[skor]

I live in Murrieta, CA and would like to participate in the tour. I agree to follow the terms of the tour. I have emailed my required ID verification documentation to bill b.

 

[Tybot]

Some very quick impressions from me. I had the tour unit over the holidays so listening sessions were in short supply. I was really impressed by the unit though. For the price point, it was as good or better than anything I've heard. I heard enough to know if my current setup has any hiccups, I would definitely go with this. My buddy came over to listen to it and he now has one on the way from Burson. I'll add that the folks at Burson are very attentive and great to work with. Kudos to Burson on the unit and as a company!

 

[rmsanger]

@Sebastien Chiu

I received the unit today the box and all content seems to be in tact and functioning properly. I just powered it on so cannot 100% confirm all.

@Barra

Did you find any instructions on how to change the OpAms included in the box? I watched your introduction video but didn't find that part.

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Thanks for the update! Glad you got it in safe and all is good.

 

[Audio-In]

Just finished up my review period with the Burson Conductor 3X so I just want to share some brief impressions. All of my listenings was done on my Windows Surface Pro either through Tidal Masters through USB or my Plenue 2 MK2 through Toslink. All of the tracks were in FLAC format. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to test the different supplied opamps due to time constraints.


The design and build of the Conductor 3X are excellent, especially for the price point. I was immediately struck by how natural and full-bodied the sound was. It has a perfect black, noiseless background. The treble of the Conductor 3X is among the cleanest and detailed I've ever heard. Live recordings have ample air, space, and dimension. Instrument placement is precise and the soundstage is very wide. The incredible detail and clarity carried through to the mids into the bass and was equally impressive throughout the entire frequency spectrum. Without a doubt one of the best amplifiers I've had the pleasure of listening to.

 

[rmsanger]

Unfortunately I'm only going to get a day with this unit for dedicated listening which happens to be today. I'll preface this post that I'm not an experienced reviewer so being able to describe the nuances of what I'm hearing with colorful prose is not me.

Overall I'd only recommend this unit if you're starting from scratch or have entry level components. I would only recommend this unit if you have a need for an AIO unit that provides a Dac, HP amp, and pre-amp functionality. Really I'd target buying this unit used for ~ $900 (not $1400 msrp) if the prior qualifiers meet your needs.

To really give this gear a fair shake i would need to have more time to A->B test them with all my hps, try rolling the OpAmps included, and try the pre-amp function with multiple hp amps to isolate the dac performance. So trying to isolate the qualities of the Conductor Dac and Amp stage are difficult or time consuming without doing those constraints.

On the plus side the form factor and build quality are nice. The screen is clear all the inputs and outputs are well laid out. The user interface is easy to figure out in 5 min and the sound quality is good.

On the down side it doesn't have enough juice for the 1266 Phi TC even in high gain mode. It's an ok pairing (too bright) with the HP-3 and Focal Clears both my other HP amps are better. It does pair nicely with the LCD-X and LCD-3F so if you're into Audeze this has a good synergy. It also is just average as a pre-amp feeding my active speakers compared to my other options. The remote is a bit annoying as you need to be close (< 5 feet) or it doesn't pickup most of the commands. It doesn't have an analog input so I can't test my TT with it so a few significant quibbles for me.

My overall take is a pass for me maybe a solid B rating. It's not powerful enough for the TC, a bit too bright for the Clears/HP3, decent pre-amp, a great pairing with "darker headphones" like Auduze. I think for the money just get separates and call it a day. If you need an AIO this might be the ticket just not a priority for me. I'm betting a bifrost 2 -> Soloist 3XP would be a killer combo though (especially rolling OpAmps).

 

[Wildcatsare1]

Hi, please sign me up, I'm in Lexington, KY, I have submitted all of the required information, and would love to review the Burson Conductor 3X!

 

[skor]

Just wrapping up my time with the Burson Conductor 3XP. My chain: Macbook Pro → Audirvana → Burson 3X Performance → Hedd Heddphones (balanced). Here are my impressions:

Pros:​

• Impressive quality build, good heat dissipation due to external housing
• Very good implementation of SABRE32/ESS9038Q2M DAC. Burson signature sound, musical and slightly warm
• Noiseless, black background
• Power in reserve, in high gain drives AMT Hedd Heddphones effortlessly
• Small footprint, great solution for someone with tight space looking for AIO
• Great Bang for Buck

Cons:​

• Sensitive headphones/IEM'S not a good match
• More inputs, digital/analog

Overall, hard to complain at this price point. If I were in the market for an AIO, I would buy this hands down. As it is, I may purchase this as a 2nd rig for the bedroom, it's amazing value for what you get. Big thanks to Bill who organized this tour, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the unit!

