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Cool beans. I admittedly don't call humdinger loads my own. Nor do I deliberately go after them for reviews. I think them design flaws. Speaker design laziness counts on power is cheap. Perhaps. But quality power ain't cheap. Nor is it a sane argument to begin with, even less so when economics are tight. After a full day of non-stop play at normal levels on my 91dB Aries Cerat Gladius 12-inch three-ways, a pair of bridged Timekeepers had barely turned warm to the touch. To get the fans helicoptering should take serious doing. Well beyond my means. Relax your cheeks. No thermometer.

Living large on the desktop took a break from my usual one-box Wyred4Sound mINT. Here I realized how Burson's Conductor lacks a second variable output to leash up my Gallo TR-3D subwoofer beneath the desk. Running mass power into the Strada 2 meant I didn't necessarily miss it in the nearfield. Now that team B has complete source-to-speaker amplification, they might simply want to revisit the Conductor's feature set to accommodate subs without adaptors (see next monitor insert). And having all their power switches on the front—or belly to keep the fascia pristine—would make life easier on the desktop particularly if it faced a wall as it often does.
Wyred4Sound's competing more affordable but deeper featured mTrio.
Before we talk sound, let's talk enclosures.


The Samsonites at Burson are right to be proud of the Timekeeper casing. It's a very pert ultra-clean package whose machined channel joints eliminate bolts for the front and back panels altogether. Those simply slide into the rounded-over heatsinks which you won't cut yourself on. Top off the affair with the cover, tighten four long bolts. Hello miniature bank vault. Ready to withdraw large sums of sound?

Because stand-offs for the output boards are short, it's impossible to photograph the actual output devices which live in the small gap. Clearly Burson worked long hours to make everything as compact and tidy as possible.

What follows are stealthy shots of the output-stage PCBs to capture at least some of the hardware under the hood. These Elna Silmic capacitors are top-shelf parts.


Catching our crew who so outspokenly diss integrated chips with one finger in the till, here is one lone socketed eight-legged critter without markings. Oh the shame of it. Actually, it's a micro controller for the fan with its own 5V power supply. It's thus completely outside the audio signal path to not break any kangaroo taboos.


Here is how the bottom plate attaches to the fascia and rear panel. Rock-solid is the word.


Here is the Thai-sourced Delta Electronics fan. A quick visit to their website shows it to be a 12VDC brushless sort running at 7.000rpm with a specified noise level of 40.5dB-A. Whether it'll ever come on will depend on how hard you run this amp. Even in stereo mode I couldn't trigger it.

Clearly marked, monotheists only use the upper speaker terminals. Minus goes left, plus right. Set three-pole stereo/XLR switch to middle position. Use upper RCA. Or set switch to XLR for XLR bridge mode. Nothing else needs doing to convert from 70 watts stereo to 240 mono watts. The easily accessed international voltage switch makes this a global model. It doesn't require transformer rewiring or secret handshakes to go expat. In case you were wondering why the 240-into-8 mono rating doesn't double into 4 ohms as it does in stereo mode, the power transformer can't deliver more than 300 watts. Its size limits the power supply which limits ultimate power. Now that we've patted this box down to clear it for take-off, sonics next.