Burson Supreme Sound Opamp V5 experience

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
This is a picture of my WM8741 DAC with the Burson V5i playing.
 

Attachments

  • B20A7EAC-4265-414D-9C53-4804F952C1DB.jpeg
    B20A7EAC-4265-414D-9C53-4804F952C1DB.jpeg
    709.6 KB · Views: 565
Here is a picture of my digital player/DAC that I put together recently.

I had also tried the lme49720, yet it seemed to work better with ne5532, overall anyways.
 

Attachments

  • F89978FC-A880-4AD8-BCC2-C63F0BE11374.jpg
    F89978FC-A880-4AD8-BCC2-C63F0BE11374.jpg
    1,001 KB · Views: 125
Last edited:
Burson V5i

Hi what follows is my review of the Burson V5i-D Integrated Circuit Replacement (referred to hereafter as the V5). A bit lengthy, but I have never been accused of doing things halfway.

Initial Thoughts
The V5 is a small module that will fit in a DIP socket and is designed to replace standard dual integrated circuits in audio equipment. Details on the module are on the company website Burson Audio – Lavish Musical Experience The only peculiarities I noted were that it requires very clean power and it has significant dc gain so blocking capacitors are needed in the inverting input. It is shown in the photo in one of my prototype IC phonograph preamplifiers.

General
What you might hear versus what I hear is likely to be different, but I will describe what I heard so as to guide others who may wish to use these modules in place of standard ICs. All my comparisons are with a like unit with OPA2134 ICs, a Simaudio Moon LP3 and my reference all tube personal unit. I picked an assortment of music that covered what I consider reasonably typical. Some selections are very lush and some rather energetic. The V5 did not exhibit any distortion or unusual behavior at any time.

Equipment

Turntables:
1. Custom diy direct drive (using an EDS1000 drive and control system – ex Dual 701) with a Jelco 370H tonearm and Grado Sonata II moving iron cartridge. A smooth and refined combination well suited for vocal music.
2. Empire 598 with an Origin Live tonearm and Dynavector Karat23MR-RS LOMC cartridge with Softone step up transformers. An energetic and lively combination that is great on jazz and rock music.

Line Stage Preamp:
Fully passive, digitally selected relay controlled volume and source selection

Crossover: Behringer CX3400, used to separate the range into 45HZ and below to the subs

Power Amps: 4 identical custom all tube push-pull class A amplifiers

Speakers: Main, Martin Logan Vista ESLs

Speakers: Subwoofers, custom designed 200 liter volume with 30 cm Great Plains Audio drivers.

Music Selections

Alyson Krass, Windy City, Capitol B002539601, “Windy City”
Nora Jones, Come Away With Me, Blue Note BTE32088, “Lonestar”
Emmylou Harris, All I intended to Be, Nonesuch 480444-1, “Beyond the Great Divide”
Exotic Guitars, The Sounds Of, Ranwood RS-1, “High Noon”
Byrds, Mr. Tambourine Man, Columbia CG 33645, “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better”
Enoch Light, Permissive Polyphonics, Project 3 PR5048SD, “Marrakesh Express”
Al Hirt, Cotton Candy, RCA Dynagroove LSP-2917, “Cotton Candy”



Sound
The V5s are quite nice and easy to listen to. I did not find any obvious flaws in the sonic presentation. Wide sound stage, unfatiguing. Generally I would say they are warmer than the generic ICs they can replace and do better in the mid-range. Female vocal selections seem “sweeter”. Standard ICs in these preamps tend to be quite precise and nearly analytical in presentation. This is not necessarily a bad thing as some cartridges will benefit from it. The V5s were similar but again slightly sweeter than the Moon LP3. It is what I call a precision preamp, but more analytical than I prefer. I use it to archive music. In my system the electrostatic speakers tend to dictate what the overall sound is like and they are extremely fast and detailed. This tends to necessitate a “warmer” sounding cartridge and preamplifier. In this area the V5s were clearly better and more suitable than the generic IC based one and Moon LP3. They did not surpass the all tube preamplifier though. That was not a surprise as the tube one has been favorably compared to ones in the over $2000 range and has a full rich sound. An unfair comparison but still the V5 based one held up well. When I bench tested the V5 preamp it measured well in overall response, but did show a slight rise in the very bottom end. It measured approximately 1.5 db higher in the 20 and 30HZ range than the same preamp with an OPA 2134. This would not likely be noticed and in many cases welcome. I measured the response from 40HZ to past 20KHZ to be quite accurate and virtually identical between the V5 and OPA2134. So is it better? Yes in that the mid-range is nicer and it does nothing that would detract from the source material. Will it work in all preamplifiers, possibly not as it requires very clean power and provisions to prevent DC gain. Since the price is quite reasonable it is certainly worth a try. I give it a thumbs up.
 

