This is a review and measurements of the Bursson Play DAC model "V6 Vivid." It is on loan from a member and retails for $549. It is a unique product in that it comes in form factor of a 5.25" drive bay so that you can either slide it into your desktop computer that way, or use it independently on your desk.
Above you see it stacked in the middle of two Topping DACs (D50 and DX7).
The back has both ATA standard power connection for inside computer use and external 12 volt 6 amp (!) power brick.
The unit comes with a bunch of alternate op-amps that you can use to swap out what is in it. I did not play with any and tested it as I received it.
A rotary control changes the volume but requires many turns to go from min to max. Combined with rather slippery knob, made big changes difficult. But then again you get high accuracy for your level.
Speaking of level, this thing puts out some serious voltages/power. In both RCA and headphone out you get over 10 volts unloaded! It however clips at that level with a 33 ohm dummy load. Turning it down to 75% remedied that and resulted in a clean 5.7 volt output with very low output impedance of just 0.4 ohms:
The rear power jack unfortunately did not make a good connection. Touching would cause the unit to power cycle. Not sure if it came broken this way or got that way as it travelled through multiple hands.
The unit worked plug-and-play in Windows 10 Creator's edition, allowing me to use and test it with Roon in bit-perfect WASAPI interface.
Let's get into measurements and see how it does. Please read my tutorial on my setup and how these tests are conducted: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/understanding-audio-measurements.2351/. Naturally all tests are done using the only input port which is USB so the test results are not as comprehensive as some of the other DACs that have S/PDIF input.
Measurements
I usually don't expect frequency response measurements to be eventful but they were here:
As we see there is a 3 dB roll off by the time we get to 20 kHz. And the drop starts at around 6 kHz. This is far more steep than any DAC I have measured. Won't affect older folks like me but if you are still young, you will be cheated out of some high frequency response, resulting in the sound to be more mellow than with other DACs.
EDIT: further tests show that this droop only occurs at full volume. Dialing it down to 60% essentially makes the response flat.
Let's see how it does with noise and jitter:
As we see the results are not competitive with similar/lower cost DACs from Topping. The noise floor is high and is modulated by some other signal. There is also an idle tone at around 14 kHz.
Note that the above was at lower volume to more or less match the Topping. If I turned up the volume higher, the noise floor increases substantially with it.
Next let's look at THD+N versus level:
Here the noise and distortion are not only higher than the Topping DX7 but the two channels have varying amount of distortion+noise. I have not seen that much separation in measurements of other DACs.
I cut off the right side but if I let the graph go, distortion+noise sharply increases. So low-distortion listening comes at levels below max (by at least 20 dB).
Let's look at low level linearity by playing a very weak -90 dB (24 bit) sine wave:
The response here is pretty good as long as volume control is set high. If I match levels to Topping, the sine wave would fall apart (not shown).
Subjective Listening
The much more powerful output stage allowed the Burson Play DAC to easily drive my most inefficient headphone, the Sennheiser HD650 to ear bleeding level. As you see in the first picture, I am listening to music as I am typing this with the volume level at just 26 out of 99. I can push it up to 60 or so but dare not after that.
I don't detect any noise when pausing the audio even when switching to most sensitive headphone I have, the Grado SR60e.
I am on a short time fuse so no time for extensive AB testing. But I say the measurement deficiencies don't seem to translate into audible issues.
Conclusions
Clearly the Burson Play is designed for muscle than beauty (in measurements). There are better DACs with much more refinement. What the Burson does well is to pump out tons of power through its headphone and RCA jacks. And it uniquely works as a drive bay in your desktop computer.
At this price, I can't recommend it but if you have inefficient headphones or want to listen at far higher levels than even I do, I won't stop you from purchasing it.
I will be returning this unit soon so if you have any questions, ask them quick!
----
If you like this review, please consider donating funds for these types of hardware purchase using Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).
Above you see it stacked in the middle of two Topping DACs (D50 and DX7).
The back has both ATA standard power connection for inside computer use and external 12 volt 6 amp (!) power brick.
The unit comes with a bunch of alternate op-amps that you can use to swap out what is in it. I did not play with any and tested it as I received it.
A rotary control changes the volume but requires many turns to go from min to max. Combined with rather slippery knob, made big changes difficult. But then again you get high accuracy for your level.
Speaking of level, this thing puts out some serious voltages/power. In both RCA and headphone out you get over 10 volts unloaded! It however clips at that level with a 33 ohm dummy load. Turning it down to 75% remedied that and resulted in a clean 5.7 volt output with very low output impedance of just 0.4 ohms:
The rear power jack unfortunately did not make a good connection. Touching would cause the unit to power cycle. Not sure if it came broken this way or got that way as it travelled through multiple hands.
The unit worked plug-and-play in Windows 10 Creator's edition, allowing me to use and test it with Roon in bit-perfect WASAPI interface.
Let's get into measurements and see how it does. Please read my tutorial on my setup and how these tests are conducted: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/understanding-audio-measurements.2351/. Naturally all tests are done using the only input port which is USB so the test results are not as comprehensive as some of the other DACs that have S/PDIF input.
Measurements
I usually don't expect frequency response measurements to be eventful but they were here:
As we see there is a 3 dB roll off by the time we get to 20 kHz. And the drop starts at around 6 kHz. This is far more steep than any DAC I have measured. Won't affect older folks like me but if you are still young, you will be cheated out of some high frequency response, resulting in the sound to be more mellow than with other DACs.
EDIT: further tests show that this droop only occurs at full volume. Dialing it down to 60% essentially makes the response flat.
Let's see how it does with noise and jitter:
As we see the results are not competitive with similar/lower cost DACs from Topping. The noise floor is high and is modulated by some other signal. There is also an idle tone at around 14 kHz.
Note that the above was at lower volume to more or less match the Topping. If I turned up the volume higher, the noise floor increases substantially with it.
Next let's look at THD+N versus level:
Here the noise and distortion are not only higher than the Topping DX7 but the two channels have varying amount of distortion+noise. I have not seen that much separation in measurements of other DACs.
I cut off the right side but if I let the graph go, distortion+noise sharply increases. So low-distortion listening comes at levels below max (by at least 20 dB).
Let's look at low level linearity by playing a very weak -90 dB (24 bit) sine wave:
The response here is pretty good as long as volume control is set high. If I match levels to Topping, the sine wave would fall apart (not shown).
Subjective Listening
The much more powerful output stage allowed the Burson Play DAC to easily drive my most inefficient headphone, the Sennheiser HD650 to ear bleeding level. As you see in the first picture, I am listening to music as I am typing this with the volume level at just 26 out of 99. I can push it up to 60 or so but dare not after that.
I don't detect any noise when pausing the audio even when switching to most sensitive headphone I have, the Grado SR60e.
I am on a short time fuse so no time for extensive AB testing. But I say the measurement deficiencies don't seem to translate into audible issues.
Conclusions
Clearly the Burson Play is designed for muscle than beauty (in measurements). There are better DACs with much more refinement. What the Burson does well is to pump out tons of power through its headphone and RCA jacks. And it uniquely works as a drive bay in your desktop computer.
At this price, I can't recommend it but if you have inefficient headphones or want to listen at far higher levels than even I do, I won't stop you from purchasing it.
I will be returning this unit soon so if you have any questions, ask them quick!
----
If you like this review, please consider donating funds for these types of hardware purchase using Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).
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