Cisco’s Burson Conductor 3 Reference with Sennheiser HD 800

• Impedance: 300 Ω
• Sensitivity: 102 dB SPL @ 1 kHz, 1 V (as published) ≈ 96.8 dB/mW (calc.)
• Frequency response: 14 Hz – 44.1 kHz (-3 dB); 6 Hz – 51 kHz (-10 dB)
• Plugs / cables supplied: 6.3 mm stereo jack plug; 3 m cable
• Other: THD <=0.02% (1 kHz, 1 Vrms); max input 500 mW

Matching notes: At 300 Ω and 102 dB/V, the HD 800 is a high-impedance load that needs voltage more than current: about 2.5 V (21 mW, 8.4 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson rates the Conductor 3 Reference at 0.58 W (SE) into 300 Ω, which is about 13.2 V RMS (calc.), roughly 14 dB more than that. The Conductor 3 Reference’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/600 of the load. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

• 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]}

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.

1. Sennheiser HD 800: PDF (bhphotovideo.com)
2. Burson Conductor 3 Reference product page (conductor-3 page, archived 2019)
3. Burson Conductor 3 Reference product page (conductor-3-performance page, archived 2020)
4. Burson Conductor 3 References User Manual V1.6 (Burson downloads)