Intro
I still remember that day when I received
Burson V5i Dual Opamps in my mailbox.
It was 3 days prior to passing my 8 hour long engineering lab exam of my life to finally get certified under the CCIE program. Before passing the exam I could hardly do anything else but to sit in front of multiple console screens all days long for over 500 hours taking breaks only to have some sleep, eat and attend work of course.
Now when the nightmare was over and I could have my life back again there was a couple of
Burson V5i opamps lying on my table still unattended. They would just come in handy, I thought to myself, to have a good round of yet another music listening experience and joy of opamp/buffer rolling in never never-to-get-old iBasso PB2 balanced portable amplifier, the most powerful portable amplifier on the market, which can give a head start to many multi thousand dollar table-top headphone amplifiers if chosen the right out of thousands available opamp+buffer combinations.
Experience and Setup
Before diving into the review of Burson V5i opamps I would like to give insight into my overall personal audio listening experience. In my opinion, having a diverse experience is very important in order to be as much more objective as possible on such a subjective matter of sound analysis.
Here is a brief list of the audio equipment I had honour to audition. Only the brands which I remember:
Full-size Headphone Amps/DACs:
Beyerdynamic A2 (DAC+Amp)
Burson Conductor V2 (DAC+Amp)
Chord Hugo TT (DAC+Amp)
+some many other hi-end Amps/DACs
Portable Headphone Amps/DACs:
Fiio E12 (Amp)
Corda Quickstep (Amp)
iBasso PB2 (balanced Amp)
iBasso D14 (DAC+Amp)
Chord Mojo (DAC+Amp)
Full-size headphones:
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x
Audio-Technica ATH-A700
Beyerdynamic DT150
Beyerdynamic T1
Sennheiser HD800
Audeze LCD2
Audeze LCD3
+many others
Opamp ivnentory: Burson V5i, MUSES01, LME49990, NJM2068, LM6172, LME49860
Buffer inventory: LT1010, LT1028ACN8, Dummy buffers,
and others...
I must note that I no longer believe in the most common misconception which states "
the more expensive an audio asset is the better it sounds". It matters only to an extent beyond which it doesn't matter any more. The "extent" is very subjective, so there's no point announcing mine. All that matters is I never take the price into account to evaluate the sound reproduction properties of the gear.
I had many trial and error to build my reference setup. Prior to auditioning Burson V5i my audio rig had the following specs:
Headphones: Balanced
Beyerdynamic DT150 (250Ohm) studio headphones
Headphones Cable: Balanced copper handmade cable
Amplifier:
iBasso PB2 (MUSES01+LT1028ACN8) balanced only mode
Power source:
XP8000 external battery (16V power supply for the amp)
Source/DAC:
Fiio X5 (PCM1792 DAC)
Sound Signature Adjusting
The Golden Rule to any audio combination is the
synergy between headphones/speakers and DAC/Amp. For example, it can be referred to pairing a darker sounding amp and with darker sounding headphones which will overwhelm you with bass and cuse fatigue in the long run. But since we are speaking about opamps, one has to carefully consider the choice of buffers to match (i.e. add to) the opamps' signature and reveal their potential.
A good example regarding Burson V5i is the following:
1.
Dummy buffers are extremely good with LME49990 but combined with Burson V5i reduce immersion and flatten the sound-stage of V5i.
2.
LT1028ACN8 buffers match well with bass starving MUSES01 but combined with Burson V5i they greatly expand deep low frequencies reproduction introducing darker 3D sound stage which might be acclaimed by bass heads but it comes at a cost of depriving reproduction from some higher frequency touches making, for example, a violin's pitch to become less prominent and less touchy. Bright headphones might be a good solution to even the balance. PS. After another set of buffer rolling the signature with these buffers seem to have improved. They now sound pretty good with violins and guitars. Might be either my brain or the opamp burned in, hmm))
3.
LT1010 is the golden middle with Burson V5i...but you should still try buffers from number 2 above
If buffers are irreplaceable one would have to adjust the sound signature by trying another set of headphones. My assumption is that brighter headphones will do better than darker with Burson V5i.
NOTE: And that's another beauty of iBasso PB2. I don't need to replace headphones, hence cost savings
Impressions
Honestly when I first plugged in Burson V5i opamps and played first compositions I was attacked by so many goosebumps that I can hardly remember having that many ever before. It was a different new sound characterised by integrity, thickness where everything seemed to have volume as opposed to hollowness and airiness of bright sound and have its place in the overall 3D soundstage. It was a bliss. It was a warmer sound signature much warmer.
