[Baten]

I was using Swiss Army knife, gently pulling equally a bit from all sides.

I see. I tried pulling from all sides but it didn't budge

 

[mikaelmark]

I hav´nt had any big issues removing the DIP-socket protection - only when I used some heavy force to it, the reddish enclosure came off on a few of them. Normally, I´m using only my fingers te take the protection off.

 

[mikaelmark]

Listen right now to Tidal with MQA Master, using my modded China DAC with AK4490 without upsampling and Burson Vivid; the sound is SOOO transparent, clear, airy and bassy!

The AK4490 are famous for it´s "Velvet sound", with it´s loudness like sound. However, it sound really nice to me!

I also has a DAC with WM8741 with upsampling and also this has a Vivid, and this sound is more 3D and voices are more pronounced/in the face.

And my AK4399 DAC with New Class D OpAmp (really expensive and huge sized OpAmp!), are very clean, detailed and engaging sounding but not really anything special to mention. Just a good sound!

When I compare all above with my Arcam CD192 with WM8740 and also a Cambridge DAC Magic and also a Harman Kardon HD970, all modded with THS4031 OpAmp´s and with upsampling, their sound are flat, boring and very bassy - no fun or engaging at all!

So, my verdict: Many people claims the differences between DAC chips are very small and the differences between OpAmps are much bigger. This may be true, but however, I can distinguish rather big differenses also between DAC´s. And Bursons V6 -serie are very good and affordable (compared to the rivals below). And I favor the Vivid with it´s detailed and crispy and clear sound compared to the Classic, with it´s warm and dull sound. If we talk about amp´s, such as headphone amp´s, my favourite are SparkoS SS360x with pure Class A and a very detailed and nice sound with extended treble! If you´re wallet are thin, and you really want to enjoy the world of discrete´s, the Orange discrete OpAmp from UK may be an alternative!

 

[mikaelmark]

Today I swapped out the AK4490 DAC to the AK4399 DAC, that I recently modded with some "Snubbers", and right now listening to the free french FLAC-streaming Frequence3, really enjoyable with pure CD-quality!

Usually, a DAC or Amplifier - schematic are designed with a Power stage with at least four Rectifier diodes, preferrable BYV27. But as those may introduce some noise to the sound, a cure is to add a small non polarity plastic or ceramic capacitor in parallel to each diode, sometimes combined with a resistor in series.

But as this way will generate ringing to the signal and also pass some AC (more with bigger cap values), there´s another way to go; "Snubbers".

This is a small capacitor with a resistor in series, connected between each of the transformers secondary windings. This way, there will be less ringing and less noise with an optimal DC-signal. It has been measured with an oscilloscope, that a value at about 0,33uF combined with a resistor at about 330Ohm in series, will be correct values for most DACs and Amps.

In my case, the DAC has three windings with seven secondary wires going to the board (PCB); 15-15, 15-15 and 9-0-9. So I soldered three Snubbers, one for each windings (for 9VAC, I used only one Snubber, but it´s possibly to use two instead).

 

[numon]

hi
i really wonder that
any advantage of this tall design to other small opamp chips design?can be reachable v6 vivid sound performance by small desgns opmap also?

 

[Dartin Bout]

I don't know. Burson hasn't made the V6 Vi low profile. The V5 is though. I am sure there are different flavors and sizes of op amps available. I've been swapping opamps for years in a 7.1 Auzentech card and having fun trying such relatively cheap gateways to better sound. I just now happened to be looking to trying some different op-amps on my Deven DVD-3910.

 

[adeadcrab]

Just swapped from the Vivid to the Classic in the preamp after getting a new DAC - this is it! The Elex needed that little bit of warmth - a poor man's tube preamp??

 

[Voxata]

I really like the classic myself, an enjoyable opamp!

 

[Dartin Bout]

I've been going nuts with the Vivids\Classic. I got a Asus Stix II and mounted 9 dual V6. 6 Vivids and 3 Classic's. I just bought a Topping DX7 Pro and I'm ordering 2 more dual Vivids'.This quarantine is going to empty my bank account but my ears are overflowing with joy.

 

[bcschmerker4]

@Dartin Bout The Vivids in the I-V's and the Classics in the line-level buffers, I presume? Sounds as though ye've the STX II 7.1 package with an H6 daughtercard. I've a pair of V5i's under consideration for my STX's I-V.

 

[Dartin Bout]

I'm just starting to mix and match. I'm upgrading from an Auzentech Meridian with 3 dual Vivid's but the PCI slotted card won't transfer to the new computer I'm building.

 

[Jonathan Crouch]

I'm selling mine I put them in the selling thread 3 V6 Vivid duals and 2 V6 Vivid Singles for $135 just because I sold my DAC they went to if anyone is interested.

