Generic octane by way of the spare ICs proved sold out when Burson had tie-wrapped their discretniks. Because my ginger tug did nada—apparently these ties secured to the PCB proper—a missed experiment seemed the better part of valor than snipping only to let the next recipient redo the lot. And what if in transit, one or more unseated to cause weird noises or no sound at all for the next person? I did simply take the op to ogle the quad of transistors peeking out from rectangular PCB cutouts beneath the fan; and three more each on either side of it. The sole wiring in sight was to the fan off a three-pin board plug. The entire affair looked fastidiously impeccable as did the flawless machining of the cover, ribs continuing unbroken over the fan opening whilst leaving a cross brace. Compared to my far earlier encounters with the brand, this machining was truly next-level stuff. Spying it in assembled and upright form in my upstairs room, even Ivette had volunteered a "what's that, looks fantastic" comment. After following my audioholic zigzags over more than 20 years, hers was a rare show of unfeigned interest. Of course on audiophile music servers, the absence of a fan and presence of passive heat-pipe cooling is fêted as a feature. Burson stand that on its head. I see it as their marketing's attempt to overwrite the questionable decision of a chassis too small for classic passive dissipation. Again, I can't predict how much if any issue this noise might prove in an inner-city environment. There constant background din could well drown it out. With a desktop's proximity in particular, it simply seems a tallish order. Caveat emptor.

Any mechanically audible presence did not apply electrically. With especially high-gain circuits, on-ear noise by way of hiss or hum is always of concern. Not here. Burson's circuit design shows those gremlins a locked door. On none of my loads did I detect any background noise at or above actual volume settings when music paused. To make up for the missed opamp comparo, I moved the Super Charger into my baby speaker rig so onto Fram Audio Midi 120 actives. I'd earlier upgraded their generic 24V/5A laptop brick with this $598 160W LHY Audio linear variant beneath the break.

Going now to a superior switcher caused no compromises I could hear. Like with everything else, there are levels with SMPS. Owners of small kit with external brick could be well served to upgrade to a Burson. Their 160W charger sells for $285 so about 50% off my linear job. Just beware that unlike linear PSU which can power down fully, Burson's Super Charger is always on. That puts attached gear without a hard mains switch permanently on or at least in eternal standby; unless a wall plug switches. That's common in Ireland and the UK but wasn't in Switzerland where we lived before. With switched sockets, even a Burson Charger can go offline for superior longevity of itself and whatever it powers.

How did the Soloist fare as preamp? For more background, I asked factory contact John Delmo how the lo/med/hi gain settings relate to dB of voltage gain or x times amplification factor; and what the unity-gain settings are for each. I also asked how they arrive at these gain changes, i.e. via voltage divider, negative feedback or other. My former Esoteric C-03 preamp offered 0/12/24dB of selectable voltage gain. Each setting had different sonics. More gain added weight and body, no gain was most transparent. A later Nagra preamp offered 0/12dB which changed negative feedback. Regardless, altering gain affects granularity. If high gain hits our desired SPL at 40 on the dial whilst low gain needs 80, the latter obviously takes twice the steps to get there. That means finer gradients. But were there other technical and/or audible differences? Finally I asked about the feasibility of adding 'display off' by firmware update so that regardless of chosen brightness, it goes to sleep a few seconds after a command then reawakens briefly with the next change. Not liking anything to blink, I'll add that pressing 'mute' makes the volume readout flash like disco rather than display as steady '—' or '00'. Preferences. We each have ours. Live and let live. My comparator in preamp use was variable reference voltage baked into the R2R ladders of Sonnet's Pasithea DAC. Its 16Ω output impedance (8Ω with -10dB jumper engaged) is even lower than Burson's 25Ω though in this context probably academic. But I didn't think that its uncut 160dB S/NR for nearly 24-bit resolution would be. After all, my current system doesn't benefit from an active preamp's tone/density padding. It was far more likely that a high-gain circuit would eat into my extreme signal-to-noise ratio. It's why my phenomenal Vinnie Rossi L2 Signature moved upstairs. Going amp-direct downstairs is demonstrably more lucid, resolved and dynamic. Only Pál Nagy's autoformer icOn 4Pro is sonically truly invisible. In this context it's simply an unnecessary add-on to box and cable count. "In preamp mode, low gain equals 3dB with unity gain at 60, medium 6dB and 40, high 12dB and 30. We use a voltage divider circuit on the Muses volume chips to set these levels. Regarding display off, a future firmware update should achieve that."