BURSON Soloist 3X Performance - Class A Headphone/Pre Amplifier

Official AMP/DAC/DAP Model Discussion
424

Hi Aaron,

The Black Dragon from Moon Audio ($250 for 0.5 meter) is my favorite interconnect and overall I think the best value of what’s available in the mass market. Compared to $70-$150 cables I’ve used from companies like FanMusic, Pangea, AudioQuest and Cardas, I’d describe its sound quality as “lifting the veil” that you probably didn’t know existed.You hear the difference immediately after hook up. The sound is clearer, more realistic/natural and smoother. Also, and very notably, I’d say it tames any harshness in the high frequencies from lesser sources. Drew, the owner of Moon Audio, is a PE/Professional Engineer and has been making the Black Dragon for at least 15 years that I know of. So a lot of people in our hobby must think it’s good. In your case, you might get an RCA termination that would work with both your BottleNeck Crack and Soloist. And if you really liked it, you could then get an XLR for your Burson.

I’m really looking forward to getting the 3XP tomorrow. I bought the original Burson Soloist in 2008 and still have it–still love it. It’s connected to a Marantz Super Audio CD player through a Cardas Golden Presence interconnect. The sound it produces with my Audeze LCD-2 Rev 2 (with a Moon Audio Silver Dragon cable) is as good as I’ve ever heard through a headphone. Especially after the amp has been on for a couple of hours and is fully warmed up. This new Soloist will go to a different room of the house in my “bay window” system, where I have swivel rockers and spend a lot of time reading, listening to music and watching the world go by.

Lee

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425

Hi hifiDJ,

My Soloist arrives tomorrow. I’ll be using the RME also will use your setting info for the Clear and 6xx.

Stupid question, maybe, but I don’t understand the 3rd/smallest input. Do you know if it is where you’d plug in IEM’s, or is it just for gaming headsets and somehow for use with a microphone?

Thanks.

Lee

426

I don’t remember what setting I had said but I personally avoid low gain. Med gain sounds better overall on the soloist imo, not sure about high gain though (I don’t own any hungry headphones).

The 3.5mm input/output is meant for gaming headsets I believe. I have no use case for it so I’ve never tried it. But you can definitely use the 3.5mm output for iems if you’d like though I personally use an adapter so I can use the balanced output.

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427

Thanks David.

I hardly ever use IEM’s, but what you said is good to know if ever I do.

One last thing please, about the issue a while back regarding headphone damage. Do you plug your headphones into the Soloist before or after turning it on?

Thanks…Lee

428

I usually almost plug in before I turn on any amp as a general practice, but it can depend from amp to amp depending on the design. Burson recommends plugging in before turning on (I had asked them before).

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429

Hi Aaron,

Do you plug your headphones into the Soloist before or after turning on the amp?

Lee

430

I turn it on and let it sit a while before plugging anything in, just like with my crack. But after reading @hifiDJ’s post, I might plug them in beforehand

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431

I am used to warming up my OTL amp with nothing plugged in, just in case a tube might blow during the warm up phase. Going to have to re-learn this habit when I acquire my very own Soloist 3XP!

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432

If you keep the volume pot at 0 on an amp with a hardware-based real pot, the Crack or others can’t deliver current to the headphones. I usually plug in my headphones before powering up the Crack, as it minimizes tube and top plate vibration. However, it’s fine to swap with the volume down too.

Any amp or device with a digital/software/button/keyboard volume control system may differ. Per the @hifiDJ posts and other comments, Burson may also use a distinct volume control system.

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433

I don’t understand Burson’s recommendation to plug your headphones in before turning it on, unless, as you say, the volume is turned down to zero. But they haven’t said anything about volume, so that does seem counter to general practice.

Edit: I treat my Soloist like my other amps and carefully plug in and out when the volume is zero, after turning it on.

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434

This is so frustrating.

To add to the confusion, here’s a message I got from Burson Support several hours ago:

“You may hear a slight pop sometimes through your headphones when you plug it in before turning the amp on or off but there is no need to worry about this, It only means that it charges and discharges current. If this bothers you, Then you may plug your headphones in once the amp has been turned on.”

??? What to do??? When should headphones be plugged into and out of the Burson Soloist 3x, before and after turning the amp on and off???

Given the equipment damage described elsewhere on this thread, this is a big deal. Immediately at stake, in my case, is $2500 worth of amp and headphones. Plus, an even bigger nightmare is the other connected equipment downstream that costs another $5500 --a DAC, another amp, a CD player, a near-field speaker system and the related interconnect cables. In total, $8000 of potential damage.

Unfortunately, there are no related instructions in the Soloist User Manual. And there seems to be no consistent guidance over the past several weeks or months from Burson Support.

What to do???

Any thoughts, anyone???

435

As long as you’re careful (i.e. don’t have music playing, try to have volume at zero), I don’t think it matters whether you do it before or after.

Personally, I plug my headphones into my Soloist after turning on because that’s what I do with all my amps. I happen to use a switch to connect my DAC to multiple amps, and out of paranoia, I’ve developed the habit of setting the switch to an unused connection to ensure that there’s no signal going to the amp when I plug in, just as an extra precaution.

I don’t believe that Burson amps are any more likely than any other powerful amp to blow up your headphones. @taronlissimore confirmed that it hasn’t been an issue with the inventory that he’s sold.

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436

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I didn’t see a Soloist GT thread so I thought I’d leave my quick impressions here. I was able to borrow one from a local friend who also lent me a Susvara, Elite, and SU-9 dac for me to test it. I also had my HD580 that I was familiar with to test as well. I was able to listen to it for about 1-2 hours comparing it with my CFA3. This is in no way an actual review but just some things I liked and disliked about the unit. This unit also came with the supercharger power supply.

