lattiboy
Well-Known Member
Note: I was sent this opamp by Burson. All I was asked for was an "honest review" posted on one of the sites I'm a regular on, no strings attached. I'm not a paid reviewer and I will be honest in my "value" section below. Just want to be upfront! Feel free to call me a shill!
I’ve never built an amp, never CNC’d enclosures, never studied an electrical layout.... frankly I never wanted to. I know myself well enough that dipping my toe into this will have a negative impact on myself and those around me. I obsess. I research. I read every possible article and post and review and video about any product I'm serious about buying. Having an endless sea of weird audio devices available to me for cheap is a poor idea.
Unfortunately, when looking around for a new DAC I stumbled upon this four-year long thread about the Maverick Audio Tube Magic DACs. Reading through it and having people I know are familiar with extremely high end equipment say the Maverick stuff operated at a level many, many times above its low price point.... well..... THAT'S. MY. FETISH!
Alas, I'm an idiot. I purchased the OEM version XiangSheng DAC-01B instead of the DAC01A. I paid $80 shipped for the thing, but it doesn't have any tube section. Other than that, it seems almost identical to the Maverick Audio D1.
Many people in the thread mentioned switching out the opamps with a boutique number from Sparkos Labs or Burson Audio. Being honest, I could not with any confidence tell you what makes an opamp "good". I just shook my head and smiled and through a series of unexpected forum messages and ended up with a package from china containing some of the Burson Audio V6 Vivids. I read their site and it's full of numbers and charts and all sorts of very impressive sounding nerdy ****! They seem like they know what they're doing! Probably?!?!?!
Relevant Equipment Ownership:
I have been using a Musical Fidelity vDAC for the past few months. Before that I had an Oppo BDP-103. I've also played around with the internal DAC of my Denon 3500H and the ChromeCast Audio 3.5mm output. I use a SMSL M6 at work as a headphone amp/usb DAC.
Listening setup:
Listening space is a converted garage about 24x25 with wall-to-wall carpeting and 10 foot ceilings. I have a huge leather couch, a 120” projector screen and canvas art all over the walls, otherwise untreated.
Speakers are Monitor Audio RS6 Silvers being driven with a Crown xti-2000 power amplifier fed through a Denon 3500H (all dsp disabled) fed with a XiangSheng DAC-01B (upgraded Burson opamps) playing Tidal HiFi via optical through a Chromecast Audio. Also, played some FLAC files from my Plex server and listened to some podcasts through the CCA. Only used optical input, not USB or coax.
Listening notes:
1) I listened to the "stock" Xian Sheng for a few weeks before upgrading to the Burson DACs so I had a pretty good baseline with identical equipment in an identical room. I already thought the Xian Sheng was a great DAC. I allowed the Bursons 20 hours of "break-in" time over 2 days.
2) IMAGING! My lord the difference in imaging was such that I thought I had Dolby upmixing on and my center channel was going! I got up off the couch 2 or 3 times over the next week to confirm my center channel speaker wasn't playing. Again, the setup was completely unchanged except for the Burson. Speakers didn't move, amp didn't change, source and methods identical.
3) Instrument separation and soundstage was improved, but not like the imaging.
4) Acoustic stuff did sound more pleasing to me. Call it "warmth" or "musicality" or whatever, but listening to "7 Years" by Nora Jones (a song I've heard countless times and whose intro is a great reference bit) was markedly improved enough for me to note it with an underline.
5) Detail at the extremes was maybe a touch better? Getting into psychoacoustic **** now.
6) Bass was tighter and better defined. My absolute torture track for this is Adam Ben Ezra - Balagusto. Check it out and see why! Also, the track f'in slaps (literally)!
Value:
As stated above, I got this for free. Normally, the V6 Vivids run about $60-70 a piece for the "dual" model. Some DACs (like the Maverick D2) require THREE of these opamps if you want all your ins and outs to be upgraded. That is significantly more than the cost of the D2 itself!
However, many people only use 1 of their outputs on the Maverick Audio stuff, so you could add a single Burson to the D1+ and get all the benefits. The DAC-01B I got only has 1 opamp spot because it only has the SS output. In this case, I would say $70 is absolutely a no-brainer. If you're even curious go for it. I was pretty floored at the difference.
I think there is a point where modifying low-cost pieces of gear becomes more about fun than about improvements in sound. There's nothing wrong with that! I personally think getting 1 or (maybe) 2 of the Bursons and a D1+ or D2 is a great deal. I think when you get up to 3 or more you need to consider your base piece of equipment and see if you can find something on the used market that is "stock" as good as the modded Maverick Stuff.
