I was lucky enough to get my hands on a pair of dual vivid V6 op-amps just before Christmas last year which I installed into my Teac UD-501. It’s been a few years since I’ve done anything to it as I’ve been happy with the sound from the Sparko op-amps I’ve been using but it’s still a very good platform to upgrade and try different things.
I originally tried the V5’s from Burson – the original, original ones, which were to this day, the best op amps I’d ever put into the Teac. The best sound ever. Unfortunately, those ones overheated and failed and the replacements from Burson sounded nothing like those originals. It was like a shattered dream and I stuck to the Sparko’s ever since. Then came the V6’s.
Fitting them was easy, same as the V5’s before them, I’ve attached some quick pics for reference. Installed, I fired them up straight away for a listen – I had high hopes. Unfortunately, that magical V5 sound wasn’t there. It sounded loose at the low end and harsh at the highs, detached in the middle. Classic pre-burn in sound, I thought, so still with a chance of it getting to where I hoped it would be.
One thing that did stand out immediately was the quietness in the background and the sharp impulse response from each note. Whether one causes the other, I don’t know, but the result is a very clear presentation into the music, as if the musician was now playing more precisely and with a tiny bit more emphasis – striking keys harder, or plucking with more force as if it were. Voices were equally isolated and crystal in this manner. Soundstage and instrument placement were pretty much consistent with the sparky which contrasted the original V5 which had a very deep, far back soundstage, but individual isolation of notes was something the V6 bested over those other two.
I let the Teac run unattended for 100 hours and came back for a listen but nothing much changed. A bit more solid in the sound with tighter bass was about all that was different. I let it run for longer and again, not much different except even more bass, so I let it run for another couple of days. By this time, the highs were mellowed and everything gelled together into place as a good system should, so I thought this was the final sound. I left it at that and did my normal listening sessions, at least once a day, if not every day for between 1 and 2 hours. The Teac op amp rails run at 12V so I never expected burn in to last so long, probably over 200 hours in total.
After another week of this listening, I started to notice that the bass had crept up to heart moving levels. Literally shaking the room and hurting my ears, the bass had gone deeper and louder as if it had an EQ boost. Was this another end to another Burson try-out? I didn’t want it to be as the quiet background and lightning quick response was definitely something worth keeping. Would I need to resort to some unorthodox audiophile EQ-ing to tame the bass? I’m running some silver IC’s to my power amp which I like due to the solid bass and crystal clear mids and I was reluctant to get rid of them, especially when they were doing so well in the system with the sparkys.
Suddenly it came to me to close up the ports on the back of my focal speakers. Closed up, the bass went down. All of it. No more bass whatsoever. I had just stumbled into more problems. Not yet admitting defeat, I decided to half close the ports. Luckily Focal engineers must have designed a slot port just for this purpose, as the port size can be changed by inserting larger or smaller sponges in it. With a lot of trial and error and extended periods of testing, I finally settled on a half open half closed port which gave just the right amount of bass. I had always thought that the Focal W cone drivers gave precise, taut bass which I loved but because I only have a 2-way Electra standmount, I suspect that the performance wasn’t as good as it might have been from a 3 way. The V6’s were probably pushing their performance envelope to the maximum. Unfortunately, this tuning has left a slight hole in the upper bass but I’m ok with that.
I’ve had the V6’s set up like this for a couple weeks now and it’s a pretty amazing sound. The clarity into the midrange is ‘vivid’ just like it says on the box and I’m stumbling onto old tracks I’ve not listened to for a while to be greeted with a brand new presentation into the music. It’s not like the old V5’s I loved so much which had a distant, slow, presentation that made most things sound like a melancholy blues song, but it’s ability to allow one to hear every detail in the recording, both leading and trailing, makes me believe this op amp is trying it’s best to not interfere with the sound. And that’s a win in my book.
In conclusion, this op amp is a good product but don’t be surprised if it causes weaknesses in other parts of your audio chain to become apparent.
if you want that maximum feel of musicality, these are the opamps to get in my opinion. They are very punchy sounding and just a breath of fresh air next to the typical opamp sound. The Burson V6 Classics made the biggest difference in sound to me. They just match incredibly well with the Burson dac/amps. Burson opamps might not be cheap, but definitely worth saving up for if you want to max out your (Burson) amp: the Classics just produce an effortless sound than I can listen to for hours/days.
