Dariusz’s Burson Conductor 3 Reference with Sennheiser HD 650

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Sales Burson
November 11, 2021

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Feedbacks - Conductor 3R | 3XR
Burson Conductor 3 Reference, HiFiMAN HE-560, IMR Acoustics Aten 2, Sennheiser HD 650, Sennheiser HD 8XX

My first serious DAC/Amp to get max out of my headphones. So far, so good. Easy setup and a significant sound improvement. Now i can fully enjoy my music.

The System

Listening with

Sennheiser HD 650 · Headphones: open-back, dynamic, circumaural

Impedance: 300 Ω
Sensitivity: 103 dB SPL @ 1 kHz, 1 V (as published) ≈ 97.8 dB/mW (calc.)
Frequency response: 10 Hz – 41 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: 6.35 mm stereo jack plug (3.5 mm adapter)
Other: THD <0.05% (1 kHz, 1 V); 42 mm transducer

Matching notes: At 300 Ω and 103 dB/V, the HD 650 is a high-impedance load that needs voltage more than current: about 2.2 V (17 mW, 7.5 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 15 dB more than that. The Conductor 3 Reference’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/600 of the load. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]}

Sennheiser HD 8XX

HiFiMAN HE-560 · Headphones: open-back, planar magnetic, circumaural · discontinued

Impedance: 45 Ω
Sensitivity: 90 dB (reference not stated by HiFiMAN)
Frequency response: 15 Hz – 50 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: 6.35 mm headphone plug cable (as published)

^[6]

IMR Acoustics Aten 2

HiFiMAN RE800

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.