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Reader Bart Nowak, Polish Burson dealer, GFMod Audio Research: "I decided to write you with a nice tip for the DA-160. If you open up the case you can try the tweak for HF noise blocking. Detach the power cables from the power transformers to the PCB and twist them like a helix. For starters I suggest only one twist and then listening, next two twists, listening etc. The same for the white tape that goes to the input selector. I'm curious about your opinion. It affects the sound of the HA-160D as well." Since modifications of review loaners exceed our call, I didn't experiment but owners might be curious to.

A week or so into clocking time whilst also sampling the recent Eximus DP-1 arrival by April Music—meaning I routinely switched USB cable and reset sources in the iMac—I first lost the Burson's right channel. Then either USB port failed to register as a selectable sound device altogether. Detouring through April Music's U3 USB-S/PDIF converter confirmed that the channel loss was specific to USB. Via the coaxial input I still had both channels so the Burson's output stage was unaffected. Locating the Burson via USB the first time had required multiple attempts of different sequencing (cable connection before or after powering the Burson up, multiple power cycles etc) but OSX 10.6.7 finally saw it. The XMOS transceivers in the April Music machines or Cypress Semiconductor chip of the Zodiac Gold suffered no such hiccups. Off an email went to John Delmo. Was my issue the first feedback of its kind (and if not, had they a fix already); and how to proceed either way?

"In terms of design the receiver is the same as the one in your HA-160D and we rarely have warranty issues with it. However we did have a couple of them damaged in transit. Argh. Can we please retrieve your unit back to Melbourne for further investigation/fix? We'll keep turn-around minimal and you posted on everything." Back to Oz it went for a quickie rehab. "When first plugged into a Mac with OX Lion, the USB device showed up correctly and I was able to select our USB receiver as the 'device for sound output'. But in Setting-Sound, balance was all the way to the left which may explain your observation that the right channel disappeared. We were unable to duplicate this subsequent to the first plug in. We also simulated what you may do during a review, namely plug and unplug and select different USB devices in OX Settings repeatedly. After countless trials lasting 2 hours there were two occasions when the USB failed to show up. Both times we could restart the Mac and bring back normality. Apart from the above everything seems okay. We will do some final testing tomorrow and may refresh the firmware." Upon second receipt all was well though the left-channel trick repeated itself once. Now I simply knew where to look and reset the right channel's mysteriously muted volume slider in AudioMidi. Incidentally the chosen USB input must be selected on the Burson front panel before the device becomes visible to the computer. Just connecting the USB cable alone won't do.


The bieh in the bonnet. Best I ever heard. If price and performance really always rose in lock step, writers working their way up the mountain of less and less compromise should have many a predictable bieh moment. And as they climb back down there ought to be many a nag moment of not as good. Added to such personal movements is the fact that the competition doesn't sleep (and certainly not in this particular sector at the time of this writing). I'd had new encounters since to prove that point, including the final and improved production Invicta and Simon Lee's April Music Eximus DP1.

These encounters had reshuffled my converter landscape. Then arrived and stayed Stavros Danos' Aries Cerat Gladius speakers with their very ambitious drive units and expert outboard crossovers. That had upped my transducer game. Then arrived Nelson Pass' FirstWatt S2. That's a single-stage single-ended no feedback no degeneration stereo amp. The lynch pin are his brand-new silicon-carbide static induction transistors with true triode curves. Until the S1 monos launch to add adjustable bias for load line tweaks to specific speakers—I've reserved a personal pair from the first run—I've been allowed to hang on to the stereo prototype. That fiercely hot-running 10-watter has upped my amplification game. Taken together, my system's resolving power has scaled up. With it differences are magnified and my ability to appreciate these differences has increased too. From hair to log splitting? Something like that.


If your own ascent has gotten you to my DAC altitude of an Antelope Audio Zodiac Gold with Voltikus, April Music Eximus DP1 or Resonessence Invicta—members of the 3K club of dollars or euros where that first number is followed by anything from 000 to 999—returning to Burson base camp does diminish your view. At its lower elevation there is some cloud cover. That's a fact. Musically it means less operative resolution. Be it the supreme airiness and feathered-out dimensionality of the Gold; the heightened micro articulation of the Invicta or the gutsy slightly sweet magnification power of the Eximus - the DA-160 doesn't play at their level. That's the nag. It's not as teased out, separated, sophisticated or informative. Against this thrice-and-plus priced lot that shouldn't surprise. Acknowledgment simply keeps things real. Pay considerably more on the right stuff and there are significant returns to be had still. Enough of that.

Enter the HA-160D. Its prior review serves as today's blue print. No need to recount it. A revisit is just a swift click away. How does the DA-160 refine that recipe whose digital bits of Tenor USB transceiver and Burr-Brown PCM1793 converter chip remain unchanged? Besides obvious functionality trades of headphone ports and analog inputs vs. digital inputs and analog outputs, there's diminished signal strength. With fully opened attenuator the HA-160D can output a super-stout 10 volts. Whilst that can obviously run direct, the DA-160 needs a volume controller. To minimize variables, both used my Bent Audio Tap X autoformer passive as the most not-there preamp in my collection. For an extra data point the $200 cheaper CEntrance DACmini then made an appearance.
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