most but want just a little tweak with its tuning then I would generally place it on the volume input stage as it will slightly shift it while keeping most of the Vivids' qualities.

But all that being said, if you're thinking about replacing all 4 opamps (roughly 400USD), I would personally just save up to upgrade my DAC. You'll hear much more improvement than swapping opamps imo once you shop around for hi-end DACs. You could pair it with a smooth DAC to inject some warmth on the Soloist (along with many other improvements). I went from the RME DAC to the Holo Spring 3 DAC and it was a much better experience all around (night and day difference), more than any other opamp can provide.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for your advice. I do intend to just either put a pair on the input or output but not both. See if there is a balancing out of both qualities. I do have a schiit bifrost 2 dac and topping d90se dac. The bifrost is very smooth on the soloist vivids, definitely losing in transparency versus the d90se, but already think the bifrost is too much of a good thing on modern music, so thats why i am just looking for a slight tweak on the soloist. Whether input or output, it may be strange to say that i may end up putting the classics where it makes just that very slight difference. The staccatos are bit more expensive and the wait is not set in stone, 3 weeks or more. So i may test the effects of the classics combo with vivid, and guage the changes.

 

[spacelion2077]

I have it paired with 1266 tc. What dac do you use? Buy it with the Supercharger PSU to save yourself some time, the treble can be too sharp on the standard PSU. I really enjoy this pairing. I find 1266 to benefit from smoother DACs as well. I went from Hugo 2 to Holo May L2 and while Hugo 2 is excellent the smoothness of May refined the experience a lot.

I'm pairing it with Rme Adi 2, feeding it to Audio gd M19. I love everything about the setup except for the bass and instrument separation. Holo May is worth the upgrade?. Z didn't review it too kindly. Apparently it doesn't sound any different than a $500 dac

 

[krude]

I'm pairing it with Rme Adi 2, feeding it to Audio gd M19. I love everything about the setup except for the bass and instrument separation. Holo May is worth the upgrade?. Z didn't review it too kindly. Apparently it doesn't sound any different than a $500 dac

Let me unpack a few things here :

1) What Z did with this ... video ... is abysmal for at least this reason: "output of the chain is only as good as the weakest link" ... what downstream gear did he use to evalue the dacs? No disrispect but a 20 yr old Nokia mobile would probably sound the same through his test setup, which made me question his knowledge, professional standards and integrity to be honest. But we can listen to any advice we deem worthy. If you want a counter argument check Golden Sounds review of May ... it's quite a bit more in depth shall we say.

2) Is it worth the upgrade ... well that's a tough one, because it depends on your taste, expectations and the rest of your system. Also let's keep in mind that DACs give you about 5% of the total quality. I'd say heapdhones / speakers about 65%, amp 20%, files / streaming quality 10% and DAC the last 5% ... so if the rest of your components are not up to scratch then it's definitely not worth the upgrade. You will probably get more from a PSU upgrade than from changing your DAC. Having said that, if you have your headphones, amp etc. maxed out and your DAC is sub par, then yeah it's 100% worth the upgrade if you're looking for more natural, smooth sound that still measures like a delta sigma (meaning it's really precise).

Hope that helps : )

 

[betula]

I'm pairing it with Rme Adi 2, feeding it to Audio gd M19. I love everything about the setup except for the bass and instrument separation. Holo May is worth the upgrade?. Z didn't review it too kindly. Apparently it doesn't sound any different than a $500 dac

Z is very entertaining, I love the guy. But his ears are only 'averagely refined' compared to the Head-Fi community. With all respect.

 

[HiFiDJ]

Holo May is worth the upgrade?

Unless you're going to be upgrading your amp in the future, pairing a May with a Soloist is kind of overkill.
I pair mine with a Spring 3 and the Soloist is definitely the weakest link in my chain, although still enjoyable to listen to.