I always turn the volume down before swapping and when I turn an amp off.
I leave my headphones plugged in, and turn on from the source, off from the amp, old 2Ch habit.
I’ve not heard a modern headphone amp with a significant POP turning on or off, and in my case the WA33 specifically states it shouldn’t be run without a load for any significant time.
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Yes it’s generally best practice to do this. Especially when you’re trying other people’s gear as I notice that people have a tendency to unplug / plug with volume up and music playing quite often with gear that does not belong to them.
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A question I just realized to ask: Does it matter the cables used to plug into the DAC? Is that a thing you also have to consider as far as having the combination work together?
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Oh boy! Can of controversy there. See the cable discussion threads…! Some say absolutely while others say h**l no. Most say cables should be the last thing to consider after other things. You can often hear a truly bad cable through its errors or dropouts, but there’s much less agreement about alternative good cables.
They range in price from $2 to $10,000 plus…
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Which cables are you referring to? The usb cable or the interconnect cables? Or both?
In my experience, the soloist is best used using balanced throughout. So, balanced out from the DAC, balanced input into the soloist, and then balanced out to the VC. Make sure the DAC you’re getting was designed with balanced in mind to get the full benefit.
Just to clarify, balanced isn’t better than unbalanced. But if a product was intended for balanced then it will usually be the better option to use.
As for the usb cable, imo, I would prioritize getting a nicer one over all the other cables with the exception of the headphone cable. Upgrading the usb cable brings noticeable improvement to my ears.
But I wouldn’t worry about them too much until you’ve finalized and are fully satisfied with your system. Then it would be up to you if you would like to explore the world of cables. In the meantime, I would get well-built ones. Examples include cables from ‘world’s best cables’ (name of brand), pangea, audioquest, and supra (there are more but these are what pop in my head). I use supra xlr because their connections are very solidly built and supra usb because I think they sound good for the money.
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Right now the interconnect cables.
[quote=“hifiDJ, post:366, topic:9115”]
Make sure the DAC you’re getting was designed with balance
The USB carries a digital signal, does it really affect quality? My partner is of the opinion that analog cables can only do that.
Just looking to learn, if you can point me to the correct forum for this type of discourse.
Either way I’m combining it with the Bifrost 2 so I will definitely try to keep the balanced uniform.
I just want to make sure I can connect both AMP/DAC since it seems like this doesn’t come in the box.
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Oh boy honestly not trying to delve into that I just want to make sure I have the right cables to connect my DAC to my AMP because this is my first set up haha
I’m a baby, not ready to jump into that at all
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Have a read of this thread, first.
The TL;DR is that USB cables can affect audio, but not in the ways (or via the mechanisms) people like to imagine.
If you’re not getting dropouts, then any “performance” deltas are generally in the realm of the cable picking up EMI/RFI … and then the DAC also being sensitive to having that on the power lines of the cable.
Which is fundamentally about a) cable shielding and b) what’s near the USB cable in question and c) the design of the input stage in the DAC.
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Bifrost 2 → Burson Soloist: Use balanced cables because Burson designed the amp to be better using the balanced inputs (per an email conversation I had with Burson when I had the same question). Blue Jeans cables are frequently recommended as great value because they’re well built and the company is transparent about what components it uses and how their cables measure. World’s Best Cables are also popular, and similar to Blue Jeans, they are very transparent about the components they use, mostly studio quality like Mogami or Canare wire, Neutrik connectors. They have a store on Amazon, so just search for “World’s Best Cables XLR cable” on Amazon to find them. I can’t remember why I didn’t go for Blue Jeans, but I ended up with Pangea XLR cables and they are fine too, albeit a little more expensive.
PC → Bifrost 2: Schiit sells a Pyst USB cable, made by Straight Wire, for $20 and it’s good value IMO. I’ve never used a Supra USB cable, but have talked to many people on this forum who have told me that their Supra USB cable has changed the sound for the better. USB cables tend to be a controversial topic, so it’s hard to get recommendations. I have a pricey Black Cat USB cable, which I bought out of curiosity to see if there was a difference in sound quality. Yes, it was better than the Schiit cable and I have no idea why. The Black Cat was a lot more expensive, and therefore I wouldn’t recommend it based on value. In hindsight, had I known about Supra at the time, I probably would have satisfied my curiosity with one of their (much cheaper) USB cables.