Attachments

  • IC with V5i edt.jpg
    IC with V5i edt.jpg
    225 KB · Views: 831
Last edited:
This is my review of the Burson Audio v5i integrated circuit, a semi-discrete replacement for standard DIP8 operational amplifiers. I call them semi-discrete as they combine layered circuit boards containing both SMD passive components and a surface-mount op-amp. The intent of the Burson is to provide improved performance over commonly available op-amps.

V5i-S2.jpg


In the interests of full disclosure, a pair of Burson v5i op-amps were provided to me for review by the quite pleasant folks at Burson. For the purposes of comparison, I used two otherwise identical Hypnotoad AD797 HQMC moving-coil phono preamplifier boards, one equipped with a pair of Burson v5i op amps in the secondary gain stage, and a second equipped first with LME49710 op amps, and then the now (sadly) NLA LME49990 op amps. Both phono stages shared the same Pete Millett Linear PSU.

31027544478_cd8cfeda46_c.jpg


EQUIPMENT:

Turntable: Technics SP15 with FA6042 speed control daughterboard
Arm: Sumiko FT-3 with micrometer VTA
Cartridge: Denon DL103r with Paradox Pulse body and Soundsmith super-eliptical stylus
Phono Pre: Hypnotoad AD797 HQMC
Line Stage: GlassWare Aikido LV with Amperex 6GM8 tubes and OPS linear PSU
Amplifier: DIYTube Get*SET*Go 6B4G DHT
Speakers: Realistic Solo 103 (AlNiCo) – ported
Sub: Optimus 12” ported sub with 100W Class D plate amp

MUSIC:

Wire – Pink Flag (Harvest)
Nick Drake – Bryter Layter (Back to Black)
King Gizzard & the Wizard Lizard – Nonagon Infinity (ATO)
Pink Floyd – Meddle (Harvest)
Steely Dan – Can’t Buy A Thrill (ABC)
Dave Brubeck Quartet – Take Five (Columbia ‘6-Eyes’ Stereo)
David Bowie – Hunky Dory (RCA), Aladdin Sane (RCA), The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars (BOWIE-2014)
Chicago Pro Musica – L’Histoire du Soldat (Reference Recordings)
Itzhak Perlman / Leinsdorf / Boston Symphony – Tchaikovsky / Dvorak – Concerto in D, Op 35 / Romance in F, Op 11 (RCA Gold Seal

SOUND

The Burson v5i is quite an ingenious bit of kit. In an initial head-to-head with the AD797 HQMC equipped with the pretty-good but not truly great LME49710, the Burson easily dominated. On Bryter Layter, the v5i had a more open soundstage, rich-but-not-bloated midrange, more controlled bass, and more extended highs than the LME49710. Likewise on Nonagon Infinity, the crash cymbals sounded far more authentic than with the LME49710, and there was less grain on (admittedly) a non-high-fidelity recording. Similar sonic characteristics of the Burson were noted with Meddle (guitar on ‘Pillow of Winds’ was a treat), Can’t Buy A Thrill (piano, guitar tone, and soundstage), Hunky Dory (the tone and attack of Rick Wakeman’s piano on ‘Life on Mars’, Mick Ronson’s Les Paul on ‘Queen Bitch’), and L’Histoire du Soldat (overall tonal and dynamic qualities of brass and tympani).

Raising the stakes a bit (OK, a lot), I swapped in a pair of LME49990 op-amps in the second gain stage of the ‘control’ AD797 HQMC. This was a lot closer. On some pieces or in some musical aspects, the LME49990 held a small edge - Itzhak Perlman’s Stradivarius tone on Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in D, Op 35, midrange smoothness and bass extension on Bryter Layter (‘Hazey Jane I’ , ‘Introduction’, ‘Poor Boy’), David Gilmour’s slide guitar on ‘Pillar of Winds’, and soundstaging on ‘Reeling in the Years’ – while on others, the Burson held the edge - more extended highs on Bryter Layter, better crash cymbal on Nonagon Infinity’s ‘Gamma Knife’, wider soundstage on Steely Dan’s ‘Reelin’ In the Years’. However, the longer I listened to both the Burson and the LME49990, the more I was struck by how similar in many ways they were to each other. This is high praise indeed, given the LME49990’s legendary performance.

