Burson kindly sent a V6 Vivid to give my honest impressions. With that out of the way I can proceed to give you my thoughts on it. The Topping D10, actually already have a socket installed for chip rolling. The original ic was good, and it won me over as a decent dac which really was purchased to convert usb to coax or optical. One upgrade I did to the D10 was a usb cable that split the data and power so the power to the D10 was a separate usb that I plugged into an Audioquest Jitterbug and that into a filtered AC setup. This lowered the noise floor a bit.

With the V6 vivid installed, it remained about the same noise floor maybe a bit lower.

Now for the sound, I did not notice any elevated or more pronounced emphasis anywhere. I tried the D10 on solid state, tubes and a mix up of all tube, all ss and mix and match. I mostly listen to electrostatic head phones so while I do love bass and dynamics, these are the weakest points of them. With the V6 you installed, I noticed the high frequencies had a more detailed attack and longer decay when appropriate. One album I used to test the V6 with is Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, many various versions. So the V6 Vivid let the bells and other high frequency instruments shine and shimmer with a detailed air to them. I also use 10,000 Maniacs “In My Tribe”, because this is a bright release, a bit dry and seems anemic all over, but great music. With the Vivid V6 installed, it made little details come out a bit. It also separated everything in an appropriate manner, ie Natalie Merchant in the center and front with the drums behind her, bass is behind and a little to the side and you could hear both the bass and bass drum could be identifiable.

The true bass test for me is John McVie and Mic Fleetwood on the self titled album with Stevie and Lindsay on it. The lead off track Monday Morning has a driving bass that has lots of detail with each string pluck. The Burson chip did not slow the pace or blur any detail. The bass did not overpower the midrange. I did not detect any coloration in the sound on any of my listening.

Now mind you that none of this is dramatically different, mostly subtle improvements. The most notable difference was the dynamics which had an increased maybe 2 dB’s over the stock chip. I should also mention the cables in and out have an influence on sound.

The only drawback is that this chip does not fit in the Topping D10 case which I knew about before receiving the Burson.



The list of equipment used to evaluate includes the following electrostatic headphones

Koss ESP950 with a Stax adapter

Nectar Pollinator

Stax L300, SR-404, SR-002, Sigma Pro and SR-X mk3

Preamps used were an ARC LS7(tube) and an Adcom GFP565(SS)

Amps Cary Rocket 88(all tube), Adcom 8008(SS) and a stand alone Stax SRM 212(SS) with an upgraded power supply.

Various cables were used.

All files were played through Foobar2000 and discs were played on a Sony SCD775.



Music was all digital from cd quality up to SACD (DSD files and disks). And the ones I used:

Pink Floyd DSotM

Linda Ronstadt Heart like a Wheel

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac

Steely Dan a large variety

Manfred Manns Earth Band Angel Station

10,000 Maniacs In My Tribe

Mike Okdfield Tubular Bells (original, TBII and, TB 2003)

Alan Parsons Project I Robot, Turn of a Friendly Card and Eye in the Sky

Dvorak Symphony No 6 Sir Colin Davis London Symphony Orchastra

Keb’Mo Keb’Mo

Richard Edgar Academy of Ancient Music JS Bach Brandenburg Concertos

Oscar Peterson Exclusively for My Friends

Warren Zevon Excitable Boy

Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds





In all cases, I compared more than one headphone for each evaluation music selection to ensure no one set dominated my impressions.


Now with well over 100 hours playing time things got only better. The bass detail is outstanding, the initial note have more detail as does the trailing ends. The high frequencies now have a more detail and volume. The mids are good as you can ask for.

The Topping D10 with the original chip I would give it around 80/100. With the Burson V6 Vivid raises it to a 90/100, and the only way to get more out of it is audiophile grade resistors and caps.

The Burson V6 vivid makes a very good DAC into an excellent budget DAC.

Most Recommended!

First let me point out, I have no vested financial investment in Burson in any way. These are my personal views and opinions on this cable.. The cable is on loan to me by Bhavneet of Burson Audio.

Pros: build quality, improves system matching, adds little to no coloration to the sound.

Cons: to some it may be the price, but I feel they are fairly priced.

Build: These are very well made cables. Not a skimpy hair thin cable like most portable gear cables are. The RCA end are solid, and fit nice, no wobble, and not so tight that you have to force them in. The 1/8" jack is also solid, and in no way feels weak or loose. In the middle, the Burson cable has it's proprietary junction that houses V5 audio module. The module is fit tight and secure, and has an outlet to plug in the USB power supply. It has a very elegant blue LED lamp to indicate it is powered on. All in all, a very nice quality build.

