Pawel’s Burson Conductor 3 Reference with beyerdynamic T1 (2nd Generation)

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Sales Burson
December 21, 2020

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beyerdynamic T1 (2nd Generation), Burson Conductor 3 Reference

Top notch build quality, endless power to drive any headphones and great, clean sound. Samll cons: lack of MQA decoder and LDAC support.

The System

Listening with

beyerdynamic T1 (2nd Generation) · Headphones: open-back (Beyerdynamic: semi-open), dynamic (Tesla), circumaural · discontinued

Impedance: 600 Ω
Sensitivity: 102 dB SPL (1 mW / 500 Hz) ≈ 104.2 dB/V (calc.)
Frequency response: 5 Hz – 50 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: double-sided detachable OCC cable with screw-on jack plugs

Matching notes: At 600 Ω and 102 dB/mW, the T1 (2nd Generation) is a high-impedance load that needs voltage more than current: about 1.9 V (6.3 mW, 3.2 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson does not publish a 600 Ω rating for the Conductor 3 Reference; its nearest published rating is 0.58 W SE into 300 Ω. The Conductor 3 Reference’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/1200 of the load. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

B&WP7

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]}

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.