CONCLUSION

If this were a comparison between the Burson v5i and the LME49990, I would be hard-pressed to pick a winner. Both are excellent performers when used properly, and the difference comes down largely to preference and how much you may want to spend (the Burson’s list price is about 2x the original list price of the LME49990). They are that close.

However, Texas Instruments discontinued the LME49990 over a year ago, and now any you may find are either used examples, or more likely a 3rd-party knock-off that does not meet the specs of an authentic LME49990.

That leaves the LME49710 as the next best option in the AD797 HQMC, and it isn’t even close. While the LME49710 is certainly not a bad op amp, it was not up to the standards of the LME49990, and, after careful audition, it is clearly not up to the standards of the Burson v5i. The Burson was noticeably superior in my listening tests when compared to the LME49710 - both acoustic and amplified instruments sounded more natural with the Burson, the soundstage was wider, there was more detail and smoother tone with Burson, and the overall response was more balanced (better defined bass and more extended treble) across the frequency spectrum.

If you have an AD797 HQMC (or are planning on building one), and if you do not have access to an authentic set of LME49990 op-amps, then your only choice for getting the best performance out of the HQMC is to use a set of Bursons.

-Derek
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
So, I got the Burson Audio v5iD opamps for my CNC phonostage. I have tried variety of opamps like LME49720, OPA2134, OPA1602,LM4562, LME49720 and LME49990 mounted on SOIC to DIP adapters. My reference was LME49990 opamps and they sound really good in this phonostage. The V5iD opamps are even better in every accepts. I didn't believe until I listen. Sound is more 3 dimensional now, very good imaging, low noise, good bass and great highs with no harshness. I am really thankful to Charles and Burson Audio for sending me free samples. I highly recommend their products. here is a pic of my phonostage.

a7pUghe.jpg


Regards
Sachin
 
It took a while but here comes my review of the V6 Vivid. I had requested a pair of those opamps to be tested in a Philips CD304-MKII player. Here they replaced their so-called Classic version which I had purchased before. To put the following into perspective: speakers are a Khorn bass bin with Altec 291 mid driver on MRII 594 and Beyma TPL150H. Amps are Transcendent Sound GG and original SEOTL (both equiped with - to my ears - superior parts).

When I replaced the Classic version with the Vivid I immediately noticed more upper range detail/resolution. With those opamps more spatial information was retrieved but also the bass seemed to be a bit more articulate/detailed - a tad more focused.
I admit that at first I was not sure if I really wanted the music to presented in this very open way all the time, but after about ten days or so I no longer feel this way. Either my ears have adjusted to the new sound, or the devices simply broke in. Now I find them just as musical as their Classic brethren and definitely not tiring , harsh etc.
I have not gone back to the Classic yet, but would certainly highly recommend either opam. I find them vastly superior to the traditional opamps (various OPAs, LMEs) that I had tried before. Thus highly recommended and thanks ever so much for having sent those free samples!

p1020805mediumvvihx.jpg


p1020807mediums6ipd.jpg
 
Ok, so I was also one of the lucky guys receiving a sample from Burson, in my case it is the V5i both in double and single version, as required by the output stage of a AK4495 dac in a Chinese SD card player.
Signal is passing a hotrodded DCB1 preamp, which is very transparent, and goes to a tweaked TPA3255 chip amp, or a DIY Pass F5, which are both very transparent as well.

That said, I have to confess that I used to be not a fan of op amps in general, I do prefer discrete circuits or even valves, even though it is often somehow more complex to get it right.

The CD card player came with loads of fake parts, which I almost all replaced. Still the conditions are less than optimal for the output stage, particularly the power supply. LT3045 regulators are on their way, but not in duty yet.(Pictures coming soon btw)
I compared the Bursons with Opa2134 and some other BB op amps, and LM4562 and LME49720. These have quite a different presentation, the BB more on the "musical" side with more flesh and bones, but a tad unprecise and bloated sometimes; and the LMs more controlled, better bass, more extended high freq and overall well balanced, maybe a little flat sounding.

At first the Bursons showed a clear need of burning in for some days, they sounded a little sharp and not very dynamic.
After a week they seem to hit the line between the BB and the LMs, they are well fleshed out in the midrange while at the same time having a pretty controlled bass.
That bass is not as deep compared to the LM, almost a little shy with a tendency to pronounce the upper bass more than the deep bass, and giving especially male voices chest and body. Same for instruments like cello, very full and colourful reproduction, maybe not the most neutral though.
Upper frequencies are a tiny bit recessed and not that extended, but have always a kind of golden shimmer. That makes for a pleasant listener experience in general; i would recommend those for classical music, voices etc, for electronic and other modern genres I actually preferred the LM4562 with its more controlled and open presentation.

