The Burson Conductor 3X arrived today and it’s a really nice piece of gear. I’m listening to CD after CD and loving the clean, dynamic sound. No brightness with the Beyerdynamic T1 Gen. 2 and unbalanced output. Nice bottom end too – brought out the sound of Steve Gadd’s kick drum on Chick Corea’s “Super Trio” (which sadly has just gone OOP) exactly as it would sound live – dynamic and “taut” bass impact without any treble brightness in his cymbal work. More natural than the Mytek DSD192 DAC, which, in itself, is no slouch, under the same conditions. Software set up was a breeze and no problems at all with detection of playback of a Blu-Ray Audio disc. This really is a premium product.
Further to my above review……
This brand new Burson Audio Conductor 3X replaced a Mytek Digital Stereo 192 DAC and is being used to drive a Beyerdynamic T1 Gen. 2, a Neumann NDH-20 or my wife’s AKG K701. Sources are from a Pioneer Blu-ray drive via a Surface Pro 3 and Surface dock.
Physically, the Conductor 3X is a beautiful piece of high quality, superbly constructed and magic sounding premium gear. May there be more Australian gear produced at this level, rather than the old “it might look as though it was made with tin snips, but it sounds great” excuses for sub-optimal presentation. The only complaint I’ve heard so far (from a few user comments) is that the included USB-A to USA-C input cable isn’t enabling consistent connections. Spend $40 and get yourself a high quality replacement before your Burson set arrives. I’d suggest Burson invest in a run of ultra high quality cables and send one each out to all purchasers of the Conductor 3/3X free of charge, IMHO. That’s it for flies in the ointment!
The software provided is easy to install and works faultlessly on the Surface Pro 3, enabling CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays to play without the occasional manual fiddling that was necessary for the older Mytek. The Burson simply works as it should – automatically adjusting to the supplied sample rates without fuss
The sound of this unit has really surprised me in comparison to the Mytek. Whereas the Mytek could sound a little thin and strident and appeared to overload at higher volumes leading to distortion on John Farnham’s vocals on “Full House”, the sound is transformed on the Burson Conductor 3X. It’s far smoother, with a much better bottom end and there is absolutely no distortion on Farnesy’s vocals now – the vocals are smooth as silk without the previous “bubbly” vocal distortion. The dynamics appear to be limitless (as they should, given the enormous power of the amplifier section), yet there is no audible residual noise when music isn’t playing. No doubt, this is due to the external digital MCPS power supply. I haven’t tried the 4 pin XLR output as yet – just the 6.35mm single ended output, which appears to be more than adequate for both the Beyerdynamic and the Neumann. The Beyerdynamic T1 Gen. 2 sounds like it has been transformed into a different headphone now – seamless left to right, loud to soft with a rather pleasing reduction of the accentuation of the lower treble/upper midrange peak that was far more apparent with the Mytek. I’m not good at hearing headphone depth in the sound-field, so I don’t feel qualified to say anything there. The only time I’ve ever been fooled into hearing a 3D sound-field was through my Stax SRM-Monitor (an electrostatic headphone amplifier and diffuse field equalizer in one beautiful package) and Lambda Nova Signature combination listening to the Stax’ Space Sound Binaural CD, anyway.
With better recordings than “Full House”, it’s like walking through the door of the Apollo Command module, sitting down and launching into space.
For example, Miles Davis’ “Kind Of Blue” – the string bass sounds deep and natural, the drum dynamic – strikes appear instantaneously and disappear just as fast as the sound decays naturally. It sounds a step closer to the fabled Columbia master tape, without the amp “hanging on” to anything that shouldn’t be hung on to.
Chick Corea’s “Super Trio”, now sadly out of print, captures the dynamics of Steve Gadd’s drums effortlessly – cymbals to bass drum, the deep bass and finger plucking of Christian McBrides double bass naturally and the singing and sobbing of Chick Corea’s grand piano with dynamic ease and tonal accuracy. You’ll want to play this sonic and performance treat again and again.
As Molly Meldrum said, and I’ll repeat his words with sincere meaning here, “Do yourself a favour” and buy the Conductor 3 (for a single ended system) or the Conductor 3X for a balanced system. I’m not one for superlatives, but here I am, laying the “best I’ve ever heard” challenge down.
Congratulations Alex and Burson Audio – you’re right up there.