A week passed, I settled and got used to the new sound now and can speak about pros and cons of new Burson V5i opamps with clear head. When I am speaking about these opamps I am speaking about them in combination with LT1010 buffers as those reveal the true musical nature of Bursons best and transform the concept of listening to music from hearing it to feeling it.
With Burson V5i opamp + LT1010 buffers installed the setup looked like in the picture below:
Burson V5i are darker sounding opamps. Cellos, bass, double bass, alto saxophones in Jazz and Blues represented by V5i sounded exceptionally good and natural. As an example, I never listened to The Piano Guys with MUSES01 installed in the amp because my brain was rejecting unnatural bass reproduction. With Burson V5i, on the contrary, now I can't help it and listen to this music over and over again. Same refers to any Jazz, Blues, Instrumental or Orchestral compositions with higher dynamic range especially. Even Apocalyptica's album Reflections (2003) which has dynamic range of 6 (six) and what is considered to be bad on DR scale now sounds great. Hard Rock and all Metal genres have a bigger punch and presence.
Binaural recordings are amazing and more real and intimate with Burson V5i as well.
Although Burson V5i excel at Instrumental/Orchestral, Metal, Jazz/Blues and Binaural recordings they lose the battle to MUSES01 and/or brighter DACs in Classic Rock where acoustic guitars dominate the scene. This also refers to any acoustic guitar passages in other musical genres as well. It happens because of an overall warmer nature of V5i opamps which make acoustic guitars have a slight tint of bass and suppress its clarity and crystallity. But the lack of spaciousness and brightness is compensated by the full body sound presence, volume and 3D appearance which I am afraid cannot be presented by brighter amps. Brighter DACs/Amps can give incredible, huge cold scene as if you are in a concert hall with separation of musical instruments scattered all around you. This is good for some and bad for other reasons at the same time. Warmer ones like Burson V5i opamps are more intimate, integral, real, natural and more 3D like producing a complete musical scene. I would stress that Instrumental music especially is the most breathtakingly reproduced by Burson V5i.
Actually the same refers to full-size Burson Conductor V2, which has almost the same sound signature as little Burson V5i opamps. Burson Conductor V2 was dark sounding when I auditioned it last week, so I had to replace Audeze LCD3 with LCD2 for obvious reasons that LCD3 are already dark headphones and multiplying it by x2 equals to almost pitch black darkness))) What does it say? It says that Burson V5i opams are really that good on their own if in optimal circuitry.
Direct Comparison
Now that I have shared my impressions I will pick up hi-end MUSES01 opamps for comparison. In this regard I had hard time auditioning and most importantly defining the differences between Burson V5i and MUSES01 as they might seem on par at first but still they are not equal in reproducing various music genres. I can say that both opamps are in the same hi-end league and offer incredible sound stage and 3D presentation but each with their own sound signature. Just like everything in the music world there is no single solution for every type of music. To excel in one area means being unable to do the same in the opposite one. It's called balance.
I have already shared my impressions regarding Burson V5i. Hence I will present just a summary comparison table of Burson V5i vs MUSES01 below:
Group | Property | V5i | MUSES01 |
General | Volume | +++ | + |
| Airiness/Sound stage
| ++ | +++ |
| Darkness
| +++ | + |
| Brightness
| + | +++ |
| Analytical sound
| ++ | +++ |
| Intimacy
| +++ | ++ |
| Transparency
| ++ | +++ |
| 3D sound | +++ | ++ |
Musical Instruments | Drums
| +++ | ++ |
| Bass
| +++ | + |
| Double Bass
| +++ | + |
| Cello
| +++ | ++ |
| Acoustic guitar
| ++ | +++ |
| Violin
| ++ | +++ |
| Piano | +++ | +++ |
Music Genres | Instrumental/Orchestra
| +++ | ++ |
| Classic Rock
| ++* | +++ |
| Hard Rock/Metal
| +++ | ++ |
| Jazz/Blues
| +++ | ++ |
| Synthpop | +++ | +++ |
*with
LT1028ACN8 buffers
Summary
Truly Burson V5i are amazing opamps and I will definitely put them in the hi-end league. Having the right set of headphones, capable of constructing 3D sound stage during sound reproduction is a must for these opamps.
Remember, the sound is as good as its weakest link in the chain. Thank you!
PS After another set of buffer rolling and more hours of auditioning my opinion regarding
LT1028ACN8 buffers has changed. They are actually not that bad at all. I'd rather say pretty good. Was it that my brain adjusted to the sound or the opamps burned in. I have no idea but now they improved the overall presentation adding some details which LT1010 lack. Somehow they add +1 point to classic rock and acoustic guitar presentation. So far I'm keeping them with Bursons V5i:
*The heatsinks in the photo are my custom upgrade due to
LT1028ACN8 tend to warm up.