 

[soundkist]

Burson Conductor 3X Performance Review

Greetings! Had a chance to hear this wonderful unit while a buddy of mine had it on the tour (thanks, @Tybot!), and was so taken with it that I ended up buying one for myself. Now that I’ve had some quality time with it in my own home, thought I would pass along some of my observations.

For reference, I am using this as the heart of my home system. I use it to feed a Classe CA-151 amp, which in turn justifiably pumps out the jams like The KLF and Tammy Wynette with authority on a pair of KEF LS50’s. Tracks reside on a M1-equipped MacBook Pro, being fed to everything via Audirvana, and through a USB-to-Coaxial converter to get to the DAC/Burson. Prior to this setup, I was using the same computer/amp/speakers, but with a Chord 2Qute and passive volume attenuator working as the heart of the system. While that was a wonderful setup, I have been on the lookout for some time for something that better integrates with my setup and various inputs. Enter the Conductor 3X Performance…

While having been an audiophile for many years now, I never did pick up the ability to literarily describe sound to other audiophiles like you read in “professional” reviews. Not sure I want to, either; part of me thinks those can be misleading since everyone hears things differently, so instead of trying to translate what I am hearing into whatever are the “appropriate” words from the audiophile lexicon in an effort to describe the sound objectively, I will instead offer some comparative observations to the 2Qute, as well as describing some [hopefully] common songs, so you can make your own comparative observations with the same songs on your own setups. I always thought this was a much, much more valuable thing in reviews, so hoping to foster and perpetuate that angle, and avoid the former as much as possible. Preemptive apologies if I unknowingly veer from that path!

General Impressions:

The first thing I noticed coming from many satisfying years with my Chord 2Qute is an immediate sense of getting hit in the face with an extra helping of 100% Certified Grade A Angus BEEF. Errr… whatever the Australian equivalent is… sheep? What do they eat down there? I don’t know, and I digress… Anyway, what I mean by that jarbled mess of an analogy is that the music carried a distinctively weightier presence to it. Bass was deeper than with the 2Qute, but still very controlled, and I felt conveyed perfectly to my ears. WithOUT sacrificing any of the detail and separation that I had come so accustomed to with the 2Qute. It was the first contender to achieve this feat, and a big part of why it was able to dethrone the 2Qute.

Instrument separation and placement/imaging are both very, very good, and extremely similar to the 2Qute. The soundstage however, I would say, is a bit more narrow than the 2Qute. Still a nice sense of being enveloped by the sound in a stereo setup, but definitely more narrow to my ears.

Songs:

Eagles – Hotel California (Hell Freezes Over, 16-bit/44.1kHz):

This is one of those recordings where, on a good system, you really feel like you are there at the performance. The Conductor 3XP does a wonderful job of maintaining that relationship. Guitars are crisp, all easily separated from each other, and the bass solidly pumps with controlled precision as the opening acoustic guitar solos delight. There’s a lot going on in this song, but in no way are you hindered from picking out each and every thing pretty easily. The 2Qute did this very well, and the Conductor 3XP does it just as well. At about 1:55, there is this really cool panning of some effect from left to right in the background; again, a bit more narrow travel of this effect compared to the 2Qute, but otherwise equally distinctly separated and trackable as it is panned. Vocals, when they come in, are added to the mix without any disruption or convolution of the many things already going on. They are not buried, nor overbearing—just nicely fit together with everything else. I think this song shows how well the Conductor 3XP can handle more complex passages.


Daft Punk – Give Life Back to Music (Random Access Memories, 24-bit, 96kHz):

Another song with a lot going on, again handled beautifully, just as it was on the 2Qute, with the added benefit of a beefier low end. Precise separation, nothing drowned out by anything else, and a solid/thumping bassline that really helps drive this track directly into your brain. Everything sounds perfectly layered. I think this track also illustrates that not only are the lows very precise and well-controlled, but also the highs. There are a lot of cymbal crashes in this song, and never once did I feel they were overdone or hot; on the contrary, just very nicely textured and accurate.


Dominique Fils-Aime – Birds (Nameless, 16-bit, 44.1kHz):

Love this track; one of the, IMHO, best mixed/produced tracks in my collection, and one of my favorites for hearing how a female vocal is rendered. Details are incredible, from the faux bird wings flapping all over the musical space to the subtle smacking of lips and faint extinguishing of breath at the end of verses in the most finite of spaces right in front of your face. It’s like you can literally touch the music. Stunning separation of the various vocal tracks and supporting instruments, with razor precision of instrument placement in the panned space. Again, not to beat a dead horse, but very similar reproduction as with the 2Qute, only with a more pronounced bassline coming from the standup bass.


