Michal’s Burson Conductor GT4 with ZMF Caldera Open

Published on

Sales Burson
May 1, 2025

Post Info

Feedbacks - Conductor GT3 | GT4
other headphones, PC, various high quality cables

I’ve been using the Burson Conductor GT4 and so far, the experience has been excellent—everything is performing as expected, and the sound quality is top-notch. One small recommendation I would make concerns the PCM note icon on the display. At the moment, it blinks erratically and at an uneven pace, which can be somewhat distracting during use.

A more elegant solution might be to replace the current blinking note icon with a simple, steadily blinking dot or light.

The System

Listening with

ZMF Caldera Open · Headphones: open-back, planar magnetic (80 mm, CAMS), circumaural

Impedance: 60 Ω
Sensitivity: ~95 dB/mW (approx., “~” as published)
Frequency response: not published
Plugs / cables supplied: not published (ZMF lists no connector type)

^[1]

Burson

Burson Conductor GT4 · DAC / headphone amplifier / preamp

Output power (XLR / SE): 32 Ω 10 W / 5 W · 100 Ω 5 W / 2.5 W · 150 Ω 3 W / 1.5 W · 300 Ω 2 W / 1 W
Output impedance: 0.5 Ω (headphone); 1 Ω (pre out); 25 Ω (DAC out)
Output voltage: RCA 2 V (DAC out) · XLR 4 V (DAC out); pre out max 12 V RMS
Gain: 2 levels: High full power (XLR 10 W / SE 5 W), Low 10% (IEM); dB not published
Inputs: 2x XLR; 2x RCA; USB (XMOS; PCM to 768 kHz/32-bit, native DSD512); Toslink; coaxial (24/192); Bluetooth 5.0 aptX HD; microphone
Input impedance: 40 kΩ
Input sensitivity: line level (24-bit/192 kHz ADC on analogue inputs)
Outputs: headphone 6.35 mm / 4-pin XLR / 3.5 mm; XLR + RCA pre out; subwoofer pre out; XLR + RCA line (DAC) out
DAC / chipset: 2x ESS9038 (one chip per channel; suffix not published)
Other: THD <0.0015%; FR ±1 dB 0-58 kHz; versions: Standard (V6 Vivid, SP01, 24V5A) / Deluxe (V7 Vivid, SP02, Super Charger 5A) / Max (+Fusion Core 24V)

^{[2] [3]}

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.