Burson Conductor 3X Performance DAC/ Pre-Amp/ HP Amp

After spending almost 70+ hours on my newly acquired gear, The Burson Audio Conductor 3XP and The Hifiman Arya, I am penning down my thoughts about the Conductor 3XP, mostly a brain stormer but not as structured as pro reviewers as this is my first review. I am a music afficionado and being a guitarist and in a band during college started visiting live concerts and performances of local artists and big acts alike and that's something I will never stop doing. So, I do know what good sound is like but I do not have the experienced ears and I would like to consider myself as a budding audiophile. First of all, it is easier to justify spending on an almost Totl level desktop gear when moving from mid-fi gear because the jump is quite significant at all levels and music is now a revelation than routine enjoyment. I will now jump into the initial impressions and the experience so far. About the Product: The Conductor 3X Performance is a newly launched desktop DAC AMP/PRE/DAC by Burson Audio that I had ordered directly from their webstore. Design and Build: This is a thing of beauty and has a premium and classy look to it. It is built like a tank, is heavy and can easily be used as a weapon of apocalypse. If looks can also kill, in a literal sense. Features and controls: DAC- A single ESS9038Q2M chip Amp- 6W of Pure Class A output stage from the balanced out. It comes with a host of inputs and outputs and you can find detailed specs on their website. It ticks my primary use case which is using headphones and IEMs, balanced headphone out and Pre Amp XLR out to drive the BX8, connecting to the TV via BT 5.0 and to be able to control the volume via the remote and a USB C in (Customised USB driver by Thesycon Germany ensures low latency bit-perfect audio playback) to connect to my phone or laptop. The BT receiver CSR8675 is very good. I have been using it via LDAC from my LG G6 and it has worked flawlessly throughout. It has 2*Vivid V6 opamps and Burson themselves encourage Opamp rolling so that you can modify the sound per your liking. Sound Impressions: Coming to the most important part, with my listening chain as below: LG G6 (source) via USB C or Mi TV via BT-> 3XP -> Arya (via balanced out) First impressions: The initial impressions are excellent. Both the 3XP and Arya are advised to have a burn in time of 100+ hours. At the first listen, I was blown away by the amount of detail at disposal. It was like moving from 720p to 4k. There was some treble sharpness initially but it subsided after 10+ hours and since Class A amps need to be warmed up before to sound smoother they need to be turned on for 30 mins in order to perform at the optimal level and also because the Arya was out of the box as well. Characteristics and Power delivery: The DAC sounds neutral with a very vivid and spacious presentation and accurate imaging. Owing to the Vivid V6 Opamps, they have reduced the glare associated with lower end Sabres DAC like the one on LG G6, sometimes very piercing and digital. This one is very musical and velvety with that crispness without ever getting harsh, almost glittery, like an AKM DAC but with more flavour. The amp is neutral with a slight hint of warmth typical of Class A amps. The amp has a pitch black background even at 100% of the gain, not the slightest of hiss. At 6W, the sound is big and punchy with a well defined presentation. I've seen many reviews of the Arya mentioning them as sounding thin and lacking in bass, but not with this one. The Aryas are power hungry just like a high performance sports car and likewise they need lots of power to perform at their best. With 3W @32 ohms via balanced out, the Aryas are loud enough for me at 52/100 volume at high gain and with plenty of headroom at spare. Burson have also introduced a combo of 3X/3XP + LCD 3 as a high current amp with voltage swings being a perfect match for Planars and it surely delivers on this front. 3XP + Arya = Vivaldi and his Violin, musically emotional. Soundstage, Depth and Imaging: The 3XP has a wide and huge soundstage. It complements and accentuates the Arya's tall and holographic soundstage making it big sounding and intimate sounding as the track demands, it's like you are sitting in the middle of a taller circular stage in an Open Arena with Artists performing around, behind and in front of you. The Kanas Pro also opened up drastically compared to the Fiio X5 3rd and is now sounding detailed, spacious and airier. The 3XP with its excellent imaging capabilities makes the Arya a different beast altogether. Motherboard by Daft Punk sounds glorious on these with instruments flowing all around you as if you are able to look at the instruments moving as your eyeballs roll with the flow. Violins and string instruments sound absolutely delicious on these. I haven't been this gobsmacked before with the tonality of the instruments. The perception of depth becomes apparent while listening to Classical music and Jazz. You can close your eyes and can pinpoint the instruments placed at front and those at the back. Julian Lage's Nocturne sounds sublime and lush without any digital tint to it. Live music, Classical, Jazz and Classic Rock is a treat to listen to with these. Detail retrieval and presentation: The cliched "I am hearing new sounds that I thought did not exist before" holds true here. With a single DAC chip, they have made a wonderful job of implementing it. The presentation is neutral, very natural and organic. It is transparent and musical without compromising on details. It will make bad recordings sound bad and good recordings shine with utmost precision. I was almost into tears as I was listening to Nu Deco ensemble's Daft Punk medley on youtube via Bluetooth whilst viewing it on the TV, just breathtaking. There is good amount of air between the instruments and tonally the instruments sound just right, nothing ever sounds compressed. My reference albums include DSOTM, few albums by Alan Parsons and King Crimson, R.A.M, Come Away with me and the Lala Land soundtrack. On the track 'Giorgio by Moroder' from R.A.M, the robots had used 3 different microphones from different eras to record Giorgio's voice. With my previous gear, I could not notice any difference in his voice but with this setup, it's quite apparent as the voice quality has slight changes as he speaks and this is something I am very impressed with. You should try this once to check if your gear is transparent as well. Everything sounds lively and vivid. Even my M audio BX8 monitors sound huge and musical and I am enjoying them with the movies. The PRE output is just as well implemented as the Headphone out. Frequencies: Lows- Well layered, detailed and natural sounding without bleeding into other spectrum. Full sounding and atmospheric. Mids: Lush and tonally accurate. The notes have heft and strike to it and never sounded dull. Mids are not too forward but at a very pleasant position to just simply sit and enjoy with headphones having a small soundstage as well. Highs: Well extended and airy. Roxanne by The Police is the reference while testing for treble harshness. There was some harshness initially while I was testing with the stock cables via SE out but once I used the premium balanced cables, everything became smoother. Output quality of SE vs Balanced out: The outputs are top quality Neutrik connectors for a clean and robust connection. The sound opened up a bit with a better seperation between the channels via Balanced out. The imaging also improved as I did A/B testing on tracks demonstrating imaging. Amazing cables by Niranjan Nande and totally worth the upgrade. Conclusion: This is my first step into audiophilia and though I am not there yet in terms of the experience level of seasoned players, my ears are being treated quite well by this pairing. Currently levitating in the rabbit hole and I will stay there for quite sometime without falling into the abyss, hopefully 😉. If you need an all rounder powerful Desktop Dac Amp with reference level sound at way less than reference level price and sexy looks, then this is a great option.