The Burson Approach

We feel that creating an audio component is similar to crafting a fine art work; persistence and passion are keys to refinement. Admiring Michelangelo’s David or the Mona Lisa, few can comprehend the decades of experience or the stone chipped away to create such masterpieces. Or the lengthy process of conceptualizing and working out how to create the final work. We invoke these masters of painting and sculpture but of course we don’t dare compare our creations to these great works of art. Nevertheless, we respect and build with an artistic as well as an engineering approach. We’re confident that the countless hours we spend on each design results in both beautiful sounding and looking components for the perfectionist at value prices. Only when we’re satisfied that we’ve perfected a component do we introduce it as a Burson creation.

Below are two example of our attention to detail…

Creating Timeless Components

In the Classic series we employed a FET (Field Effect Transistor) input stage. It worked very well and brought us many design awards. Wanting to do better in the Soloist we spent six months developing a more sophisticated symmetrical bipolar transistor input stage. In theory it should have sounded well as the measurements were significantly improved. Sonically it was very dynamic and analytical but when we compared it to our previous FET input stage we realised immediately that the midrange was lifeless.

It became obvious to us while pursuing greater dynamics and resolution with bipolar transistors that we were overlooking our original wonderful-sounding FETs. So for the following three months we returned to the basics and evaluated every type of FET on the market and found just one that was more interesting than the earlier design. We implemented a symmetrical transistor input stage to support the new FET, a process that took us more than 12 months! But we did it, our new FET input stage has fewer components in the signal path resulting in a lively and coherent sound that combines all the strengths of FET and bipolar transistors in one design. Then, satisfied, we gave it the Burson brand.

The same design process was applied to all other areas of our designs. They include a low-noise power supply, buffer output stage, and special transformer design. It takes us considerable to create our products, and it’s the reason we don’t change them very often. To Burson R&D is a long and steady process unconstrained by time considerations. But when we introduce a new component make it as timeless as possible so it’ll give you years of joy.

Solid Build Isn’t Just For Looks

Burson enclosures look great and serve two important purposes. First, the entire chassis and case functions as a unified heatsink ensuring our creations remain stable and optimised even while running in class-A mode. Second, the solid build and structure improves the mechanical damping factor producing superior mechanical noise rejection.

For the new Musician Series we developed a new set of high-precision extrusion dies with improved joining techniques that require fewer parts for better physical integrity. The Musician line also features an improved base plate with a combination of CNC drilling and threading so even this normally overlooked panel can be described as beautiful.