Playlist of all the music I use to review gear. Big ol' playlist that's updated regularly:
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/6c1057f4-e749-488a-8f25-472686dc0609
I’ve never built an amp, never CNC’d enclosures, never studied an electrical layout.... frankly I never wanted to. I know myself well enough that dipping my toe into this will have a negative impact on myself and those around me. I obsess. I research. I read every possible article and post and review and video about any product I'm serious about buying. Having an endless sea of weird audio devices available to me for cheap is a poor idea.
Unfortunately, when looking around for a new DAC I stumbled upon this four-year long thread about the Maverick Audio Tube Magic DACs. Reading through it and having people I know are familiar with extremely high end equipment say the Maverick stuff operated at a level many, many times above its low price point.... well..... THAT'S. MY. FETISH!
Alas, I'm an idiot. I purchased the OEM version XiangSheng DAC-01B instead of the DAC01A. I paid $80 shipped for the thing, but it doesn't have any tube section. Other than that, it seems almost identical to the Maverick Audio D1.
Many people in the thread mentioned switching out the opamps with a boutique number from Sparkos Labs or Burson Audio. Being honest, I could not with any confidence tell you what makes an opamp "good". I just shook my head and smiled and through a series of unexpected forum messages and ended up with a package from china containing some of the Burson Audio V6 Vivids. I read their site and it's full of numbers and charts and all sorts of very impressive sounding nerdy ****! They seem like they know what they're doing! Probably?!?!?!
Relevant Equipment Ownership:
I have been using a Musical Fidelity vDAC for the past few months. Before that I had an Oppo BDP-103. I've also played around with the internal DAC of my Denon 3500H and the ChromeCast Audio 3.5mm output. I use a SMSL M6 at work as a headphone amp/usb DAC.
Listening setup:
Listening space is a converted garage about 24x25 with wall-to-wall carpeting and 10 foot ceilings. I have a huge leather couch, a 120” projector screen and canvas art all over the walls, otherwise untreated.
Speakers are Monitor Audio RS6 Silvers being driven with a Crown xti-2000 power amplifier fed through a Denon 3500H (all dsp disabled) fed with a XiangSheng DAC-01B (upgraded Burson opamps) playing Tidal HiFi via optical through a Chromecast Audio. Also, played some FLAC files from my Plex server and listened to some podcasts through the CCA. Only used optical input, not USB or coax.
Listening notes:
1) I listened to the "stock" Xian Sheng for a few weeks before upgrading to the Burson DACs so I had a pretty good baseline with identical equipment in an identical room. I already thought the Xian Sheng was a great DAC. I allowed the Bursons 20 hours of "break-in" time over 2 days.
2) IMAGING! My lord the difference in imaging was such that I thought I had Dolby upmixing on and my center channel was going! I got up off the couch 2 or 3 times over the next week to confirm my center channel speaker wasn't playing. Again, the setup was completely unchanged except for the Burson. Speakers didn't move, amp didn't change, source and methods identical.
3) Instrument separation and soundstage was improved, but not like the imaging.
4) Acoustic stuff did sound more pleasing to me. Call it "warmth" or "musicality" or whatever, but listening to "7 Years" by Nora Jones (a song I've heard countless times and whose intro is a great reference bit) was markedly improved enough for me to note it with an underline.
5) Detail at the extremes was maybe a touch better? Getting into psychoacoustic **** now.
6) Bass was tighter and better defined. My absolute torture track for this is Adam Ben Ezra - Balagusto. Check it out and see why! Also, the track f'in slaps (literally)!
Value:
As stated above, I got this for free. Normally, the V6 Vivids run about $60-70 a piece for the "dual" model. Some DACs (like the Maverick D2) require THREE of these opamps if you want all your ins and outs to be upgraded. That is significantly more than the cost of the D2 itself!
However, many people only use 1 of their outputs on the Maverick Audio stuff, so you could add a single Burson to the D1+ and get all the benefits. The DAC-01B I got only has 1 opamp spot because it only has the SS output. In this case, I would say $70 is absolutely a no-brainer. If you're even curious go for it. I was pretty floored at the difference.
I think there is a point where modifying low-cost pieces of gear becomes more about fun than about improvements in sound. There's nothing wrong with that! I personally think getting 1 or (maybe) 2 of the Bursons and a D1+ or D2 is a great deal. I think when you get up to 3 or more you need to consider your base piece of equipment and see if you can find something on the used market that is "stock" as good as the modded Maverick Stuff.
Playlist of all the music I use to review gear. Big ol' playlist that's updated regularly:
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/6c1057f4-e749-488a-8f25-472686dc0609
