Hi!
I received my V5i's full boat in the post today. Came directly from Hong Kong, I imagine they either all come from there or they were just produced and sent out directly from their warehouse before being sent to Australia.
I'll post a pic as I had some confusion trying to put them in:
Tried using the instructions for the V5's only to realise that the pins are at 90 degrees to the writing, then later I realised that the slight dip in the opamp (meant to help placement) is no longer on the top down view, but on the bottom up.
Anyway long story short, the best way to put them in is to align them so the writing is the exact same direction as the original opamps that you would have just taken out.
First Impression:
Please excuse my poor use of terminology
As many before me I claim not to be an audiophile, I'm just a poor uni student that spends all his available money on electronics. My setup is as follows:
PC ==> O2 E-DAC ==> Gustard H10 ==> HifiMan HE-500's w/ Focus Pads.
I'll detail my thoughts with specific songs:
Poets of the Fall - Temple of Thought -
A personal favourite - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfVGvY7p1sU
This is my go to song as soon as I have an audio upgrade. The very first thing I noticed was that the harshness in the trebles was gone. Without the opamps I sometimes felt like the upper peak in the trebles was a little too high for my tastes. When the frequencies when particularly high I'd wince a little, it was a bit too much for me, that's been put under control. This was nice to hear.
The next thing I noticed was that the slight midbass hump was gone. Before the lower part of the midrange and the upper bass region sort of melded to produce a very slightly booming. It definitely wasn't significant and the range of frequencies where I heard it was quite small but was occassionally noticeable. That has been completely removed and it sounds much flatter. I think I'll might miss it on some songs but I'm sure in the long run it will sound better.
Chris Jones - Long After You're Gone -
I find this really flexes the midrange and trebles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Zce9gmjIA
Again my first impressions of the upper peak in the trebles being put under control is again confirmed. Sounds much better now. Midrange feels a touch more forward than it use to be. Not to Grado standard but it is a welcome addition. I noticed at this point that the sound does not sound anymore "airy" than it used to be. I feel it actually is now slightly more closed in because of the slightly more forward midrange, not that this is a bad thing, as a listener of EDM/Grime/Indie/Deep House I actually like this.
Full Crate x Mar - Nobody Else -
I find this really hits all the frequencies of the bass - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7iMTVdiDIM
You'll have to really jump around the middle of the song to feel the bass. I find here the bass is very dynamic and varies greatly and allows the listener to hear a lot of the frequencies in one go in a song without doing a bass test that just drops as low as it can. Here I felt that the bass extended lower than it had, though I'm not entirely sure if that's true. I'd like to say it is but I don't think the Burson's have done much to add/improve the bass beside the midbass hump spoken about above.
Would I say they're worth it for the £90 I paid?
Right now I say "yeah sort of", purely because that's quite a bit to spend on differences where you're not always going to be like "Hell yea!".
In the long run however it is definitely an upgrade worth doing and so I know I personally would eventually take the leap with opamps and so yes, it is worth the money.
Thanks for reading. Happy listening.
P.S. Burson didn't request I post a review or anything, I just felt I read a lot on HeadFi and finally found a time when I can share my thoughts.
