The Burson Playmate 2 has already proven itself to be a fantastic piece of gear—powerful, refined, and incredibly satisfying right out of the box. It delivers a level of clarity, punch, and musical engagement that instantly elevates the listening experience, whether you’re diving into your favorite albums or exploring new genres.
But what’s most exciting is the feeling that this is just the beginning. With its modular design and swappable opamps, the Playmate 2 invites experimentation and customization. There’s so much more potential waiting to be unlocked, whether through opamp upgrades, pairing with different headphones, or integrating it into a broader audio setup.
It’s a rock-solid foundation with room to grow—an audiophile journey in progress, and I can’t wait to see where it leads.
The System
Listening with
- Frequency response: 47 Hz – 25 kHz (-6 dB); ±2.5 dB from 54 Hz
- Connectors: not published
- Other: 130 mm bass + 19 mm tweeter
Burson
- Output power (headphone): 16 Ω 3.5 W · 32 Ω 2.5 W · 100 Ω 0.6 W · 150 Ω 0.4 W · 300 Ω 0.15 W
- Output impedance: <2 Ω (headphone); 15 Ω (pre out)
- Output voltage: RCA not published
- Gain: High / Low; dB not published
- Inputs: USB (XMOS; PCM to 768 kHz/32-bit, native DSD512); Toslink
- Input impedance: 38 kΩ
- Outputs: RCA pre out; headphone jack (SE)
- DAC / chipset: ESS SABRE32 ES9038Q2M
- Other: Model P171; SE only; THD <0.002%; FR ±1 dB 0-35 kHz; DAC THD+N 0.0018%
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.
