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As I put it in my review of Red Wine Audio's Isabellina HPA, "...despite a significant price discrepancy which to some might step outside the DAC inclusion of the HPA, these amps were cut from a conceptually similar cloth in that both produced a big, full and meaty sound closer to tubes than transistors on image density and mass but clearly transistorized on greater 'textural damping' than valves. But there were significant differences too. The HA-160 was the clearly more informative, extended and resolved in the upper regions. The HPA was soft and recessed by comparison. This extended into a perception of greater overall relaxation and cuddliness. It had the Red Wine Audio unit sound mellower and 'slower', the Australian as though it had fiercer drive, greater propulsion power and gathered the tunes together tighter. Both were a draw on bass heft and reach, e.g. absolutely first rate and maximized.


"The Burson seemed to stage even broader particularly over the HD800s, likely because fine ambient reflections—on those recording which actually had them—were more apparent. In terms of conveying musical excitement, inner tension and harmonic resolution, the half-priced Burson (the HPA without DAC is $1.500) clearly had the upper hand yet didn't give up anything in trade. With its discrete low-noise super regulators, it was just as quiet—as the battery-powered unit - Ed—and its class A bias imparted that minor sweetness typical of the breed. As though that weren't enough, it sports a solid 6-mill aluminum tank casing, then adds a custom stepped pot which inserts a single resistor per level per channel into the signal path." To triangulate, I then compared the Isabellina HPA to the KingRex HeadQuarters, then the $899 KingRex to the Burson.

"RWA | KingRex: Sonically this was a replay of the above but to not quite the same extent. Once again the top end illuminated as though a cloud evaporated each time the Taiwanese served; image outlines snapped to attention; and the mellifluousness of the HPA went as though to a workout for greater striations. This soft/round trait of the RWA is very tacit. It takes no time to hear. It's a clear and deliberate choice or preference which the designer imprinted on his work. Hence inherently mellower 'phones like the Raffinatos become a like-meets-like proposition. It makes these traits even more pronounced. It does avoid polite however. To seem polite relies on a bit of emasculation. The HPA's ballsiness in the nether regions, its potent image density and lively dynamics simply won't go there.

"KingRex | Burson: Triangulating earlier impressions, both clocked higher on the excitement scale, on raw quantity of data and on finesse of tone modulations than the Isabellina HPA. All things considered however, the contender from Oz struck me as the aurally most complete and advanced. Without veering into the tipped up, its visibility was the greatest, its upper bands the most worked out. Yet this didn't steal one cent from embodiment or the resolved warmth that arises with tonal fullness but remains divorced from the inner limpidness and lowered tonal center which are the trademark of the HPA. Invoking price and build + parts quality, the chunky silver box from Oz really upset this apple cart. It walked off with the most persuasive performance and screamiest value. Incidentally, all three amps weren't exactly hasty during break-in. Premature nuptials will end in disappointments. Be patient and clock those hours."


I wrapped the above comparison with "... the general value equation heats up seriously when we consider the headphone application. With the latest precedent set by the Burson blokes, one doesn't just obtain the 'next-generation' RWA sound already today. One gets it packaged in a fancier enclosure for a lot less less money and not from Vinnie Rossi. That's food for thought." Given that the far more similar Taiwanese two-chassis proposition is $200 costlier but not quite as sophisticated as the Burson merely adds further gravitas to that statement.

As the individual reviews of my four headphones reported, Sennheiser's HD800 with a replacement harness—mine is the cryo-treated 18-gauge quad braid from 32-Ohm Audio's Ken Ball—has the highest resolution coupled with the grandest staging and very good extension in either direction. Its only minor demerit is slightly depressed amplitude in the lowest octaves (the AKG K-702 with replacement harness and properly broken in seems perfectly linear in that regard while the Grado PS1000 is enhanced and the audio-technica 'Raffinato' even milder than the Sennheiser). Here the grippy drive of the HA-160 went as far as the HD800s can probably be taken and the Jazzpaña II sessions with Gerardo Nuñez and Chano Dominguez had rollicking fistfuls of Cuban piano chords and funky e-bass runs full of vigor, slap and growl. Switching to the AKGs, these elements built out even farther to confirm the Burson as a master of disaster - er, bass.


More important to me was how the K-702's potentially bland neutrality was replaced by tonal density and minor sweetness. Taken together, these qualities had aspects of what's often referred to as warmth and then routinely assigned to valves. Alas, this 'warmth' completely lacks fuzziness and the associated romanticized bloomy mellowness—mellifluousness is the fancy term—which would be totally out of place on the Hadouk Trio's intricate drive compliments of Steve Shehan's polyrhythmic percussion patterns; the brutal foot stomps and cajon tattoos on Jesus de Rosario's break-out flamenco guitar album; or Andy Narell's swaggering steel-drum calypso. The latter's markedly metallic percussive ingredients with their intemperate brightness in fact were excellent markers for Burson's avoidance of sugar-coating, rounding over of transients or under painting presence-region and lower treble energy. Andy's zingy rolls of scintillating harmonics which nearly has one see metallic atoms tingling with excitement showed phenomenal directness but—and that was one mean trick—without wilting my pink bits with sizzle.


