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Originally Posted by MaxAmplitude /img/forum/go_quote.gif
No, no secret upgrades. This is a stock XM5 with BUF634 buffers. I also included an AD8397 DoubleCat, if you want to do some rolling (the Users Manual describes how to roll the two amp chips and two buffers with the DoubleCat and copper busbars).
As far as burn-in: being a solidstate device, the XM5 should reach its final configuration fairly quick: less than 8 hours or so (several hours of which have already been done at the factory during functional test).
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PS: You know I was joking about upgrades and already burned-in. It just sounded very nice right out of the box with my ATH-ESW10 and Macbook with lossless or even 256K mp3. Only a few amps arrive sounding really good, and many need 100-300 hours on them.
It has been running since about 8PM last night, and I'd still like to give it a couple hundred hours for any caps or other components to settle. Right now it sounds clean and powerful without coloration, and has only dropped from 8.4v at arrival to 7.7v now after 15 of running at normal/slightly low volumes. With the ability to drop to the low 5v range from full charge to recharge I can see it going almost 40 hours, even with the Buf634 which I like to see in headphone amps like this dual mono amp. Also, I think the DAC input is at least as detailed as the Predator and 2MOVE which are a couple of my top ranked amps, and I think it might actually be the same DAC as the 2MOVE as well. But, I do not think it is as forward as the 2MOVE so far.
As for burn-in: Over the past year many amps I have reviewed like the D3 and PenguinAmps only needed about 75 hours to settle down, with Nuforce needing at least 120-170. And some amps like Lyrix and Headsix needed over 200 but the D2 Viper needed 300 and I had to add changes to my review because of the changes after 185 when I did my first review. My iBasso D1 needed 400 to smooth out the highs but sounded nice out of the box with my SE530 and HD600, and the D2 needed 600 to more fully open the soundstage after my review at 300 hours. The Predator stands out in a field of it's own and was simply crazy. It needed 800-1000 hours for the caps to burn-in fully and didn't sound good enough to keep to my ears before 350 hours (Jamato8 and others concur about the lengthy burn-in, and RSA recommends 600 which did make a big improvement).
After burn-in and initial assessment I am considering trying XM5 with my spare pair of OPA627 and/or AD743, but it turns out I don't have any of my 3 pairs of AD797 here any more (one set went with the D1 I sold, another went with the Xin SM III I sold because it didn't have a DAC, and I gave away a set of 797 to mrarroyo who did me a favor or two). QUESTION: can any opamp be used as a buffer, or are the buffer sockets limited to buf634 only? I don't think others would be as good as the buf634. SECOND: do I need to do the copper bridge if I try the AD8397, or can the buf634 stay? I know the AD8397 is a very high output opamp and doesn't really need buffers, but we used LMH6655 in the iBasso D1 with AD8397 to smooth it out.
I often don't like opening up an amp to roll opamps if the stock sound is good enough to make me happy, and I suspect this will sound good enough that I will feel lazy about rolling...
