Burson FUN Headphone Amp Review

[manueljenkin]

I mean, you can still do op-amp rolling with the FUN amplifier. I own one and I hear clear differences in sound quality with Sparkos discreet op-amps in them as opposed to the stock NE5534. Could be that my mind is just playing tricks with me and I have no way to prove otherwise since I don't own a second unit to do blind tests with.

No it's not placebo, it's audible. I was able to measure better high frequency bandwidth/linearity with the sparkos ss3601 than with V6 vivid it came with.

 

[Veri]

No it's not placebo, it's audible. I was able to measure better high frequency bandwidth/linearity with the sparkos ss3601 than with V6 vivid it came with.

Well the V6 vivid must be truly crap if you can hear that HF/linearity change with the sparkos then...

 

[manueljenkin]

Well the V6 vivid must be truly crap if you can hear that HF/linearity change with the sparkos then...

Such a vile comment without any measurements to back it up. V6 vivid is better than the stock opamps, and will measure equal or better, so if you think it is junk, I guess pretty much most amps are junk. Just that the sparkos is even better, measurably so, but that doesn't discredit what the other opamp is.

 

[Veri]

Such a vile comment without any measurements to back it up. V6 vivid is better than the stock opamps, and will measure equal or better, so if you think it is junk, I guess pretty much most amps are junk. Just that the sparkos is even better, measurably so, but that doesn't discredit what the other opamp is.

You say "measurably so" but so far are sharing nothing. I'm not taking any of that on your word, nope. The few op-amp swap measurements that are presented at ASR are largely in favour of the fact that they don't cause audible changes.

 

[mokoaguswan]

Just bought this unit, the Vivid V6 version.

 

[trl]

Well 5A at 12V are 60 W. Split over 8 transistors would be some 7W dissipation each. This ain't gonna work without a serious heat sink - and I can't seen any heat sink at all, not even small finger style ones.

The transistors in my DIY class A preamp output are biased to carry 46 mA to feed a 300 Ohm headphone and dissipate 0.7 W each. Even for this a heat sink is required. See here:

View attachment 60192

No way the Burson requires 5A, there is nothing in it which hints how those 60W could be dissipated safely. Hey, my RME ADI-2 PRO fs has a 12V 2A power supply and it gets quite warm in use, even when idle. With 60W it would be cooking hot.

I was unable to power on the FUN by using a linear 5A PSU, so the default SMPS provided by Burson is a must here, at least for power on purposes. Worth mentioning that by using the same LPSU I was able to power on BANG power amplifier that is using the same MCPS design internally, so it's probably something specific inside the FUN.

 

[trl]

Some interesting thread might also be read here:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s/review-and-measurements-of-burson-fun.8929/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...aked-pics-some-technical-thoughts-a-s-o.3958/

 

[escalibur]

Sorry no. This has been sent back to its owner.

Any other Bursons in the pipeline?

 

[Jimster480]

Any other Bursons in the pipeline?

I doubt that I will receive any other ones. Not sure what they have in the pipeline.

 

[trl]

Not sure what they have in the pipeline.

They just finished the Soloist 3XP, 2 x 15W/channel just before clipping @30 Ohms...total madness.

 

[trl]

But not when we lower the output to 50 millivolts:

So careful with sensitive IEMs and headphones. Depending on playback level, you may hear some hiss.

I own both HPA-3B and Burson FUN and in your measurements for SNR @50mV there's only 1dB difference, advantage to FUN against HPA-3B.

Funny thing, my 121dB/V SPL 20-Ohms IEMs connected to FUN get me a pronounced background noise when volume is to the minimum (not changing much if passing above 12 o 'clock), while connected to HPA-3B (jack output) get me complete silence on first two gains and some noise on highest gain.

I know that my HPA-3B was modded, but still the difference in hiss is way too much to be this the reason. Practically, my HPA-3B is dead quiet, pretty much like the Objective2 (probably a SNR pretty close to 90dB @50mV), while FUN has some clearly audible noise, starting with volume at min., so it's coming from the output stage probably.