Glenn’s Burson Conductor 3 Reference with HiFiMAN HE1000 V2 and Focal Stellia

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Sales Burson
January 29, 2024

Post Info

Feedbacks - Conductor 3R | 3XR
Burson Conductor 3 Reference, Focal Stellia, HiFiMAN HE1000 V2, Manley Absolute

just received but very positive so far. well made and good looking unit.

The System

Listening with

HiFiMAN HE1000 V2 · Headphones: open-back, planar magnetic, circumaural · discontinued

Impedance: 35 Ω
Sensitivity: 90 dB (reference not stated by HiFiMAN)
Frequency response: 8 Hz – 65 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: not published (HiFiMAN spec page lists no connector)
Other: weight 420 g

^[1]

Focal Stellia · Headphones: closed-back, dynamic (40 mm beryllium M-dome), circumaural

Impedance: 35 Ω
Sensitivity: 106 dB SPL / 1 mW @ 1 kHz ≈ 120.6 dB/V (calc.)
Frequency response: 5 Hz – 40 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: 3.5 mm cable (1.2 m); 4-pin XLR cable (3 m); 3.5 to 6.35 mm adapter

Matching notes: At 35 Ω and 106 dB/mW, the Focal Stellia is a low-impedance load, and an efficient one: about 0.3 V (2.5 mW, 8.5 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson does not publish a 35 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 1/70 of the load. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}

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

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

Also in the system

Manley Absolute

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.