 

[dosley01]

I just received some V6 Classics from Carlos at Burson/Supreme Sound. I reached out after seeing a thread on DiyAudio about offering samples and wanting to step my Music Hall 25.2 DAC up a notch or two. Big Thank You!

My Music Hall 25.2 DAC and ph25.2 Headphone Amp have been my daily companions while I work from home during the pandemic so they have been getting 6-8 hours of use daily and I feel I've become very accustomed to how they sound. Everything is stock aside from replacing the stock Electro-Harmonix tube on the 25.2 DAC with a Gold Lion.

Tube swapping was a great cheap and easy inexpensive upgrade for this DAC. The Electro-Harmoni stock tube is what I consider to be on the neutral and dry side. The Gold Lion adds a touch more warmth and romance and an additional sense of spaciousness.

So far I have about +- 20 hours of listening to the V6 Classics which replaced 2 X OPA2134 and 1X OPA2604.

One of the criticisms of this DAC is that it can sound a little rolled off and isn't the most revealing. For me, it's one of the reasons I like it. Prior to the Pandemic, I was mostly a vinyl/analog listener and really only used digital to search out new music on streaming services or on my daily commute to work. Since buying this DAC, I've pulled my CD collection out of mothballs and picked up a decent transport.

While this isn't a review of the DAC, the description of its character it is important because the biggest change I noticed right off the bat is the V6 Classic opamps brought so much more detail retrieval and openness to the sound that I was very surprised what I had been missing all along. I've been mostly listening with AudioQuest NightHawks and NightOwls and I find them to be a great example of the differences between the stock opamps and the Bursons. The V6 Classic is similar to the NightHawks in the sense that it's more open sounding with a bigger soundstage and a bit more even bass response, where the stock opamps are more like the NightOwls being more intimate and more bass-heavy.

Overall, I would easily recommend this upgrade for users of the 25.2 or 25.3 DAC. While it may seem like a steep investment for a $599 piece of equipment, it really takes what is already an overachieving product up to a new level. You can spend allot more and get allot less as they say!

Since swapping is so easy with this equipment, I'm going to give the V6 Classics some more listening time and then reinstall the stock opamps and report back.

 

[JamieMcC]

Nice review I often found that when you reinstall a old component after living with a upgrade for a few months the differences going backwards are more easily recognisable.

 

[olymind1]

First of all: big thanks goes again to Charles from Burson Audio for providing me a pair of V6 Classic Dual samples!

They're still a week old so they aren't properly burned in, so it is just an initial quick comparison. The soundcard they are in is a Sound Blaster ZxR, i used it with half a year with Burson V6 Vivid Duals in the I/V and V6 Vivid Singles in the buffer. About 2 months ago i put the JRC 2114Ds back into the I/V stage and listening to it since. The constants are the soundcard and the V6 Vivid Singles in the buffer stage, so when i'm comparing them the changes will only come from swapping the I/V's opamps. I'm using the card with the latest driver under Windows 10, all sound enhancing features are turned off and in stereo out, musicplayer is foobar2000 with WASAPI (Event) out.

First impression is (/was that even after 1 day of usage) the sound is a bit gentler with Classics than with the JRC 2114D and V6 Vivids, even with jrc 2114d sound was piercing somewhat piercing. Somehow there is less sibilance, easier to listen to it, gentler presentation on the higher freqencies, the Vivids are more like i am here listen to me, listen to me now Classics are fuller / slightly fatter on the mids, more upper bass / lower mid punch, don't know if because the burnin period, but a Vivids have more lower bass attack, also cleaner mids, though the Vivids have a slightly more upper range emphasis, which can be a good or bad thing, depends on the speakers/monitors too. Even with the Classics maybe with the Vivids in buffers "magnifies" some HF vocals a little too much, or these Edifier R1900TII speakers can handle the Vivids propery, but i'll wait and will see how will it change after lots of usage. I think male vocals sounds better on Classics. After 1 week of usage it is clear that the JRC 2112D hides lots of small things which doesn't seams much because if when we don't know about them, then we don't miss them, but revealing those (sometimes smaller) details can bring smile on my face Like revealing some vocals in the background, or how some vocal travels and leaving fading trails, or some instrument for example a distored guitar suddenly became more noticeable and clearer so i can't help but look that way.

Will update later.

12.08 Update:
Put the V6 Vivid Duals back into I/V sockets replacing the Classic Duals. The Vivids are definietly more bright and more cleaner, it punches lower, even on a 5 inch speaker you can tell the difference. Classics are a bit mellow-ish, easier on the ears, tamer highs, slightly more focus on the upper bass and low mid. Male vocals get more body/presence on them, while on the Vivids female vocals gets more clearity.