Best in my player is the combination of both, with the Bursons as the output buffers. I cannot see a night and day difference between the op amps I tested, but the bursons seem to fill a gap between a more "modern", linear sound and a more "romantic", colourful one. As the prices for, lets say, genuine opa627 are almost in the same region, I would definitely give the Bursons a try.

And, maybe all that will change soon with the better power supply. I will post an update for sure, probably not before my well deserved holidays.
I also built another more simple output stage with only one single op amp, maybe this will make it possible to differentiate a little better.
And...to my surprise I like what I hear from those op amp stage, which is probably also coming from the relaxed playback from SD card. Nice surprise for sure...
And thanks alot to Burson for the fast delivery and friendly contact...
 
Ok, here are some pics from the SD card player, which is really good now, considering the low price. Especially after replacing the on board (fake?) regulators for battery and LT3045 I could live with that sound, in stock form it is rather underwhelming. Also the Opamps sound much better, as expected.
 

Attachments

  • WP_20181206_14_06_17_Rich-1.jpg
    WP_20181206_14_06_17_Rich-1.jpg
    1,013 KB · Views: 448
  • IMG_20181210_124735.jpg
    IMG_20181210_124735.jpg
    317.1 KB · Views: 462
  • IMG_20181210_125622.jpg
    IMG_20181210_125622.jpg
    792.8 KB · Views: 457
So I got my two samples of the burson V6 Vivid (dual) a few days ago (Monday to be precise), the shipping from HK took forever but I can mostly blame the Swedish postal service for that as the parcel was stuck at the custom at least for two weeks, but it was black Friday and soon Christmas so they have extremely many parcels coming in now I guess.

But who waits for something good...

My system:
I have the lx521.4 speakers designed by the late Siegfried Linkwitz. Thanks SL for amazing speakers, RIP. I started to build them them last winter and finished them in June. Since then I have been using them with the Minidsp OpenDRC DA8, 4 channels of Hypex Ucd (Class D) amps for below 1000Hz and 4 ch of Rod Elliots esp03 (Good Class AB) above.
I switched the dsp a couple weeks ago to my current WAF Najda dsp. Its really good dsp, maybe a tiny tiny bit analytical sounding. The najda is powered by one of the best psu:s I could think of, the superregulators SSR01 for 5V and the SSR03 for +-12V, both by sjostromaudio.com.
IMG_20181216_171125.jpg

Last Monday I also exchanged the amps for an eight channel Apollon Audio amplifier seen in the pictures below. It consists of two modules of Hypex Ncore NC502MP and two modules of NC252MP, perfect for driving my speakers. So the dsp is on the top and the amp are below.
IMG_20181216_145457.jpg

Burson V6 Vivid:
So, today I put the two burson V6:s in my Najda dsp, replacing two lm833, cheap but good sounding op amps. I thought the best place to but them would be for the upper midrange and the tweeters, handling 1000Hz and above. To cover the whole spectrum I will need two more of those nice red bursons.

IMG_20181216_171150.jpg

Just to be clear, I'm not a believer in snake oil, expensive cables, or other silly stuff the hifi-business is flooded by. And I really don't expect the bursons to make a big difference at all. But I must say I immediately felt that there was some warmth in the music that I wasn't used to hear. Perhaps its a little more "analogue sounding" (hate that expression, but cant find any better word for it) now with the bursons, all the details is still there, just a bit more pleasant. Like when you listen to music on a Saturday evening and have a glass of some fine vine, things sounds a little more enjoyable. Its the same now, but I definitely have not had any vine today. Some reviewers have called it organic sounding and stuff like that, another expression that one can question, but this time I can agree.

I have to say one more time the dsp is pretty new in my system, as are the amplifiers, and the bursons have only been connected for e few hours, so It can all be my imagination. One probably needs a lot of time to listen and learn how the system sounds before one can judge and really hear if there are any improvements at all. But still, I think the level of enjoyment has been raised a notch or two after installing the bursons.

I will absolutely keep using the bursons and get back and write some more with updates, especially if I get my hands on two more of those V6 to fill the whole 20-20k frequency spectrum.

Conclusion so far: I can definitely recommend trying the burson V6 Vivid out!
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.