Damien’s Burson Conductor 3 Reference with Focal Alpha 65 and Focal Clear MG

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Sales Burson
December 2, 2021

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Burson Conductor 3 Reference, Focal Alpha 65, Focal Clear MG

Sounds great and feels very premium with plenty of power for future upgrades.

The System

Listening with

Focal Alpha 65

Focal Clear MG · Headphones: open-back, dynamic (40 mm Mg M-dome), circumaural

Impedance: 55 Ω
Sensitivity: 104 dB SPL / 1 mW @ 1 kHz ≈ 116.6 dB/V (calc.)
Frequency response: 5 Hz – 28 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: 3.5 mm cable (1.2 m) with 6.35 mm adapter; 4-pin XLR cable (3 m); cup sockets 3.5 mm

Matching notes: At 55 Ω and 104 dB/mW, the Focal Clear MG is a low-impedance load, and an efficient one: about 0.47 V (4 mW, 8.5 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson does not publish a 55 Ω rating for the Conductor 3 Reference. Its 32 Ω and 100 Ω ratings (5 W SE; 1.75 W SE) fall either side of it. The Conductor 3 Reference’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/110 of the load. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]}

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

^{[3] [4] [5]}

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.