On these counts, smaller stands taller. But a certain contingent knows that only big and heavy cuts the manly mustard; and jutting heatsinks careless fingers. Its members won't give a toss or the Timekeeper a second thought. Just as well. Variety is the spice of life, dissenting opinions and tastes its rainbow colors. Today it's silver all the way. Options intrude again with that discrete chimney-style dual opamp [see below]. It's socketed for instant alternate flavors from Burson's catalogue.

If the promise of 30 class A watts with low 0.015Ω output impedance in a small light form factor appeals; allocating one amp to each channel; rolling Vivid or Classic opamps; and not spending €10K in the process… then the 3X GT monos might just wink at you.

Will you wink back?

I wouldn't know. A new Special Edition version is imminent. It lowers output power in trade for still higher bias current. That's what Burson want me to review. In the meantime I was offered the companion flagship Soloist 3X GT as appetizer. So rather than rejig the intro, we'll put it on a hot plate for later and serve up the entrée first as civilized folks do.

Soloist. In 3X GT guise with matching fan-cooled case, it's a fully balanced dedicated 10wpc/16Ω headphone amp cum reference preamp that still does 0.64wpc into 300Ω, always half single-ended and with 0.5Ω output impedance regardless (25Ω on pre-outs). Input impedance is a usefully high 35kΩ. Being dual differential, Soloist runs on a quad of discrete V6 Vivid opamps plus two more to buffer the twin Muses 72320 stereo volume control chips. Those build in automatic balance control. Power for cooling and control housekeeping gets its own separate power supplies. Three levels of crossfeed in hardware promise to mellow skull-locked claustrophobia for those overly troubled by headfi's different staging than speakers. Three gain levels look at IEM, standard and hard-of-hearing big cans. Where the Soloist departs the usual reservation is with a mono sub output. It caters to advanced headfiers who find that adding infra-bass power to open-backed cans via a subwoofer which at those frequencies is purely omnidirectional becomes the shizzle. A 3.5mm mic input games the video gamers. 90° display rotation optimizes standard/upright positioning. An FMJ wand does the couch-potato thing. Socketry supports two XLR and RCA sources each, preamplitude RCA and XLR out. The mono sub is RCA, the DC power input 24V/5A.

With three positions for dual opamp rolling, the Soloist adds another unusual wrinkle. It's not just the thermionic tribe which gets to pluck and play with swapware.