Fernando’s Burson Conductor 3 Reference with Meze Empyrean

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Sales Burson
December 2, 2021

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Burson Conductor 3 Reference, Dan Clark Audio AEON Flow 2, HiFiMAN Edition XS V2, Meze Empyrean, Microsoft Surface Book 2, Sennheiser HD 600

Excellent so far!!

The System

Listening with

Meze Empyrean · Headphones: open-back, isodynamic hybrid array (planar), circumaural · discontinued

Impedance: 31.6 Ω
Sensitivity: 100 dB SPL (1 mW / 1 kHz) ≈ 115.0 dB/V (calc.)
Frequency response: 4 Hz – 110 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: 4-pin mini-XLR cable; 3 m OFC XLR cable
Other: max SPL >130 dB; THD <0.1%; ~430 g; Rinaro driver

Matching notes: At 31.6 Ω and 100 dB/mW, the Meze Empyrean is a low-impedance load, and an efficient one: about 0.56 V (10 mW, 18 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson does not publish a 31.6 Ω rating for the Conductor 3 Reference. Its 16 Ω and 32 Ω ratings (7.5 W SE; 5 W SE) fall either side of it. The Conductor 3 Reference’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/63 of the load. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Dan Clark Audio AEON Flow 2

HiFiMAN Edition XS V2

Sennheiser HD 600 · Headphones: open-back, dynamic, circumaural

Impedance: 300 Ω
Sensitivity: 97 dB SPL @ 1 kHz, 1 V (as published) ≈ 91.8 dB/mW (calc.)
Frequency response: 12 Hz – 40.5 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: 3.5 mm stereo jack plug with 6.3 mm adapter; 3 m cable
Other: THD <0.1% (1 kHz, 1 V)

Matching notes: At 300 Ω and 97 dB/V, the HD 600 is a high-impedance load that needs voltage more than current: about 4.5 V (67 mW, 15 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson rates the Conductor 3 Reference at 0.58 W (SE) into 300 Ω, which is about 13.2 V RMS (calc.), roughly 9 dB more than that. The Conductor 3 Reference’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/600 of the load. ^{[5] [6] [2] [3] [4]}

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

^{[2] [3] [4]}

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.