That’s interesting about the volume levels. Mine didn’t change at all. I didn’t volume match but I use the same volume every time.
Yeah at the pre-order price I thought it was ok-priced. At $300 I might hesitate a little. But I guess it can also depend on how “dirty” the power is around you.
Does the Supercharger push you to keep the Burson? Or still undecided?
UPDATE: Whoa!
Not sure why/how to explain this but the feedback above about the Supercharger was headphone only.
Today I lit up the speakers to listen while I worked on a couple of reports and… WOW. There is a tremendous amount of additional stage width, enough to make me check every connection, not sure what I would find lol. But it’s a dramatic increase in stage width along with the aforementioned blacker background and a very pronounced increase in micro details. Much more noticeable than with the headphones. It’s like the entire swath of frequencies from about 5k on up had a veil removed from it.
Always an eye out for new opportunities but I think at the moment the Burson is not a bottle neck in the desktop. It feels like everything is matched well at an appropriate level. The DAC is a Yggy and the speakers are Dynaudio LYD 5.
Update on Sonic Imagery Labs: They found nothing wrong with the op-amps so fortunately I got a full refund. Nightowls, however, are still dead.
I wonder why it didn’t work, it’s a little odd. They offered to try it themselves if I send the amp over but I didn’t want to go through the hassle. So, just be weary of their op-amps–at least on the Soloist.
Just a thought about the burson funk, that I’ve also read from a few forums users applies to the soloist 3xp, and other burson products.
While I believe the option to slightly change the signature by opamp rolling is very nice, (for now) I dont think any opamp will have a better synergy with the funk other than burson’s own v6 classics or vivids
After trying a few swaps and reading other peoples experiences, it seems like going back to burson opamps after trying and having fun with other opamps is what ends up happening.
I agree with that to a certain point. I think the Burson opamps are better for a wider array of hps and will be, imo, more pleasing sounding to most people. But there are 3rd party opamps that will synergize better with some hps over the burson opamps. The VC, for example, I did not love with the stock ones. It was too thick-sounding and a bit too colored, at least for my preference. So, going with a more neutral opamp does benefit in this case imo.
Yep agreed for sure, at least with the funk it may be too colored for some headphones/people
Does anyone have any experience of how a Soloist Performance pairs with Gumby MB A2? And on the other end, a HE-1000SE?
So I finally got a few moments with the new Burson V7 Vivid Op Amp and I figure I’ll write some quick thoughts, otherwise I’ll never do it.
These were installed on a Burson Conductor 3X Reference, with Supercharger, replacing the V6 Vivid. Listening was done with a Diana V2. Also, I’m very casual and infrequent in my listening but I was able to listen to the V6 for a solid couple days before swapping to the V7.
I approve. The V7 instantly provided a surprising upgrade in clarity. Initially noticed a more engaging presentation that brought out more of the music and vocals. By comparison the V6 is more laid back and reserved.
V7 Vivid seems to offer a cleaner, more detailed soundscape compared to the V6’s slight muddiness. This translates to a crisper presentation, particularly in the mids. Instruments are better separated, and vocals gain a touch more presence.
I will say that the only reason I have the B3XR is because I got it cheap. As much as I want to grab another amp, I couldn’t justify it because of how infrequent I would use it. I decided to get the V7 Op amp and because it seemed like a fun/cute thing to try. I’m glad I did as I’ve probably listened more the last 3 days than in the last 3 months.
cc @Gothique since you mentioned a write up.
Thanks! Which V6s did you have in there? Also the Vivid?
Got to say those metal bodied ones are very pretty.
Vivids as well.
Got the Soloist Voyager Max and Timekeeper Voyager Max kits in yesterday. Initial impressions are that the Soloist Voyager is a firm refinement over the 2023 Silent Power module revision of the Soloist 3X GT which was a day and night different amp experience to the 3XP. Extreme amounts of control, grip, and clarity, good step up over the GT which was already extremely well controlled, but the Voyager takes it to a more refined place that seems to be very aggressive without ever being grating. Imaging is razor sharp as is placement depth. Treble is a touch boosted, my thinking is the V7 Vivid opamps are retaining a bit of the V-shape the V6 Vivids had, which is generally ok with me as long as its subtle. Power output is identical to the GT from what I can tell, same volume level for the same volume at the ear. Noise is the slightest bit lower on the Voyager, which is nice, because for some reason the GT has a pretty audible noise floor, about on par with or a little more than my Questyle CMA18, and with most IEMs, it’s a tad bit annoying. The Voyager noise level is lower than the GT, but not by enough to avoid being a problem with IEMs, so while it is a bit of an upgrade there, it’s not enough to make it a true “do-it-all” amp imo, though this is instantly fixed with a 4.4mm or 2.5mm Ifi IEMatch, though that would also require a 4pin XLR to 4.4mm or 2.5mm adapter and starts to get a little annoying.
