Paul’s Burson Conductor 3X GT with PMC 25-24 and Focal Elegia

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Post Info

Not a great deal to say at this time as I have only just connected the Conductor 3GT into my system. Just waiting for a 2-metre USB lead to arrive. I had a listen to a friends Soloist Voyager and was impressed (my budget doesn’t meet that one). I’m upgrading from an Audiolab MDAC which I have enjoyed for over 7 years and decided it was time to upgrade having recently purchased the QUAD Artera and the PMC 25-24’s. I’m using JRiver to manage my music from a dedicated server as all my music is ripped from CD’s or purchased as a flac and

The System

Listening with

PMC 25-24
Focal Elegia · Headphones: closed-back, dynamic (40 mm Al/Mg M-dome), circumaural · discontinued
  • Impedance: 35 Ω
  • Sensitivity: 105 dB SPL / 1 mW @ 1 kHz ≈ 119.6 dB/V (calc.)
  • Frequency response: 5 Hz – 23 kHz
  • Plugs / cables supplied: 3.5 mm cable (1.2 m) (per datasheet)

Matching notes: At 35 Ω and 105 dB/mW, the Focal Elegia is a low-impedance load, and an efficient one: about 0.33 V (3.2 mW, 9.5 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson does not publish a 35 Ω rating for the Conductor 3X GT. Its 32 Ω and 100 Ω ratings (8 W XLR / 4 W SE; 3.8 W XLR / 1.9 W SE) fall either side of it. The Conductor 3X GT’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/70 of the load. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Burson

Burson Conductor 3X GT · DAC / headphone amplifier / preamp · discontinued
  • Output power (XLR / SE): 16 Ω 10 W / 5 W · 32 Ω 8 W / 4 W · 100 Ω 3.8 W / 1.9 W · 150 Ω 1.3 W / 0.65 W · 300 Ω 0.64 W / 0.32 W
  • Output impedance: 0.5 Ω (headphone); 1 Ω (pre out); 25 Ω (DAC out)
  • Output voltage: RCA 2 V (DAC out)
  • Gain: High / Low; dB not published
  • Inputs: 2x XLR; 2x RCA; USB (XMOS; PCM to 768 kHz/32-bit, native DSD512); Toslink; coaxial (24/192); Bluetooth 5.0 aptX HD; microphone
  • Input impedance: 40 kΩ
  • Input sensitivity: line level
  • Outputs: XLR/RCA pre / DAC out; subwoofer pre out; 6.35 mm + 4-pin XLR headphone
  • DAC / chipset: 2x ESS ES9038 (suffix not stated)
  • Other: Model R-181X (“GT3”); THD <0.0015%; FR ±1 dB 0-58 kHz; 24V/5A PSU

[3] [4] [5]

Also in the system

Quad Artera

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. Focal Elegia: PDF (dam.focal-naim.com)
  2. Focal Elegia: focal.com
  3. Burson Conductor 3X GT product page (conductor-3x-gt page, archived 2022)
  4. Burson Conductor 3X GT User Manual (Burson downloads)
  5. Burson Conductor 3X GT product page (conductor-gt4 page)