I've long since parted with my Beyerdynamic DT880s. I gave them to a friend who didn't have anything decent on that score. I found those Germans bland and flat to the extreme - neutrality's dreaded dark doppelgänger. I can't be certain but would nearly bet that the HA-160 would have quite altered this assessment. The AKG K-702s initially struck me similarly, then turned out far more enjoyable than expected and flat-out impressive. Once the Burson manhandled them that is. Disregarding comfort where they're not fully tops, the AKGs now are my favorite 'phones for rhythmically loaded energetic fare with profound bass played back at higher levels. They nail beat fidelity and their bass has excellent control coupled to growl and slam; when properly juiced. The Burson obliges with a big grin. As the toughest load that's most in need of a firm pushy hand in my stable, it seems fair to assume that if the HA-160 has the K-702s in its back pocket, it should do fine with anything else.


Naturally, this walks a razor blade. HD800s with their stock harness suffer remnants of hardness and bite which no break-in patience will cure. Couple that unrepentant spice with Burson's speed and openness and you might well wish for less cayenne action. Having identified the Sennheiser leash as the culprit, I don't blame the HA-160. But it's fair to reiterate that with heightened resolution comes a take-no-prisoners attitude. Add bright(er) phones and bright modern recordings and you've got a recipe for inner-ear ringing. I can appreciate how other manufacturers prefer to be slightly—or a lot—less honest. They walk away from this edge of the full reveal. Unless a prospective buyer has context from many comparisons and numerous headphones to properly sort out observations and assign them to the right cause, habit always blames the stranger and newcomer. Burson does the full monty.
The boz from Oz: The HA-160 is thus advanced. Despite its low-brow price, it demands high-brow ancillaries. That handled, it's what I presently consider the transistor headphone amp to beat at up to twice its asking price of €499. Build quality is off the charts for this sticker too - a true nightmare for the competition. Gimme hate.


The HA-160 is also a poster child for high resolution done right with solid state. This includes a whiff of class A sweetness and in this instance, definite tonal fullness, really quite the antithesis to the threadbare lean pixie brigade.


Put differently, it's quite obvious that the Burson Audio team didn't just fall off the turnip truck but has quietly perfected their recipe over many years. They disseminated their solutions across the globe to gain valuable feedback from the field, made subsequent adjustments and improvements to assure widespread satisfaction, then applied their various modules to complete front-to-back circuits and wrapped up the presentation with a bow, a truly beefy casing that's a first in this sector.


Because headphones don't require much power compared to even your average loudspeaker which must energize an entire room, amplifiers dedicated to just driving them can scale everything down. Transformers get far smaller, power supplies more compact and serialized gain stages redundant. That's the downhill part where the going gets easier. The uphill struggle is the direct-coupling of transducer to ear. It puts a magnifying glass on your work, is utterly intolerant of noise and cuts out any softening action from boundary reflections, distance and absorptive surfaces.

In my book, Burson aced the challenge nobly. Whether they can successfully scale up this approach to loudspeaker duty remains to be seen in my next review on their 160-Series 'big boy' separates. The only request I'll make to the Melbourne gang is a ground-lift switch on today's silver brick. I encountered ground loops also in subsequent scenarios past the first. While a cheater plug invariably shut up the problem dead—though I live in Switzerland, I use US-style power cords and power delivery boxes—European Schuko plugs don't afford one that option. I own multiple headphone amps. Not one of them, ever, went loopy and to ground. The Burson is clearly more susceptible. If a clean flick of a switch could nix the whole issue, everybody wins.

Final words: The Burson Audio HA-160 from Australia is a transistor amp a valve fiend can embrace not because it sounds the same—far from it—but because it doesn't do any of the bad things transistors can be guilty of. Team Burson is completely right. Solid-state done right does sound very good. While I've been around too long and too many blocks to believe their insistence on complete discrete is the only way to go, it clearly is one that leads to the goal. The new boss in this sector is from Oz? Damn right and g' day to ya too.

Quality of packing: International postal box, perfectly adequate for the job.
Reusability of packing: At least once.
Condition of component received: Flawless.
Completeness of delivery: Perfect.
Website comments: Easy to navigate, very informative, contains certain peculiar errors like triode instead of toroidal transformers and others. A proof read by a pro will quickly rectify that.
Human interactions: Somewhat delayed responses but complete answers to my questions.
Pricing: A value leader well ahead of the pack. Someone catch up with this thing. (Good luck!)
Final comments & suggestions: Needs a ground-lift switch and for high-eff 'phones and higher than 2V-out sources, the resistor values on the pot should be rethought to create a shallower taper with more useful stops before one maxes out. Otherwise don't change a thing. This box rox!
Burson Audio website