The power level on the Timekeepers in low gain is about 4-5db higher than the Soloist in medium gain at max volume, and the +6db pre-gain mode, which engages an opamp circuit that is completely bypassed when in low gain mode on the Timekeepers, is also also about 4-5db higher output than the Soloist in high gain mode at max volume. The part where the Soloist and the Timekeepers starts to delineate from each other is the overall technical capabilities as a whole, and I want to start by saying that even though the Timekeepers have a bit more power, they have substantially lower noise and are perfectly usable with IEMs.
If the Soloist Voyager is Bursons idea of a 10/10 amp (and I still need to swap the opamps from my GT over to truly know where I think it stands, since the opamp setup I have in my GT was a pretty significant jump in detail, clarity, layering and most importantly, timbre with the GT), I’d put the 2023 GT with all the bells and whistles upgraded like SS2590 opamps and SP-02 Silent Power modules and a Supercharger 5A at around a 9.5 out of 10 in Burson scoring, Soloist 3XP at around a 5 or 6, genuinely pathetic all around with the exception of decent control and driving ability, while having basically zero noise floor.
On this same scale, the Timekeeper Voyagers are a firm 12/10.
They are a VERY large step up over the Soloist GT 2023 and Voyager.
To be perfectly blunt, I almost regret the Soloist Voyager purchase altogether, it’s a great amp, but it isn’t the Timekeepers. Although it’s a slight bit easier to use with headphones in theory, I’ve been doing these things so much that it’s a non issue in my case and I have almost no idea why I would really ever use the Soloist Voyager when I have perfectly good converter boxes like an Ifi iESL and speaker tap boxes and plenty of capable preamps or DAC volume controls that work just fine given that the output power of the Timekeepers is relatively tame and barely needs any attenuation below 4v input to be at a listenable volume for harder to drive sets. With a couple db attenuated by EQ for HE6s, electrostats through the iESL, IEMs with the -24db setting on an IEMatch, or with other headphones very easily with volume just turned down, the Timekeepers act like a very normal headphone amp but with extremely good tech. Burson has had a way of flavoring their amps in the past with the Vivid opamps coming stock in their amps, and I did like the presentation they were going for, but with the GT they took a much more refined and clarity focused approach while retaining what made their character and the Soloist Voyager is very much an evolution of that in the best possible way, but the Timekeeper Voyagers completely ditching that Burson input stage, they seem to avoid that coloration and instead have an astoundingly transparent characteristic that is not at all Burson in flavor. It does have a lot of what makes Burson…Burson, but more in the ways of brute force control and rich texturing rather than their typical coloration and while I think that might be a downside for someone wanting that flavor specifically for their setup knowing how Burson has worked in the past, for me, it’s actually been incredibly eye opening and the level of transparency is not something I was expecting out of these. I’m not sure how much the Fusion Core power supplies are contributing to the overall technical upgrades in the Voyager over the GT, but I do intend on trying the Fusion Core on the GT just for good measure.
I’m not sure that at the MSRP of about $4700 USD that I’d buy the Soloist Voyager Max when a Soloist GT4 (which is basically a 2023 GT) with 2590 opamps is within spitting distance of the Voyager in most cases and quite a bit cheaper, but for the $6k MSRP of the Timekeeper Voyagers, I have no problem saying I think they’re worth the cost and are even more worth it on their sale prices of $5k or just under. It’s still early, but so far, I got them thinking they could be a neat Swiss Army knife in the right setup, but I accidentally stumbled onto what might be my do-it-all endgame amp and have to run a splitter for my speakers, headphones, and estats and let them run 100% driving duty. I’ll try to do a writeup on actual in depth comparisons and descriptions but it’s only been a day and I’ve admittedly been a bit caught up in the Battlefield 6 Beta lol but these monoblocks have been FANTASTIC with the Kiwi Ears Aether for gaming and they just seem to be able to grant IEMs huge amounts of stage width and depth.
EDIT: Totally forgot the thing I was saving for last. The dynamics. These things hit like a truck but with a speed and grip/control that’s so firm that it can make the HE6 sound a little bit thin at times and at this point I’m positive that it isn’t the flavoring or character of the amp being lean or thin, it just reins them in in a way that removes some of the thickness and weight they can exaggerate at times and it’s not a bad thing at all and gives the HE6 an almost estat level of speed and tactility in the bass especially, but also in the rest of the frequency range and it makes them seem nimble like the HE1000se. I’m still having a tough time gauging this because I’ve never really heard the HE6 behave like this and it’s a little odd but it’s an extremely technical sound that is thoroughly addicting and I’m loving the presentation they’re giving the HE6 overall. Through the iESL, they’re doing the same thing with every estat I throw at them and hilariously the STAX SR-003 mkii with the CES-A1 kit is blowing my mind with the level of slam and incisiveness some songs are capable of…odd combo, I know. Adds a hefty thump to all my estats and a pretty huge amount of texture to estats especially.
