[raoultrifan]

I’ve noticed myself how great Jazz sounds on the PLAY unit. I get so many details...for example, on DSD’s mastered from older tracks I can hear the first sounds of the next song with 1-2 sec. before (tape gets magnetized and between tracks I can hear next song’s first bits).

I’ve installed Win10 Enterprise trial just to test the PLAY and I had no issues with playing from Youtube, movies, all kind if music etc. Also, not an issue on OS Sierra too.

 

[newtophones07]

I’ve noticed myself how great Jazz sounds on the PLAY unit. I get so many details...for example, on DSD’s mastered from older tracks I can hear the first sounds of the next song with 1-2 sec. before (tape gets magnetized and between tracks I can hear next song’s first bits).

I’ve installed Win10 Enterprise trial just to test the PLAY and I had no issues with playing from Youtube, movies, all kind if music etc. Also, not an issue on OS Sierra too.

Please help me out, on your windows setup what media player are you using to play movies through direct sound? YouTube is fine for me, music is fine obviously. The movie "sound" output is an odditiy, I can't figure. Are you using directsound in the media player settings? Also in Windows what drivers are you using, Burson or native, and what do you have the audio settings set to in Windows??

Thanks

 

[Eiffel]

Hi ! I didn't received yet my Play - I'm using the Conductor Air now - but it's similar.
I use JRiver Media Player for everything - music or video. And I use Burson Xmos drivers, not Windows 10 USB Audio 2.0 drivers. I had a driver problem whee I bought the Air as Burson driver was not good for last Windows 10 iteration - so I used for some time the Microsoft generic driver. Unfortunately this offers only Direct Sound or WASAPI.
I'm an ASIO fan so as the new drivers from Xmos were available on Burson site I moved to them. And I stuck on them probably until the next Windows 10 iteration.
For Windows settings I didn't made to many - just set in Power that teh PC never goes to sleep. Also I use Bitdefender as antivirus and it use some profiles depending on your activity on the PC - it has a Movie Profile - so I put JRiver in the Bitdefender settings for this profile - when starting JRiver the Movie Profile activates and it stops a lot of background processes like maintenance.

I also agree that the lack of a Low/High Gain switch on Burson products is a small inconvenient compared with other DAC&Amps - for most of my headphones ( IEM's included ) I have to set a volume of 02-05 on the Air. And the Play is 4x more powerfull. So an iFi EarBuddy or IEMatch are mandatory for the Play if you want IEM's or low impedance headphones.

 

[raoultrifan]

Please help me out, on your windows setup what media player are you using to play movies through direct sound? YouTube is fine for me, music is fine obviously. The movie "sound" output is an odditiy, I can't figure. Are you using directsound in the media player settings? Also in Windows what drivers are you using, Burson or native, and what do you have the audio settings set to in Windows??

Will check this after Wednesday, as I'm traveling now outside home town. Thanks!

[...] I also agree that the lack of a Low/High Gain switch on Burson products is a small inconvenient compared with other DAC&Amps - for most of my headphones ( IEM's included ) I have to set a volume of 02-05 on the Air. And the Play is 4x more powerfull. So an iFi EarBuddy or IEMatch are mandatory for the Play if you want IEM's or low impedance headphones.

Could you please share the most sensitive headphone you have? Mine are Beats Solo2 (great for getting 50/60Hz hum, but also the background noise) and AKG K550 (very good for getting the background hiss).

 

[Eiffel]

The most sensitives I have are the FiiO EX1. They also have the lowest impedance - 16 ohms.
On the Air I have to use them on 02, maximum 03. It's interesting that I have no hum or hiss with them on the AIr - but these are the only ones who gives me hiss on my phone (?!).
Actually I don't have hum or hiss on the AIr with none - just the inconvenient I cannot set the volume very well without using the iFi EarBuddy.

 

[newtophones07]

Hi ! I didn't received yet my Play - I'm using the Conductor Air now - but it's similar.
I use JRiver Media Player for everything - music or video. And I use Burson Xmos drivers, not Windows 10 USB Audio 2.0 drivers. I had a driver problem whee I bought the Air as Burson driver was not good for last Windows 10 iteration - so I used for some time the Microsoft generic driver. Unfortunately this offers only Direct Sound or WASAPI.
I'm an ASIO fan so as the new drivers from Xmos were available on Burson site I moved to them. And I stuck on them probably until the next Windows 10 iteration.
For Windows settings I didn't made to many - just set in Power that teh PC never goes to sleep. Also I use Bitdefender as antivirus and it use some profiles depending on your activity on the PC - it has a Movie Profile - so I put JRiver in the Bitdefender settings for this profile - when starting JRiver the Movie Profile activates and it stops a lot of background processes like maintenance.

