[SBranson]

Reviving this dormant thread..

I picked up the 3XR from my local shop at a 20% discount after struggling with a Woo amp and I’m so happy with this amp.

Added the supercharger which honestly I think should just be included at this price level but still it was a worthy upgrade with an across the board refinement. I really like the idea of being able to swap out op amps and I recently got in a pair SparkOS SS3602 that I put in the volume stage and it’s added a smooth realism that is so pleasing but really I’m not sure if I prefer it over the stock op amps. I might try the Staccato op amps as well just to mix things up.
Being able to switch inputs with the remote so I can switch to Spotify/Apple Music on the fly is so convenient.
I have Abyss Diana Phi headphones and this pair up with the 3XR is really special. It’s also so quiet that I am having great results with my @tgxear Serratus earbuds.
I really can’t say enough good things about this dac/amp.

 

[fjlabs]

Seems like people are getting a very quiet noise floor on this thing. However, on my unit, even with the Focal Clears (and definitely with IEMs), I get a static buzz on both high and low gain. Seems like turning the OLED brightness higher actually makes the buzz worse.

I'm using 4x Sparkos op-amps and the stock power brick they included [which seems to be generic chinese-ium]. Is likely something wrong with the power brick? Would the SuperCharger help fix this?

 

[revolutionz]

Maybe try plugging it in in another location that you know is on a different circuit in your house...maybe there's noise or interference on that circuit

 

[fjlabs]

Maybe try plugging it in in another location that you know is on a different circuit in your house...maybe there's noise or interference on that circuit

Tried two different houses and multiple different outlets. Same issue all around.

No noise from my other things like the RME ADI-2.

 

[John Buchanan]

There shouldn’t be any obviously audible noise. Contact Burson to get a replacement or try a Supercharger

 

[SBranson]

Seems like people are getting a very quiet noise floor on this thing. However, on my unit, even with the Focal Clears (and definitely with IEMs), I get a static buzz on both high and low gain. Seems like turning the OLED brightness higher actually makes the buzz worse.

I'm using 4x Sparkos op-amps and the stock power brick they included [which seems to be generic chinese-ium]. Is likely something wrong with the power brick? Would the SuperCharger help fix this?

Did you confirm it’s not the op amps?

Someone on the Soloist GT thread had some weird noise issues and then a dead channel and it was from the orientation of the op amps.
Try the stock ones or the spares that Burson gives you for diagnosing.

 

[fjlabs]

Did you confirm it’s not the op amps?

Someone on the Soloist GT thread had some weird noise issues and then a dead channel and it was from the orientation of the op amps.
Try the stock ones or the spares that Burson gives you for diagnosing.

Hmmm pretty sure it's not. I had the issues with the Vivid V6's and I've had this unit for about a year now, with the same amount of noise from both the V6's and the Sparkos ones.

I had thought the noise floor was normal, until I was reading some other reviews about it being dead quiet.

 

[Newsee]

Seems like people are getting a very quiet noise floor on this thing. However, on my unit, even with the Focal Clears (and definitely with IEMs), I get a static buzz on both high and low gain. Seems like turning the OLED brightness higher actually makes the buzz worse.

I'm using 4x Sparkos op-amps and the stock power brick they included [which seems to be generic chinese-ium]. Is likely something wrong with the power brick? Would the SuperCharger help fix this?

I can have/had two different type of 'static buzz' in certain circumstances.
1. Sometimes I hear a faint hum with Meze Empyrean. Definitely 50 Hz. It goes away when I touch the front panel. I do not hear it with the K812. Grounding the body of the amp removes it completely.
2. With the AKG K812 sometimes I can hear a buzz, which gets definitive when the display brightness is changed to 'high'. The frequency of it is higher than the above hum, perhaps 100-200 Hz (?). I suppose this is the display refresh frequency. I do not hear it with the Empyrean.

The supercharger fixed none of those.

 

[fjlabs]

I can have/had two different type of 'static buzz' in certain circumstances.
1. Sometimes I hear a faint hum with Meze Empyrean. Definitely 50 Hz. It goes away when I touch the front panel. I do not hear it with the K812. Grounding the body of the amp removes it completely.
2. With the AKG K812 sometimes I can hear a buzz, which gets definitive when the display brightness is changed to 'high'. The frequency of it is higher than the above hum, perhaps 100-200 Hz (?). I suppose this is the display refresh frequency. I do not hear it with the Empyrean.

The supercharger fixed none of those.

You know what, I'm hearing two types of buzz as well.

