[raoultrifan]

@Elocai have a look to the above pics.
Also, BURSON seems that changed the MCPS regulators...and there're 6 not 5 like stated in the initial commercial, right?

L.E.: Technically, 3 dual opamps for IV and LPF should do and the 4th opamp for the gain-stage, but by looking at board and components arrangement I'm not sure I can see this. So, I'm a bit puzzled without close-ups...

 

[raoultrifan]

@Renfield1217 could you please let us know what is written on the 6 integrated circuits (MCPS) from top of your picture? The small ones without sockets...they're soldered onto PCB.

Many thanks!

L.E. My guess would be: LT1374, LT1506, LT1959, but looking further for Ren's answer.

 

[Mouseman]

2. Volume settings "saves" and displays correctly, but after turning it off and on again, volume is reset to a lower value, still displaying the user set value.
Changing volume like +1 then -1 sets the actual correct value. Means you ALLWAYS need manual access to your unit if you turn it off and on, before you can use it.

Yeah, that's driving me nuts - I hope they can fix it with a firmware update. It happens when you go into the menu and change filters, too. You have to step it down and back up to get it at the right volume.

I'll post a review once I've got a good amount of hours on it. The sound is evolving, but I'm quite impressed so far. It can drive everything I have quite loud at about 60 on high gain. Normal listening is about 40/50 depending on what I have hooked up. It even sounds great with IEMs.

 

[raoultrifan]

@Mouseman I've seen that to many manufacturers and this is considered actually a feature to protect our ears. I remember a conversation on a forum about ASUS STU that every time when powered ON it was on the lowest gain and some people with HD800 would prefer the highest gain, but ASUS reply was fast and "furious" explaining that this will never happen and no future firmware update will allow that, to protect our ears.

I really believe that a low-volume setting should be setup by default, where possible.

BTW, what exact IEMs are you using with PLAYMATE?
Is there any background noise with these IEMs?

 

[Voxata]

Oh man, I really wish I could get my hands on one of these! I love my play.

 

[Renfield1217]

@Renfield1217 could you please let us know what is written on the 6 integrated circuits (MCPS) from top of your picture? The small ones without sockets...they're soldered onto PCB.

Many thanks!

L.E. My guess would be: LT1374, LT1506, LT1959, but looking further for Ren's answer.

Well this is the best I can do hopefuilly this is what you wanted.

XL SEMI
XL 6007E7 ( or 6007E1)
82325

BTW, there are 5 of those along the right hand side of the unit from what I can see.

Hope this helps

Ren

 

[raoultrifan]

Right on spot, thank you Ren!

So same XLSEMI regulators, but smaller footprint, probably less noise induced on the surroundings too. But there are 6 of them or 5?

Also, hope for a photo of the DAC chip and surrounding components too, if possible.

Many thanks!

 

[Renfield1217]

Right on spot, thank you Ren!

So same XLSEMI regulators, but smaller footprint, probably less noise induced on the surroundings too. But there are 6 of them or 5?

Also, hope for a photo of the DAC chip and surrounding components too, if possible.

Many thanks!

No probs on the pict lol glad I got the right stuff :{)
There are 5 of the power circuits along the right hand side of the unit...or the top of my pics.
Will see about the DAC chip picts tomorrow...wish I had a close up lens.

Ren

 

[Elocai]

Audio performance steadily increases so far, I like it at least double as much as the first time plugged it in.
Started to play a bit with APO and a sound generator to get a flat response with my Headphones/Ears/Resonances,
and found there is some crosstalk between the channels.
So far I don´t know if my settings are somewhere off but checking aroung 4-9khz subjectively about "3%"
goes from one channel to the other. For example it means I can clearly hear everything playing on my left channel,
even though left channel is muted. Can someone confirm?

Also I´m normally a low-ohm guy, but probably will check something with higher ohms and good IEMs,
such stuff should be in my Box of Headphones somewhere.

Yeah, that's driving me nuts - I hope they can fix it with a firmware update. It happens when you go into the menu and change filters, too. You have to step it down and back up to get it at the right volume.

I think I´ve read something about that in the dac chips manual, to check what the roll offs do and such. When you switch the roll off and probably also on/off than that behavior is default of the dac chip itself.
Depends on Bursons way of accessing that chip, "Can you change Volume without physical interaction of the dac?", they maybe won´t be able to change that, maybe not even with an FW flash when that behavior is hardcoded,
or software if they are unable to send commands directly to dac. I´m using S/Pdif, if you have more options over USB like setting roll offs and such, let me know.


edit: I´m coming from an ZXR, which is known for very good channel separation. So maybe my expectation are to high?
You also could set Low/High gain and it saved that not as Asus does. They probably just didn´t want to fix their drivers. On the other hand when something is wrong with the driver, then ZXR defaults to high gain, which is not good either.

 

[Renfield1217]

Audio performance steadily increases so far, I like it at least double as much as the first time plugged it in.

Agreed with the improvement in sound, Have had mine 6 days and everyday it gets better.
And am still running the basic op amps.

 

[Renfield1217]

Has anyone figured out the opamp socket designations?
From the manual they clearly mark the IV op amps....but I have questions about the others....

 

[Dżoneł]

Hi!
I just recieved my Burson PLAYMATE. I have to say that almost everything which bothered me in my PLAY unit is fixed in Playmate:
- switchable outputs and inputs
- significant lower case temperature
- when muted/unmuted sound now comes up easily not immediately
- every noise coming from PC USB (if any) you might switch to optical input
- switchable gain
- for me the pilot works better, raises and lowers volume effectively with no stutter
- I'm astounded about the 4xV6 Classics sound performance
- the amp/dac itself has a little more depth comparing to PLAY
- noticeable better power brick quality and desing (am I right?)
- Playmate feels more like pro gear with all these options and screen xD

Just one little thing. Does enyone tryied front USB otg connection? For me it doesn't work, can't see my lg g7

Guys if you need any pictures from the inside, let me know and I'll post till th3 end of the day.

Congratulations Burson Audio!! Thanks for Playmate

 

[raoultrifan]

@Dżoneł some close-ups would be nice to see, thanks.

 

[raoultrifan]

Has anyone figured out the opamp socket designations?
From the manual they clearly mark the IV op amps....but I have questions about the others....

OK, now I see the trick BURSON did: they actually splited the LowPass Stage between two opamps, so 1/2 of the opam is used in LPF and the other 1/2 is used in voltage amplification stage. Really interesting actually, especially that PCB layout is more "dense" and smaller, with shorter PCB traces for the audio path.

So the two opamps marked as I/V are 100% used in I/V stage, and the two opamps marked as LP/Headamp are 1/2 for LPF and 1/2 for voltage-gain. You know what that means, right? Single to dual adapters with different opamps on top.

Of course, beside SS opamps, I totally recommend OPA1612 or AD797 (with single-to-dual adapters) and AD8599 for all the 4 opamp positions.

 

[MIR05LAV]

- I'm astouned about the 4xV6 Classics sound performance

good to know v6 classics work good on the playmate
I had burson play, but had strange hiss sounds sometimes, even on not so low impedance headphones in my play..
So I have writen to burson and they offered me to upgreade my unit for the new playmate for 100$, which I decided to do They even agreed to change my 2x v6 single classic opamps (play takes 3x doubles and 2x singles) for one new dual one to work with the playmate.
Now I have send them my play unit and I am waiting for the playmate. Hope it sounds even better