IEM/Headphone compatibility/impressions:

Since I am using the Conductor 3XP for a non-desktop setup, and have no plans to use for a desktop setup, my experience with headphones and IEMs is very limited. In fact, I do not even own any full-size cans anymore, so I only have IEMs to try. That being said, my experience was worth noting. For reference, my main IEM setup is a Sony WM1Z, 4.4mm EA Horus, to a pair of v2 Noble Khans. This is a KILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLER setup. Perhaps my endgame. But when I grabbed an adapter, and plugged the Horus/Khans into the balanced output, I was pleasantly surprised to hear some welcome additions, namely more authoritative low end. The extra power they were getting was clearly shining through, in a very, very positive way. The sound overall was basically identical to what I was hearing via the LS50’s. On the flip side, like @skor alluded to, that extra power has a downside making this unit perhaps not best suited to very sensitive IEMs or cans. The sound was definitely a little hot with the very sensitive Khans, and the noise floor was pretty obvious. I unfortunately do not have any high impedance offerings to try with it, but my guess is something along those lines would play much, much nicer with the Conductor 3XP. That being said, to say it was unenjoyable would be a complete lie—it really drove the Khans nicely, and if you can auditorily ‘forget’ about the hiss when the music starts playing, you likely wouldn’t have any complaints. I certainly had a couple “wow” moments while giving this configuration a go.


On the flip side of things, some minor critiques:

1. While the volume is easily discernible, the rest of the text on the screen is TINY. Now, in a desktop, main-use-is-with-cans-or-IEMs setup, I would say this generally would not be an issue, unless your vision is just terrible. Sitting underneath my TV, 10 feet away however, is another story. Most of the settings in the small text portion, are ones you are not going to be changing very often, but in a setup where you are utilizing several of the inputs, the one you will want to be able to see is the source. Save for memorizing the order in which it cycles through the inputs when you press the button on the remote, you pretty much have to get up and get close enough to see what’s up to be sure. Would have liked to have perhaps seen corresponding lights on the unit, etc. that would be clear from any distance for that.

2. While I appreciate the smooth, precise and micro-stepped electronic attenuation, this has its drawbacks: you cannot quickly traverse large volume deltas with the knob on the front of the unit. Maybe it’s just me, but my sources often require wildly different volume settings—some are great around 19-25, others I need to go up to the 60-70 range… and going from 70 to 19 takes many turns of the ol’ front wheel. That being said, holding down the volume up/down on the remote does quickly engage a rapid accelerate/decelerate, and you can press the front knob in once to mute, still… would be nice if you could go from Take My Breath Away to DANGER ZONE, or vice versa, in one quick flip of the knob.

3. Lastly, I hilariously haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly which button is doing the change yet, but occasionally when I am using my TV remote, it will make a change on the Burson, either the volume or the input selection. Very random; does not happen enough to where it affects my enjoyment of the unit, just something to note. I have a 55” TCL ROKU tv, FWIW.


Final thoughts:

All things considered, this unit does A LOT of things right. For what you get for your money, I think it is a component that is really, really hard to beat, and a complete no-brainer for someone like me looking to upgrade an existing above entry-level DAC. Particularly one that is only a DAC, and doesn’t offer any of the extra functionality and features that this does. The wonderful sonics aside, the convenience of multiple inputs (including LDAC Bluetooth!), remote control, and oh yeah, a rather solid headphone amp, leave little to be desired. I fully expect to have this as an integral part of my system for a very long time, and continue to be reinforced every time I use/hear it that upgrading to it was the correct decision. Money well spent for me; of course, like anything else in this hobby, YMMV.

Random sidenote: If you have any dealings with them, the people at Burson are very nice!!

Random sidenote 2: Added a couple pics of the unit; I don't plan on leaving the shelf it is sitting on unfinished--I literally just built it, and just haven't gotten to that step yet, lol.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

The Burson is in the house. She was waiting at the door when I got home, freezing cold. I left her on this morning when I left, so she should be nice and toasty when I get back.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

Hi All, I'm assisting Bill in managing the tours, and I need some info from your participants. Pleas4 note in the thread when you receive the tour unit, and note when you’ve sent it on to the next participant. I appreciate everyone’s assistance in making AudioTiers better for all members!

 

[Ike1985]

I agree to to terms of the tour, I would like to be added to the tour list.