Likes

  • It’s a nice looking unit. Built like all other bursons so solid aluminum. Decent finishing and overall a semi-premium product imo.

  • A lot of cool functionality. Crossfeed, different gain, possibility of using it as a preamp and sub out.

  • Sound quality is actually really good. Plenty of punch for the Elite and Susvara. A bit of warmth to it. Spacious and detailed. Overall a very solid SS unit when it comes to sound quality.

  • Doesn’t get too hot or too loud based on where I had it.

Dislikes

  • Knob and volume control is terrible. I’m surprised burson wanted to use this as a preamp combo with their new timekeeper monoblocks but the volume knob is very sensitive and moves almost randomly when you barely touch it.

  • Gain on it is insane. It’s great for powering really demanding headphones like susvara but for something like Elites or even HD580, I could only get to volume 3 (out of 100) before it would get too loud. I could run Elites on low and 1 was already too loud for me. The gain on this unit makes 0 sense for a lot of headphones.

Conclusion: Overall, I think it’s a solid unit if you’re using it for demanding planars. I wouldn’t really recommend it for anything else and the fact that they removed the ability to use it as an amp only makes me confused as to why they would gimp their product like that. I’m in the market for a preamp with a good headphone out and I thought this might be a good candidate. Unfortunately the knob is terrible and would not give me any confidence in it as a preamp.

Disclaimer: One thing with the unit is that the RCAs have crazy distortion when using it so I had to switch to XLR inputs. It’s possible that my friend’s unit is defective so he’ll have to RMA it to see if they can fix it. It’s possible that other parts of it are not working correctly either.

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437

So glad to hear someone with a similar experience as mine with the GT. I don’t know if gain was as crazy on mine (I was powering the Arya V3 on medium gain around 20 and was fine), but the volume control was maddening. Not only was it sensitive, but I felt like I had to spin it like wheel of fortune to get the volume I wanted across different tracks. It just wouldn’t change quickly enough. The 3XP is similar in that regard, but nowhere near as bad.

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I haven’t heard anything about the gt in the forums that I usually follow, so thanks for the impressions!

Does the fan bother you at all? I’m aware it’s supposed to be very silent but additional noise floor is additional noise floor regardless.

439

The fan didn’t bother me at all. The amp isn’t too close to me, just close enough for me to reach out and change the volume so I guess it might depend on where you have your amp situated.

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440

Hello hifi,

One last post to confirm 100% what you’ve recently said on this subject.

I just received my new Burson Soloist 3x, and the back of the housing has R and L letters above the four xlr inputs and outputs to clearly indicate their proper cable connections.

Thank you Burson. Good bye confusion. And Amen.

441

Hello Paisley,

I have some added info on this topic which is enough, for me, to close out this subject of whether headphones on the Burson Soloist 3x should be plugged in and unplugged before and after turning the amp on and off.

I put the question to Tech Support at Bloom Audio where I bought my Soloist. Here’s what they said:

Hi Lee,
While I’ve personally plugged and unplugged headphones in any number of orders with the Soloist, the safest way to operate it is to connect the headphones while the unit is off, and always turn your gear on in the following order:

  1. Source
  2. DAC
  3. Amp

And then turn the gear off in reverse order:

  1. Amp
  2. DAC
  3. Source

If possible, try to turn down the volume before turning off the amp as well. Typically damage occurs when you turn the source or on/off while the amp is turned up, and it generates a volume spike which is then amplified by the amp to the point where it exceeds the capabilities of the headphones. Using this procedure should eliminate any risk of equipment damage.
Let me know if you have any other questions.

As an afterthought, I later asked Bloom Tech Support if this procedure was unique to the way Burson designed the Soloist. Here’s their reply:

To be honest, I’ve done both with the Burson, and plugging the headphones in with the amp on is probably a habit that I developed while using SPL amps, which specifically tell you in the manually to only plug in headphones with the amp powered off.

Probably a happy medium would be turning the amp on, muting it, and then plugging the headphones in, to avoid sending any kind of pop to the headphone and to avoid any potential issues that could occur as the headphones are being plugged in with live current in the amp. Hopefully that makes sense.

So the conclusion, for me, is to plug the headphones in before powering on, and unplug them after powering off. (Based on consensus advice from Burson Audio and Bloom Audio, plus comments made by you, hifiDJ and a couple of others on this forum who seem the most knowledgeable.) In addition, for added safety, prior to shutting down I’m switching the Gain on my Soloist to Low and turning its Volume to zero. I’ve done this twice since receiving my Soloist yesterday and feel comfortable that my equipment won’t be damaged.

Your thoughts along the way were very helpful. Thanks. And thanks as well to the others who have shared their knowledge and opinions on this subject the past few days.

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442

Thanks for doing so much research on this topic.

I’m glad that there are a number of recommended solutions, so that we can choose the one we’re most comfortable with. I’m glad that my preference of muting the amp after turning it on is included in your list as a “happy medium”.

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443

This reduces to which you trust/distrust/fear more - the amp’s protection circuitry or the potential short that can happen when rca connectors are inserted and removed.

When using xlr connectors there is no potential short so the connectors you use factors into this.

For example, when you turn the amp on with no headphone connected then no headphone damage is possible. If you’re using xlr, connecting the headphone after turning the amp on eliminates amp protection circutry and temporary shorts from the equation. Can’t get any safer than that.

If you’re using rca then you you are choosing between trusting the amp protection circuitry (phones plugged in before turning on) or risking damage from the short that happens during insertion (phones plugged in after turning on).

You pick whichever you feel best about since there is no perfect answer.

Important note - Some amps, like Phonitor, have specific instructions regarding plugging/unplugging phones so they must be followed.

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