Over the weekend I had to drive down to Cordoba to see a friend to test some gear for the show we are planning in a few weeks in madrid. He had just taken delivery of the rather nice looking Burson integrated.
His set up was a CEC transport and DAC, his own Verus canor appollo stand mounting loudspeakers, some basic speaker cables and the Burson amplifier. The sound was crisp, clear, good attack, good presence, if a bit coarse and unrefined and thin.
The first change was to take out the CEC and replace it with the AstinTrew At3500 with an upgraded Janphillips valve as found in the plus version. The sound became more warmer with more body and refinement, at this point I was most impressed with the Burson integrated amplifier, I think it retails for 1200 odd euros, it looks very minimalist, with just a source selector and a volume control. A real hair shirt of a product. But is sounds very powerful, it controls the bass perfectly, has great presence, a real through bread sound, but could we get a better sound from the gear?
The first change was a change in the valve, out went the Jan Phillips as he thought it was not a great valve, good for rock, but a bit unrefined. In its place went a Telefunken, I don't remember the model number, but it was quiet pricey at about 40 euros. But boy, what a difference it made the sound, the harsh top end had now gone, it was more mellow and rounded, refined a very worthwhile improvement and shows how much benefit can be brought by tube rolling, the standard tube probably cost 7 euros, but if you really want to get a worthwhile improvement the Telefunken is the best way to go with the Astintrew.
The sound was really coming on, and I was becoming more and more impressed with the Burson, especially considering its more than reasonable price. Next up was a cable change, now I know many think it's all a con and all cables sound the same, but on highly revealing systems these slight changes are there, and I'll stick to those beliefs that the cable system matters.
In the system we used the Oyaide MTS6e power distribution block, Oyaide and Acoustic revive power cords, Acoustic revive speaker cables and Oyaide QAC 212 interconnects.
The result was really quiet impressive, extremely powerful, powerful in the midrange, sweet refined treble, punchy bass, by now I was really impressed at the driving abilities of the Burson, with good matching this minimalist amps is a little peach. On paper it doesn't look that powerful with its power of 85 watt, but this is one of the most powerful 85watt amps I've heard showing the attention Burson have made to the power supplies.
The amp itself is housed in a 6mm case, which is constructed from high precision machined aluminium. This type of enclosure allows the PI-160, to achieve a very high mechanical damping factor, which reduces any microphonic effects, that may degrade the clarity of sonic performance, and it shows in the crispness coming from it.
This is how the pre and power look like.
I really like this amp, it look good, it weighs a ton, sound superb, if you like a crisp clean sound that has superb bass control then the Burson is we'll worth a listen, easily one of the best I've heard at this price.
Here is a review on the pre power combo
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/burson4/160.html
