Kevin’s Burson Conductor 3 Reference with Grado PS500

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Sales Burson
April 7, 2020

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Burson Conductor 3 Reference, Grado PS500, Krell FBP 600C

This is my 3rd HA-160D, Conductor Virtuoso 2+ and now 3X

The System

Listening with

Grado PS 500E · Headphones: open-air, dynamic (44 mm), supra-aural (on-ear) · discontinued

Impedance: 32 Ω
Sensitivity: 99.8 dB SPL @ 1 mW ≈ 114.7 dB/V (calc.)
Frequency response: 14 Hz – 29 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: fixed 8-conductor cable; 6.5 mm adapter included
Other: metal/mahogany hybrid chamber; drivers matched to 0.05 dB

Matching notes: At 32 Ω and 99.8 dB/mW, the PS 500E is a low-impedance load: about 0.58 V (10 mW, 18 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson rates the Conductor 3 Reference at 5 W (SE) into 32 Ω, which is about 12.6 V RMS (calc.), roughly 27 dB more than that. The Conductor 3 Reference’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/64 of the load. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Burson

Burson Conductor 3 Reference · DAC / headphone amplifier / preamp · discontinued

Output power (headphone): 16 Ω 7.5 W · 32 Ω 5 W · 100 Ω 1.75 W · 150 Ω 1.16 W · 300 Ω 0.58 W
Output impedance: 0.5 Ω (headphone); 1 Ω (pre out); 25 Ω (DAC out)
Output voltage: RCA 2 V (DAC out)
Gain: High / Medium / Low; dB not published
Inputs: 2x RCA; USB (XMOS; PCM to 768 kHz/32-bit, native DSD512); Toslink; coaxial; Bluetooth 5.0 aptX HD; microphone
Input impedance: 40 kΩ
Input sensitivity: line level
Outputs: RCA pre out; RCA DAC out; 2x 6.35 mm headphone
DAC / chipset: 2x ESS ES9038Q2M
Other: Model R180 (3R); SE only; THD <0.0015%; FR ±1 dB 0-58 kHz

^{[2] [3] [4]}

Also in the system

Krell FBP 600C

Specs from manufacturer data unless a source below says otherwise. “calc.” values are worked out from those figures (V = √(P × R); 110 dB SPL used as a loud reference level). Gear listed without specs is not in our spec library yet.