i have now had a mere two days of using the burson v5i
it replaced a dual opa627 in the buffer position on my asus xonar hdav1.3, that was initially occupied by the stock supplied (LM)4562NA
having decided in short order that the opa627 was an improvement on the 4562na i never changed it out in half a decade because it seemed clear to me that opa627 was better at "tight" bass and general all round reproduction
until wednesday afternoon... when i discovered how the burson v5i compares
in a word : better
in more words : n(much) better
the only negative thing i can say is that there is a bit of a squeeze to get it to occupy the buffer socket on the hdav, and ttbomk the stx shares almost identical architecture, so might also need a little encouragement to seat it by gently easing apart the surrounding components
my initial listening was via my pair of venerable but very well maintained klipsch promedia ultra 2.0, to a very large and diverse range of flacs using foobar
in the two days since i got started, the first afternoon ended after 9 hours of almost solid engagement with music, something that would previously have been too fatigue inducing to manage, and it was as if the music collection had been invigorated by some act of aural magic
the sound stage spread out such that every so often a subtle cowbell or rim shot would appear way too far off to one side to believe it wasn't coming from elsewhere - i actually muted the sound on one occasion to prove to myself a percussion hit wasn't something tapping the outside wall a metre to my left
every instrument was precisely placed, and exquisitely nuanced, but moreso there was absolutely no harshness to the sound even with tracks i previously used to think were too shrill; and it wasn't like the edges had been softened, as the attack and fade were much crisper in the right parts, but the sustain lingered beautifully where it belonged
i struggle to pull the right word to describe the effect, but the most compelling part was that everything is just so much "cleaner" but like it had been lovingly washed by a perfect shower of gentle spring rain rather than scrubbed with a surgical prep; gorgeous is not a precise descriptor i guess, but i lack the audiophile vocabulary to sound like a professional critic
suffice to say, i have had my jaw drop on several occasions, listening to old favourites in a completely surreal clarity... there's stuff there i never heard before, even on the diamond 10's in the living room, and even though i am quite aware that it's not a/b testing, playing the same source in the living room to the wharfedales via a nad d3020 sounded gratingly poor by comparison
that was me done for... although it took me another day of listening (thursday being a day off) before i could disengage after work today to do the swap i knew was inevitable
so, same hdav and v5i into the htpc, using the same flacs, but this time ported via the nad d3020 (which is a dac/ class d hybrid), but using the analogue out from the hdav in place of the usb from the htpc... if i could manage to compare them a/b i would, except swapping feed out on the htpc and source on the nad simultaneously is nigh on impossible
downstream from the nad are a pair of wharfedale diamond 10.1's on bespoke stands, and a 10.gx (10" active sub)
yes, i know about observer bias and yada yada, but this isn't a science experiment, it's what i noticed having recognised quite clearly that the klipsch were outperforming the diamonds using the nad's integrated dac
long story short = wow ! !! !!!
i confess that i can't state that the response isn't at least in part due to the better dac qualities of the hdav, but having swapped a xonar d2 back into my desktop for the klipsch, they have immediately become more muddy (albeit still very pleasant), but my ears rebelled after only a few quiet acoustic songs, having been perfectly blissed out for most of my waking hours in the last 2 days, and mostly on those same speakers but with the v5i in play
meanwhile out in the living room, song after song revealed hitherto unknown detail, and a sound stage way wider than the placement - i don't get how that can even happen, but with eyes shut there are sounds that are not between the speakers
the bass is tight and dynamic, the vocals are authentic, and percussion is beautiful; guitars / sax / violin / tuba / harmonica / etc... all achingly beautiful
i quite simply can't believe the polish this tiny device has applied to my music collection... i thought the $14aud i spent on the opa627 was a great investment 5 years ago, and indeed it has been
but i would encourage anyone with curiosity and intact hearing to spend $40us to experience this for themselves, because no way my ramblings after two days of being possessed by music can adequately describe the epiphany this modification has provided me
you have nothing to lose... except perhaps several days of your life once you start listening and can't stop
that happened to me
