I have to admit that my Burson Funk is fantastic for the money. This however is exactly what made my thinking: how good is the Conductor or other top models from Burson.

Thank you very much for your reply. Made my day a very good one. I was looking exactly for this comparative review. I’m looking in baying an amp that can drive my Final D8000 Pro and in the future the HiFiMan SUSVARA which I’m planing in buying in few months.

Very good review. Many Tanks

I do have this setup and I can say the Conductor 3X Reference improved the Sony greatly. I understand this happened because of the amp emphasis on mid-highs and bass control.

Darn, I’m sorry, I have not heard either of those other products yet. Hopefully soon though.

Absolutely. The Z1 is a great fit for most of the upper tier Burson products.

Sorry for the late response. The Conductor 3 is an audible step up in fidelity accross the board. The Playmate sounds like a very nice mid tier amplifier, the Conductor 3 sounds like a top tier solid state amplifier. The biggest differences between them are the imaging prowess and the overall effortlessness factor.

The Conductor 3 is much smoother, more focused, dense feeling and weighted, as well as spacious and more realistic. I love my Playmate, but the Conductor 3 is on another level entirely.

If you love your rig, don’t change it. Find someone else with that headphone and the amplifier you want first and see if its even a good matchup and proper pair. Sadly, I’ve never heard that headphone model before so I cannot say much about it. But, living with the Conductor 3 and having to return it to Burson (I was lucky because of the quarrantine to get to keep it longer than usual) and I have to say…as silly as it sounds, the very cheap $119 Shuoer Tape IEM’s sound better on the Conductor 3 than the Playmate…that is just how far those IEM’s go.

But anyway, my recommendation is don’t upgrade if you got a great rig already. Enjoy it! Maybe find a willing person on an audio forum who can loan you their Conductor 3 for a few days and see, I would think that would save you a ton of money to make sure it even pairs well with your headphones.

Hello again. Please Michael, how much would I gain buying the Conductor? I am so impressed with my Playmate, I am pairing with Quad Era 1 phones and love the sound. But I´d like to try the classic op amps first as well, i have V6 vivid now. Thank you for your answer. T.

Hi. I have not tested with that headphone and have no access to it, so I couldn’t say anything about it. However, I have no headphones that denote any background noise with this Burson. It is very quiet.