Erwin’s Burson Conductor 3X Reference with Denon AH-D9200

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Sales Burson
February 1, 2021

Post Info

Feedbacks - Conductor 3R | 3XR
Burson Conductor 3X Reference, Denon AH-D9200, Yamaha CDX-397MK2

After careful selection and listening decided to go for the Conductor 3XR. At the moment only a cd player is connected, but next buy will be a good streaming device. Gotta save some money first, but current setup is infinitely better than the headphone amp in my amplifier.

The System

Listening with

Denon AH-D9200 · Headphones: closed-back, dynamic (50 mm nanofiber FreeEdge), circumaural

Impedance: 24 Ω
Sensitivity: 105 dB/mW ≈ 121.2 dB/V (calc.)
Frequency response: 5 Hz – 56 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: not published on spec page
Other: max power input 1,800 mW; bamboo housing

Matching notes: At 24 Ω and 105 dB/mW, the AH-D9200 is a low-impedance load, and an efficient one: about 0.28 V (3.2 mW, 11 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson does not publish a 24 Ω rating for the Conductor 3X Reference. Its 16 Ω and 32 Ω ratings (7.5 W XLR / 3.75 W SE; 5 W XLR / 2.5 W SE) fall either side of it. The Conductor 3X Reference’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/48 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]}

Also in the system

Yamaha CDX-397MK2

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.