I also agree that the lack of a Low/High Gain switch on Burson products is a small inconvenient compared with other DAC&Amps - for most of my headphones ( IEM's included ) I have to set a volume of 02-05 on the Air. And the Play is 4x more powerfull. So an iFi EarBuddy or IEMatch are mandatory for the Play if you want IEM's or low impedance headphones.

I concur with almost everything you pointed out. Jriver is the way too go imo, for these drivers and device. I just ordered a ifi iematch, maybe that will help.

 

[Blinding]

So planars are a no go with the Play? What kind of headphones would have less background hiss? Some sort of dynamic ones with 250 or 600ohm? I've tried the AKG K702 65th Anniversary vs the Fidelio X2 and the AKG ones seemed to have way less background hiss.

 

[ostewart]

So planars are a no go with the Play? What kind of headphones would have less background hiss? Some sort of dynamic ones with 250 or 600ohm? I've tried the AKG K702 65th Anniversary vs the Fidelio X2 and the AKG ones seemed to have way less background hiss.

Who said planars are a no go?

My play works really well with my HE-500.

It also works wonders with most full size headphones, including grado.

 

[selvakumar]

Who said planars are a no go?

My play works really well with my HE-500.

It also works wonders with most full size headphones, including grado.

you are correct my beyerdynamicsDT1770 PRo works fine and Audeze El8 open back works without any issue

 

[Blinding]

I think a read a post of someone saying the hiss was worse with the planars, thats why I asked that. So everyone is getting the background hiss? Or it's very headphone dependent ?

 

[ostewart]

I think a read a post of someone saying the hiss was worse with the planars, thats why I asked that. So everyone is getting the background hiss? Or it's very headphone dependent ?

Headphone dependent, I have only had it with in-ears so far, and the iFi Earbuddy fixed that.

 

[Eiffel]

Got my Play yesterday.
My first impressions are a bit unpleasant, not about the product itself, but about the quality of accessories provided. I intend to write the problems to Burson first, before mentioning them here.

About the Play, compared with the AIr it has more... air, transparency and a deeper soundstage. Just the Air has a darker background and far more clarity.
I tried to connect my headphones directly, and it works - almost at the same volume as on the Play - 02-03. My surprise was the amount of hum I hear in all when no song is playing. 50Hz and it's harmonics. No hiss however. I presume it comes from the power switching supply.
Unfortunately EarBuddy don't help enough. For volume I can go up to 10, but there is still a bit of hum. I think IEMatch are better with Play as it offer bigger attenuation.
Also I tested the Line Out, but I just cannot keep it at 99 - which Burson recommends for Line Out. At 35 it sound already like the Air at 99.

Now I'm thinking about a better power supply for it. IFi has some but they don't have enough power. Not sure about DC iPurifier as iFi say it works up to 84W, but 3.5A..
The Air I have it powered from a 10Ah powerpack batery.

 

[ostewart]

Got my Play yesterday.
My first impressions are a bit unpleasant, not about the product itself, but about the quality of accessories provided. I intend to write the problems to Burson first, before mentioning them here.

About the Play, compared with the AIr it has more... air, transparency and a deeper soundstage. Just the Air has a darker background and far more clarity.
I tried to connect my headphones directly, and it works - almost at the same volume as on the Play - 02-03. My surprise was the amount of hum I hear in all when no song is playing. 50Hz and it's harmonics. No hiss however. I presume it comes from the power switching supply.
Unfortunately EarBuddy don't help enough. For volume I can go up to 10, but there is still a bit of hum. I think IEMatch are better with Play as it offer bigger attenuation.
Also I tested the Line Out, but I just cannot keep it at 99 - which Burson recommends for Line Out. At 35 it sound already like the Air at 99.

Now I'm thinking about a better power supply for it. IFi has some but they don't have enough power. Not sure about DC iPurifier as iFi say it works up to 84W, but 3.5A..
The Air I have it powered from a 10Ah powerpack batery.

Very odd, I never had hum with mine...

 

[raoultrifan]

Are you sure it's not sort of hiss-noise instead of hum? This combo has no transformer inside and there's no way to get 50Hz or 2nd-3rd order harmonics of the main frequency.

 

[Eiffel]

Hiss would be on higher frequencies.
I clearly hear the main frequency - 50 and 100Hz are very easy to identify. The interesting part is that is present only on headphones/iem's. I don't hear it on the Line Out.
May be it has no transformer inside, but it's powered by a switching power supply - which usually is a NO in hi-fi. The Play has some filtering inside but from what I see it concentrates more on the Xmos and ESS Dac. I intend to take it at work tomorrow and try to power it from a lab test power supply and see what happens.
What I've forgot to say about the hum - it's constant - same level whatever the volume is set. Even on Mute/00.