"Absurdly Great, Literally the New Standard"
This is the fully balanced version of the Burson Conductor 3, featuring balanced outputs. Being the best on the market has been the design goal of every model of the Burson Conductor since the first version of this highly acclaimed DAC, headphone amp, and preamp back in 2007. The newest version of the Conductor, the C3X Reference, took Burson three years to build, and it leaves its competitors in the dust.
The SABRE32 / ESS9038Q2M DAC and XMOS USB receiver chips are the most advanced and expensive in the industry. There are two ESS9038 DAC chips in the C3 Reference, and its USB receiver comes with customized driver by Thesycon, Germany. The result is unsurpassed processing power, perfectly playing back DSD512 and 32-bit/786 khz audio.
The C3X Reference also features a Bluetooth 5.0 receiver Qualcomm/CSR8675 with aptX HD audio codec. It pushes Bluetooth playback beyond CD quality and ease of use to the highest level.
The fully balanced Conductor 3X has 2 x balanced XLR inputs, 1 x balanced DAC output, 1 x balanced XLR preamp output, 1 x balanced headphone outputs (7.5Wpc), and 1 x single ended headphone output (3.75Wpc). It uses 4 x Vivid Dual Opamps.
"A Market Leading Reference Amp"
"The build is absurdly great, literally the new standard for me now to compare against,' raves reviewer Michael, Headfonics.com, December 22, 2019. "The midrange is stellar. The treble is hyper slick and an absolute dream and the sound staging experience is one of the largest I’ve ever heard in a combo unit such as this. I see nothing negative in the slightest. It is more than I would even expect in this pricing tier."
"What Burson Audio has made in the Conductor 3 is the one-box solution for the person who’s ready to stop looking, and find themselves a genuine legacy piece that will comfortably remain top-tier in terms of performance for many, many years," reports Matty Graham, Headfonica.com, December 30, 2019.
"Team Burson have taken the finest qualities of their Opamps, the ESS Sabre Dac Chips and along with their MCPS power supply and newly designed chassis have produced a market leading reference amp," notes John Parker, head-fi.org, January 22, 2020.
Max Power x 5 Pushes Noise Beyond Human Hearing
Burson's revolutionary Max Current Power Supply (MCPS) raises voltage frequency from 50 Hz to 170 kHz, pushing noise beyond human hearing. Its low impedance ensures abundant and instant energy for output transistors. The C3 Reference uses five sets of MCPS – which means that display, functionality, DAC, analog left, and analog right are all separately powered. (See below for more on the MCPS.)
A Truly Cool Case and Interface
Let’s face it, most audio equipment cases are ugly and impractical. They usually have visible screws everywhere, sharp corners, and boring colors. Class-A amplifiers may even have finger cutting heat-sinks. This kind of casework diminishes the aesthetic of any living space, especially modern desktops where other electronic are usually slick and refined.
Made from high-density aluminum and electroplated with a space-grey finish, the Cool Case has only four visible screws under its belly. It is also a unified heat-sink that is 300% more efficient than the heat sink used on previous Conductor models. It is audio jewelry at its finest, and it looks and plays very cool.
The Conductor 3X Reference has an all-new OLED screen and interface program that deliver a calming and intuitive user experience. Its machined solid aluminum knob offers the finest control and feels luxurious, too.
Energizing Every Note
The first and most profound impression of the C3X Reference is its overwhelming energy. It energizes every note and space in between, bringing absolute control and accuracy. Drum kicks are hard and crisp while decays are sustaining and packed with micro-details. Listening to "Masquerade" from Phantom of the Opera, you can easily locate and follow each performer as they move around on a wide and deep stage. On Kathy’s Song by Eva Cassidy, her voice shines like the sun. Warm, golden and eternally beautiful. The C3 Reference is a time machine. Ride it to revisit these ingenious creations of beauty time after time.
Deep Inside the Burson Max Current Power Supply
When electricity passes through a conductive material it meets resistance. The longer the material, the higher its resistance. A power transformer is a very long stretch of wire with very high resistance. Even the best quality copper wire transformers have over 15 ohm. This is not ideal for audio amplification. During music playback, the demand for current fluctuates sharply with the music, but the resistance from the transformer is constraining supply. Music playback becomes unimpactful and lacking in details. Engineers can use various means to mitigate the impact of impedance on sound, but not eliminate it.
The Burson Max Current Power Supply (MCPS) resolves this problem by removing the power transformer altogether. It uses transistors and as such it has less than 1 ohm of resistance. It means delivering electric current instantly to meet any demand. The resulting music reproduction is detailed and dynamic, the way music should be.
Solving the Power Supply Noise Problem
Since AC mains power has a 50-60 hz working frequency, a traditional linear power supply charges and discharges 50-60 times each second. This frequency is within human hearing hence extremely noisy. Furthermore, this rate of charging is too slow for audio amplification. To mitigate this, audio engineers use a large number of capacitors, which presents other problems without removing the root cause.
The Burson MCPS increases the working frequency to 170 khz. Any noise at this frequency is well above the human hearing threshold of 20 khz. The result is a pitch black soundstage critical for micro-details to shine through.
The Burson MCPS also converts the original sine-wave energy into a more efficient square wave. In combination with the 170 khz frequency, the MCPS charges capacitors much faster. This is the reason why a big capacitor bank is not necessary for Burson designs. The resulting sound is holophonic with dynamic, accuracy, and details even during the most demanding of music reproduction. Furthermore, the resulting sound has a much higher perceived driving power.
