First off I paid for my device. I own quite a few Burson op amp upgrade packages for various equipment, but this us my first Burson device.
The build of the device is rather impressive, especially the form factor. I am a desktop PC guy, and have been through many sound card iterations over time. In my experience, moving towards USB based DACs for more audio centered use, always adds another component, more wire management, more desk space etc.
So I saw this device and got excited to clean up my desk a tad. The ability to drop the device into your case is AWESOME. The black coating is very nice, nice paint consistency, no rough edges. Make sure you choose your case wisely though. I have two cases, but my preferred silent case, has a door and the volume knob sticks out a few centimetres too far. Better to go with a non door case, or a internal design that allows you to slide the burson into the PC cage a tad further back to clear the volume knob. The knob feel is worth the slight depth inconvenience, though. Very consistent pot control, and volume attenuation. The rear USB port and RCA analog outputs are tight and snug. The front headphone jack is a tad loose for my liking. I have quite a few 3.5mm to 1/4" adapters, and only one of my adapters fits snug. The included burson adapter it's also loose, which seems odd. Just don't move it, I guess. I would recommend a dedicated cable with a 1/4 TRS Jack vs using adpaters. It removes the possibility of jack movement on the Burson end. I do think this needs to be improved, at this price point. The rear power input, is also a tad loose Imo, so I recommend not moving that cable too much either. The remote, is all metal, and has a very nice feel in the hand, nice range for the sensor
The DAC side of the device, or better yet the ES9018 implementation is the star. Connected to an outboard amp, with the vivid opamps is sublime. Clean output, no noise, absolutely no pops/clicks when changing file sample rates like some DACs. I like the more pronounced low end and slight mid-range focus versus the classics.
Changing the opamp is very easy, just a few screws, pop out and in. Again, very nice design. I don't hear a significant difference from all my other ES9018 devices, but I do say that Burson, maybe should have considered bumping up to a ES9038, single chip (at minimum) at this price point. The USB is VERY well done, though, as I no longer need to use a ifi USB 3.0 device. Jazz instrumentation is separate and pronounced. I trend towards focusing on the bass guitar, and the feeling from the Burson comes through with power and full emotion. Every string pick is audible. Female vocal impact in the higher registry comes in clean with the sparkle I prefer, just all around well done. No PC sound card can match this, not even a Essence STX II with the Burson op amp updates (which I own). There are other external USB devices in $550 range that have more options (balanced), upgraded ES chips, and in some instance MQA. I only bring this up to compare options for PC use. Those devices don't have the build quailty, remote, form factor and amplifier power though. None of them, that I have used, have a cleaner USB port though. There is always a trade-off I guess.
The drivers for the device are a supreme hassle. I have spent more time fine tuning this device, than any other external sound device ever. This may be a function of windows, but I am noting this to save others some time. If you run Windows 10, you must run the latest version (post Dec rollout) for best functionality. I typically prefer Win10 LTSB (Enterprise) which strips out most of the windows data mining, but the native xmos drivers are NOT included in the LTSB version on windows. The supplied Win10 drivers on the Burson support page, simply do not work on my system with either LTSB or Windows Professional. The Burson support drivers also max out at 24/192 (rather than 32/192 using the native xmos drivers included in the correct Win10 version). Also note that I literally had to completely re-install my system to standard Win10 professional version, to get the native xmos drivers. Whew talk about a time sink.
The Burson Win10 drivers off the support page (4.3.1.0) also have some noise in foobar playback and Driver. So again I would recommend the native xmos drivers from Windows 10 professional (thanks for the support help from Burson through email).
I have to note, how noisy the headphone jack is. While the amp is very powerful for full size headphones, iems are not an option with this device due to the inherent high gain, which is dissapoiting. I do have a few planar headphone and the background hiss is unbearable. Things are tad better with my older beyerdynamics. I must say, the power is intoxicating. I only have a magni, and a HA-2se, at the moment, in my stash and of course the Burson outputs far harder, cleaner (minus the hiss) than both of my smaller devices.
I have tried a linear PSU, switched op amps (Vivid vs Classic), switched all USB ports, multiple USB cables (high end and stock) removed every other shares device on the board and clean installed the OS, and nothing fixes the hiss. Some won't mind this, as sound is always subjective, and you can easily turn the volume up past 10, but it bugs me.
Another oddity, is that when connected to a outboard amp (or reciever Onkyo 8270 through CD input port), the volume knob can't go past 55-60, or both the Burson and outboard device will clip. I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, but I have spent far too much time troubleshooting at this point lol.
Also note that for Video playback, I have an issue getting sound playback, unless I use Jriver (wasapi). I have tried media player classic and zoom player. With the native xmos drivers video playback requires wasapi (versus directsound or default in audio settings) and the only video player that will use wasapi is Jriver. I am curious if any other uses have similar issues, and maybe I am missing a setting somewhere so please chime in.
If you want an all in one unit, and your not sensitive to hiss, the device is perfect. If you prefer iems, you must use this is DAC mode only,. I do hope Burson can keep working on the drivers and maybe offer an opamp for the headphone portion of the device to offset the noise, or simply lower the gain in future iterations.