Use: The cable itself is simple, plug the /8" jack into the source, and the 2 RCA cables in the amp (headphone, preamp, receiver etc). Other than plugging the USB power supply into a wall socket on one end, and the other into the Burson cable module.

Sound: I was not expecting any huge difference in sound at first, but I was wrong. The first initial listening session was when it came in, new out of the box. Nice clear sound with no glitches of any kind. The first setup I tried it in was with my Korg DS-DAC100m to my Koss ESP-950 headphones. If any fault is to be found, it would be with this setup. The Korg plays files from my computer, and is capable of almost all formats, 44-192 16 or 24 bit, and DSD 2.8 and 5.6. The Koss headphones are electrostatic, and will reveal a ton of detail, and can really shine on good recordings. When connected with a standard cable, I have always thought that this was the best headphone setup I have. I listened to Pink Floyd DSD of Dark Side of the Moon, copied from my SACD disc onto the computer. What the Burson Cable Plus added was, nothing bad! In other words, it was adding no distortion or frequency coloration when compared to a nice pair of silver 1/8" to 1/8" plugs. What it did add was a nice micro detail and micro dynamics to the listening experience. The Macro dynamics were excellent through both cables, with a slight edge going to the Burson cables. Mismatched impedance can cause some loss of detail and dynamics, and the Burson helps restore them between components. When I used the Burson on my modified Creek OB-11 amp, along with Monoprice M1060 planar headphones a big improvement over my 1/8" to RCA standard cable, I was beginning to believe that the M1060 was a bad match to the Creek, I was wrong. Now if I used my Sony SACD player straight into the Creek, I felt the M1060's had a very rich and big sound, but so much with a portable source. Even my vintage Adcom GD-600 multi bit DAC sounded big into the Creek and planars.
So now, with the Burson Cable Plus in the mixture, I can enjoy bigger headphones like Koss and M1060's from a portable source. With IEM phones into my Fiio M3 II, I really enjoyed the rich sound from the Fiio. The Fiio can drive the M1060's but they sound lackluster that way, not enough juice for the dynamic swings that the Fiio can do. When using my Xduoo X10, I like how they sound with IEM phones, and again not so good at driving the M1060's to their full potential. The Burson is as close to a cable with gain as there is. I should note that the Burson does slightly amplify the signal, so I had to be careful to match volumes to get a fair judgment.

Recommendation: A very worth while gain for portable devices that need to go into headphone amps or preamps. If your amp and device do not get along, sound anemic , or lack details and dynamics, the Burson Cable Plus may well be your best solution. With the 30 day money back guarantee and 2 year warranty, the only way you will loose is to not try and see if they can improve the sound of your system

Next: I like these so much that I am going to save up enough to get the RCA to RCA cables, and the 1/8" to 1/8" cables.

I have had my PortaPro headphones for almost 15 years. Other than the pads disingrating they have held remarkably well. To me the design is classic, some call it retro. They fold up very nice to stow away. The headband is adjustable so you can wear them tight or soft, as well as ithe band is adjustable. This makes it a bit mor secure than other ones that do not adjust, and much better than the KSC75 ear clips, which by the way I also own. The lifetime warranty simply beats other ultra light headphones, which is nice to have.
Now for the sound, these little gems do good all up and down the spectrum. Bass is a bit heavy and not the most detailed. I would label them on the dark ide of neutral. The treble is laid back, but not the point where they scrubbing details. Clarity over all is very good. The midrange really shines nicely. Compared to my KSC75 phones, not as detailed, more bass. Compared to my IEMs well the portapro has no isolation in or out. If you are walking or other places where you need to hear the outside world that is a good thing. My IEM are from the old before bankruptcy Radio Shack, the entry level Auras line with a moving armature design. To me the the IEMs have better detail, but not as much bass as the PortaPro models. Bass heads will like these phones. Classical or acoustic fans may not like them as much.
The soundstage is very good, AS the layers of music you can pull out. Not in the league as my ESP-950 headphones, as to me they are the best I have heard. They are much better than my old Grado 60's I used to have. The grado's really lacked in bass and visceral presentation, but a bit more detailed. The Grado's are bright to me, not as comfortable, and do not fold up as well. The Grado phones are better built, heavier and thicker cables. The PortaPro phones are some what flimsy in comparison.
So there you have review, not giant killers compared to full size phones, but for the under $50 market may be king of the field. As I am writing this, I am using them listening to Fleetwood Mac.