One thing that we’ve learned in our time as hi-fi specialists, is there truly are no rules. A hi-fi brand can be five decades old or five minutes old, and still hold its own against the other. It’s not often that we feature a brand that isn’t steeped in heavy hi-fi history, but every now and then, a brand like Burson comes along – an amplifier manufacturer with a difference.
Don’t get us wrong, Burson aren’t exactly spring chickens. They’ve been around long enough to be notable in the hi-fi history books, especially considering their headphone-niche – and their philosophy is one which never ceases to impress us. This is a brand that knows what its doing – abundantly clear the second you crack open the case and take a peek at what’s inside…
Burson Audio History
It began in 1996 in Austrailia with a group of plucky and passionate audiophiles keen to unleash their philosophy on the world. Th team was constructed of a number of different people with different fields of expertise, and together they pooled everything the knew about audio, about technology, about engineering and – of course – about music to make something that they would deem as audio perfection. It was never supposed to be something that could be released on a commerical scale – not even in a limited way. They all acknowledged from the start that would be far too costly and time consuming.
Yes, it was a pure labour of love. They wanted to make audio equipment to their own tastes and for their own personal enjoyment – and yet, thanks to their unique and enviable philosophy, they eventually had to submit to demand. They released their first commercial product – carrying every trademark they picked up along the way – in 2005. They haven’t looked back since.
Burson Audio Philosophy
That there is discreet circuitry. Yep.
Burson’s very own tagline sums them up more beautifully than pretty much any other hi-fi manufacturer we have come across: ” a lavish musical experience’. Oooh.
In fact, nobody puts it quite as well as them:
“Our philosophy is simple; the less our components interfere with the audio signal the more complete your musical experience. This is our core design philosophy since we began in 1996. If our equipment is designed well and transparent enough — and it is — then the pace, rhythm, timing dynamics and tonality becomes a natural expression of the music. We feel this can never be achieved with standard circuit building blocks like IC chip op-amps, IC regulators, or even standard transformers. Instead we research and develop customized discrete circuits specifically to suit their applications. Only then does each and every component in the signal path perform at its peak. And only then will the end result match our expectations.”
But what does this mean in a technological sense? Well, we’re getting onto that…
Burson Audio Technology
Discretion is the key to Burson’s technology. Discrete components, discrete circuitry. What makes them discreet is the fact they are designed exclusively for the needs of the Burson amp in mind and are built to exact specifications rather than cater to the ‘jack of all trades’ tendency. Burson believe a system is only as strong as its weakest link, and therefore endeavour to ensure that link will not be within their units.
They brag that each component within each unit contains/is:
– Custom circuitry depending on application
– Significantly reduces component count to better preserve signal integrity
– Component are top-quality audio-grade components
– 1%-matched metal-film resistors and silver mica capacitors
– Extremely temperature stable
– Each transistor is chemically optimized for its application: NPN or PNP
– Each transistor tested and matched before hand-soldering onto the PCB
Combine each component meeting the above requirements (and being rather timeless in the process), they also assure: low noise power, precision control, RFA (resonance-free-aluminum) enclosures and a variable output stage, you have a very special piece of equipment on your hands. And yes, it dounds just as lavish and lush as the tagline suggests.
Okay, we’re guessing by now that you might want one. Well, we can help you there. This kind of thing doesn’t come cheap, but for a limited time we can help you get a lavish audio experience all your own, providing you have a pair of decent headphones we can promise you won’t regret a little scroll further…
The Burson Audio 30% Sale
Burson HA-160 Headphone Amplifier- RRP: £549.00 £399
A purist headphone amplifier on every level. This is an uncompromising model designed to deliver stunning audio performance from a single line level input. It’s packed with the aforementioned Burson technologies, and is wrapped in their signature refinement and passion. It quite usefully features two headphones outputs, each with different resistances to match perfectly with any headphones. Handy!
Burson Soloist SL Headphone AmplifierRRP: £499.00 £349.00
A smaller, scaled down version of the award winning Burson Soloist. Just like the Soloist, the Soloist SL is completely discrete in design. It features the same 21 component Field Effect Transistor input stage and the same discrete power supply network which brought popularity to the original. Assembled with the same high end components and operating in pure Class-A, the Soloist SL carries the same sonic signature – organic, transparent and lush – as its larger brother.
Burson Conductor Headphone Amplifier + USB DAC + Pre Amp RRP: £1,499.00 £1,049.00
It’s probably best we break this one down, there’s a lot to cover!
1) The DAC
At the heart of our DAC is the ESS SABRE32 Reference DAC chip. With patented 32-bit Hyper-stream DAC architecture and Time Domain Jitter Eliminator technology, the SABRE32 is one of the best and most expensive DAC chips in the world and is truly reference class .
2) The Headphone Amplifier
The Conductor features the highly regarded Burson Soloist Headphone Amplifier. Burson had to deploy another 35W customised transformer to ensure that the Soloist circuitry is independent and optimised at all times. This is to ensure that its performance is exactly the same as the standalone Soloist.
3) High Performance Pre Amp
The Conductor is not your average headphone amp with an added preamp function. Burson didn’t simply solder a piece of wire from the headphone output jack to create an unrefined preamp. Instead the preamp output has been extracted from the voltage gain stage before the current gain section, to create a preamp that reflects the full potential of our FET output stage, and our less is more philosophy. Performance and versatility are uncompromising!
Burson PA160 Timekeeper Stereo and Monoblock Power Amplifier
Burson looked for something that didn’t seem to be there (a small and refined class AB amplififer) and set out to complete a seemingly impossible challenge of plugging the gap in the market. Burson Audio went about creating a ‘Class-D sized’ power amplifier but with true-blue Burson ideals. The result? The Timekeeper. A fully IC free class-AB power amplifier with a custom-built transformer and a linear power supply.Transparent and powerful, and with unique bridging functions, the Timekeeper is an exceptional piece of kit, and the pinnacle of all things Burson.
So, that’s it. If that can truly be ‘it’. Burson’s product range isn’t vast – but to us that can only be a good thing. They don’t need to cover the bases with a magnitude of different products, they cover it all with just a small handful of versatile yet specialist equipment which sounds as though it were constructed by the hi-fi-gods themselves.
Interested? Of course you are. Get in touch quick and we will see if we can give you a taste of that lavish audio experience before you plunge straight in. We assure you, you won’t be disappointed.
… unless you miss out on the sale, that is. We suggest you hurry!