Soundnews has reviewed the Burson Soloist Voyager headphone amplifier and preamplifier and gave it the site’s highest Gold Award. Reviewer Sandu Vitalie (published 11 February 2024) wrote: “Undoubtedly, Soloist Voyager fully deserved our highest Gold Award”. Here are the highlights of his Soloist Voyager review, including the points he criticised.
Soundnews describes the Voyager as a fully discrete, fully balanced Pure Class-A design with 8 MOSFET power transistors, six swappable V6 Vivid or V7 Vivid PRO discrete op-amps, five Max Current power supplies and MUSES 72320 volume control chips. It delivers 10 Watts per channel into 16 Ohms from the 4-pin XLR output, and the reviewer notes the new PCB with SP-02 Silent Power modules achieves “the lowest noise floor and highest signal-to-noise ratio ever measured on a Burson amplifier.” He also praised the remote, the 99-step volume and the menu, including crossfeed and L/R balance.
As a headphone amp it ran with a Rockna Wavedream Signature DAC and Wavedream NET server, driving headphones including the HiFiMAN Susvara and Sennheiser HD800S. As a preamp it drove a Chord Electronics Ultima 5 power amplifier and Monitor Audio Platinum 200 G3 speakers.
Dynamics scored 96/100 and resolution 95/100. The reviewer wrote that for resolution and dynamics “the Voyager plays a forever-alone game”, and placed it alongside the Enleum AMP-23R as a resolution leader.
With the Susvara, “the Susvaras were fully juiced up and perfectly controlled”, and in bass it is “exchanging blows with the Enleum AMP-23R for first place”. Compared with the Soloist 3X GT, “the Voyager no longer over-sharpens the treble as a Damascus blade”. The midrange is described as clearer, more saturated and sweeter than before.
The stock V7 Vivid PRO gave the most detail and speed, while the V7 Classic PRO made the Voyager warmer and sweeter. He recommends the Deluxe package. As a preamp, he found it “a better preamplifier than the Soloist 3X GT”, though not quite as open as the far pricier Chord Ultima 3 Pre.
“Burson is already dining with the best names in the business”, the review concludes, and it performs at a higher level than anything Burson had made before. Prices quoted in the review were $3,499 (Standard) and $4,199 (Deluxe).
Read the full review on Soundnews: Burson Soloist Voyager Review – Per Aspera Ad Astra.
Discover the full features and specifications on the Burson Soloist Voyager product page.