1. I will hear a static-like noise [kind of like those old TV sets] at a fairly higher pitch throughout the board. This doesn't change at all when I change my volume/mute/input/brightness/gain. However, it goes away immediately when I swap my output to the Pre/DAC out. It doesn't go away when I touch the front panel and it's character and loudness are about the same on SE and XLR.

2. When I swap to OLED HIGH, I get a fairly low pitched [100Hz-ish] buzz from the right side only that's distinctly loud and is on top of the static-like noise from 1.

Very weird behavior... It's definitely not coming from the source side either since I'm feeding it with an ADI-2 right now, but also have the same behavior with the internal DAC.

 

[SBranson]

You know what, I'm hearing two types of buzz as well.

1. I will hear a static-like noise [kind of like those old TV sets] at a fairly higher pitch throughout the board. This doesn't change at all when I change my volume/mute/input/brightness/gain. However, it goes away immediately when I swap my output to the Pre/DAC out. It doesn't go away when I touch the front panel and it's character and loudness are about the same on SE and XLR.

2. When I swap to OLED HIGH, I get a fairly low pitched [100Hz-ish] buzz from the right side only that's distinctly loud and is on top of the static-like noise from 1.

Very weird behavior... It's definitely not coming from the source side either since I'm feeding it with an ADI-2 right now, but also have the same behavior with the internal DAC.

Did you contact Burson? I’d be curious to hear what they say and what your experience is. After a less than pleasant back and forth with Woo I’d be curious to hear how Burson is with customer service.

 

[up late]

responsive in my experience and by all accounts that i've seen from other head-fi members

 

[Newsee]

responsive in my experience and by all accounts that i've seen from other head-fi members

Yes, they were very kind and responsive in my experience as well.

 

[fjlabs]

Did you contact Burson? I’d be curious to hear what they say and what your experience is. After a less than pleasant back and forth with Woo I’d be curious to hear how Burson is with customer service.

Reached out to Burson when I made that post, haven't heard back just yet.

I've talked to them before about a dead remote though, and they happily shipped me a replacement PCB without any questions. I had told em no need to send the whole remote, since I can just PCB swap it myself.

We'll see what they say this time, but no word from em just yet.

 

[fjlabs]

Just swapped in a new front panel PCB + Screen that I was sent from Burson. This fixed both the loud buzzing sound coming from it as well as actually the screen flicker.

All that's left is a general low-level noise floor. It's definitely not silent still. However, this level of noise I can accept, since it's the same as my RME ADI-2 DAC FS 1/4" on high gain. I expect it out of an amp that can run my IEMs to listenable at 15% volume.

Still getting a bit of an aggravated buzzing sound now out of the left ear though.

I have an adapter that drops noise floors by ~32dB though, so I might just live with it as it is.

I can have/had two different type of 'static buzz' in certain circumstances.
1. Sometimes I hear a faint hum with Meze Empyrean. Definitely 50 Hz. It goes away when I touch the front panel. I do not hear it with the K812. Grounding the body of the amp removes it completely.
2. With the AKG K812 sometimes I can hear a buzz, which gets definitive when the display brightness is changed to 'high'. The frequency of it is higher than the above hum, perhaps 100-200 Hz (?). I suppose this is the display refresh frequency. I do not hear it with the Empyrean.

The supercharger fixed none of those.

If you're still having those buzzing issues, might be worth reaching out to Burson to get a front panel swap. Installation wasn't bad at all. Only 3 screwdriver bits needed.

 

[SBranson]

Just swapped in a new front panel PCB + Screen that I was sent from Burson. This fixed both the loud buzzing sound coming from it as well as actually the screen flicker.

All that's left is a general low-level noise floor. It's definitely not silent still. However, this level of noise I can accept, since it's the same as my RME ADI-2 DAC FS 1/4" on high gain. I expect it out of an amp that can run my IEMs to listenable at 15% volume.

Still getting a bit of an aggravated buzzing sound now out of the left ear though.

I have an adapter that drops noise floors by ~32dB though, so I might just live with it as it is.


If you're still having those buzzing issues, might be worth reaching out to Burson to get a front panel swap. Installation wasn't bad at all. Only 3 screwdriver bits needed.

What’s your source? I’ve had odd buzzing sounds sometimes when I turn the amp on while I’m BT mode but once I switch inputs it goes away. I can’t figure that out. I have Sparkos op amps in the volume stage and Staccato opamps for the input stage and I get more of a “pop” with the staccato op amps. Still my amp is very quiet, thankfully, after my very noisy Woo amp.