Randy’s Burson Conductor 3X Reference with Dan Clark Audio E3

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Sales Burson
March 26, 2025

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Burson Conductor 3X Reference, Dan Clark Audio E3

What an amazing experience! Setting everything up was a breeze, and I was pleasantly surprised by how effortless the process was. Once everything was in place, the sound quality completely exceeded my expectations. It’s clear that a lot of thought went into the design and performance, and the result is a rich, immersive audio experience that I’m thoroughly enjoying.

The System

Listening with

Dan Clark Audio E3 · Headphones: closed-back, planar magnetic, circumaural

Impedance: 27 Ω
Sensitivity: ~90 dB/mW
Frequency response: not published (page states “Yes, it has one”)
Plugs / cables supplied: not published
Other: 455 g

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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.