Stuart’s Burson Conductor 3X Reference with HiFiMAN Edition XS and Focal Elegia

Published on

Sales Burson
November 11, 2023

Post Info

Feedbacks - Conductor 3R | 3XR
Burson Conductor 3X Reference, Denon AVRX4500, Denon DVDA11, Focal Elegia, HiFiMAN Edition XS, KEF Q500, Musical Fidelity MX-Vynl, Panasonic DP-UB9000, Pro-Ject The Classic, Quad 99 Power, Roksan K3, Sennheiser HD 600S, Sivga SV201

Very enjoyable so far, first high end headphone amplifier, I have a Fiio Q7 and a Xduoo XD05BAL but this is just so much more musical, revealing and I’m hearing things I’ve not heard before

The System

Listening with

HiFiMAN Edition XS · Headphones: open-back, planar magnetic, circumaural

Impedance: 18 Ω
Sensitivity: 92 dB (reference not stated by HiFiMAN)
Frequency response: 8 Hz – 50 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: not published (HiFiMAN spec page lists no connector)
Other: weight 405 g; Stealth magnets

^[1]

Focal Elegia · Headphones: closed-back, dynamic (40 mm Al/Mg M-dome), circumaural · discontinued

Impedance: 35 Ω
Sensitivity: 105 dB SPL / 1 mW @ 1 kHz ≈ 119.6 dB/V (calc.)
Frequency response: 5 Hz – 23 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: 3.5 mm cable (1.2 m) (per datasheet)

Matching notes: At 35 Ω and 105 dB/mW, the Focal Elegia is a low-impedance load, and an efficient one: about 0.33 V (3.2 mW, 9.5 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson does not publish a 35 Ω rating for the Conductor 3X Reference. Its 32 Ω and 100 Ω ratings (5 W XLR / 2.5 W SE; 1.75 W XLR / 0.88 W SE) fall either side of it. The Conductor 3X Reference’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/70 of the load. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}

Sennheiser HD 600S

Sivga SV201

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

^{[4] [5] [6]}

Also in the system

Denon AVRX4500

Denon DVDA11

KEF Q500

Musical Fidelity MX-Vynl

Panasonic DP-UB9000

Pro-Ject The Classic

Quad 99 Power

Roksan K3

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.