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The soloist comes with an rca interconnect (mine did) that will let you connect it to a DAC via unbalanced connection, which will get you setup if you don’t have any cables ready yet.
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I mostly use WBC these days, plus random stuff.
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Thanks again everyone for all the replies!
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Lachlan continues to crush these reviews… He’s done a detailed Op amps review, covered the 3GT, the supercharger power supply upgrade, and original 3XP.
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I own the LSX as well totally agree you need the software for setup and room correction. My room is so bad. But honestly I haven’t touched the software since. I do check for firmware every few months but that’s it.
I did make the decision to cable link the speakers so I don’t have those issues and I AirPlay direct to the unit and that has been solid. I also added the 8” KEF sub to the setup and adjusted cutoff in the app. Which improved the performance of the LSX units.
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I had a Burson Conductor 3XR delivered today. Plugged my Susvara headphones in via 4 pin XLR and connected to the 3XR by Bluetooth from my Sony Walkman. Turned it on initially and it was fine for 15 minutes. Turned it off and then back on with the Susvaras still connected and there was a quiet pop on the left channel and that went dead.
Turned the unit off, switched the 2.5” connectors around to check if the problem was the headphones or the Burson and the right channel made a quiet popping noise and went dead. The Burson Conductor 3XR and Susvara headphones are both under warranty but the loss of my Susvaras and uncertainty around who fixes or replaces them is making me feel sick. I’ve driven the Susvaras with a Cayin HA-300 headphone amp for last 6 months and everything has been fine. I bought the Burson Conductor 3XR for its portability, ability to drive Susvaras, more neutral solid state sound signature, and Bluetooth connectivity.
Ironically, the purchasing choice was between the Burson Conductor 3XR and a second pair of flagship headphones so now I have no headphones. I decided that nothing could beat the Susvaras with my set-up and listening tastes so went for portability and a different sound signature to the Cayin HA-300. In the 15 minutes I got to listen to the Burson Conductor 3XR it sounded pretty good for an all-in-one and had a firm grip on the Susvaras. The alternative was the Chord TT2 but that was double the price with no Bluetooth and less power to drive the Susvaras. I thought I’d hit a home run and it’s turned into a nightmare.
Have been reading the “headphone destroyer” posts from earlier in this thread. I use an ISOL-8 power conditioner so I assume my unit has a faulty op amp and I’ve blown both drivers in my Susvaras. Elite Audio in the UK are collecting the Burson Conductor 3XR on Friday to investigate the fault.
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Welcome. I’m glad you found this forum and the “destroyer” posts, but am sad to hear this may be a broader and continuing issue. I’d had my eye on some Burson products and want them to succeed.
Please keep us updated.
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oof that’s a shame on the headphones, my partner is breaking in the amp with his new Sundara’s, and no issues as of yet. Even got new balanced connections and he doesn’t have to raise the gain so much anymore.
I did warn him to make sure nothing is playing and to have the volume down when he unplugs.
I emailed Burson just to ask what they recommend as far as the protocol for their amp just in case.
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We’ve fulfilled over 200 Burson orders ourselves this year and haven’t had any issues with amps blowing up headphones yet. Stories of blown up headphones / amps are more likely to come to the forefront because people that are happy with their purchase don’t tend to post about it.
Out of curiosity, have you tried the Susvaras off a different source yet? I don’t see it mentioned in the post. If both drivers are blown, hopefully Burson will help you out.
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Sorry that you had to go through all that. I know you don’t feel ‘lucky’ right now, but you’re lucky that both the amp and headphones were under warranty.
Just as a general rule, even if you end up buying a different amp to replace your Conductor, it is a best practice to unplug your headphones before you power your amp down, and plug them in only after you’ve turned it on. Especially with the kind of powerful amp that can drive a Sus.
I do have a Soloist and haven’t had a problem yet.
There was a published report that the Soloist had a brief DC spike when turned on. According to his measurements, the size of the DC spike varied according to the gain: 80mV on low gain (before settling down to about 55, so not much difference), 250mv on medium, 500mV on high. Irrespective of whether he knew what he was doing, or he was just some guy on the internet publishing things he doesn’t understand, it does make me more careful about not leaving my headphones plugged in, no matter which of my amps I’m using.
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Yes, when only one driver had blown, I switched back to my Cayin HA-300 to check it wasn’t just the Burson Conductor 3XR. I could only hear sound from the left channel.