Stuart’s Burson Conductor 3X Reference with Abyss Diana Phi

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Sales Burson
June 7, 2022

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Abyss Diana Phi, Burson Conductor 3X Reference

Thrilled. Wonderful sound. A big step up from my previous dac/amp. The remote is very handy and the UI is excellent. Couldn’t be happier with this.

The System

Listening with

Abyss Diana Phi · Headphones: open-back, planar magnetic (63 mm Phi), circumaural · discontinued

Impedance: 32 Ω
Sensitivity: 91 dB/mW ≈ 105.9 dB/V (calc.)
Frequency response: 6 Hz – 26 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: not published
Other: 350 g

Matching notes: At 32 Ω and 91 dB/mW, the Abyss Diana Phi is a low-impedance load, and a fairly demanding one: about 1.6 V (79 mW, 50 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson rates the Conductor 3X Reference at 5 W (XLR) / 2.5 W (SE) into 32 Ω, which is about 12.6 V / 8.9 V RMS (calc.), roughly 18 dB / 15 dB more than that. The Conductor 3X Reference’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/64 of the load. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Burson

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

Output power (XLR / SE): 16 Ω 7.5 W / 3.75 W · 32 Ω 5 W / 2.5 W · 100 Ω 1.75 W / 0.88 W · 150 Ω 1.16 W / 0.58 W · 300 Ω 0.58 W / 0.3 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; 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: XLR pre out; line-level DAC out; 6.35 mm + 4-pin XLR headphone
DAC / chipset: 2x ESS ES9038Q2M
Other: Model R180X (3XR); 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.