Blue Moon Award for Burson Audio's new DAC/Preamp

Alex,
What's the price on the DAC-S? Has volume control?

Hello Rja,

The DAC-S is $5000 with 5 years warranty included. Yes, it does have a remote volume control with 0.5dB step. It comes with 192/24 capable USB based on a highly upgraded hiFace from M2Tech with linear power, 2 coaxial RCA (75 Ohm) and one AES/EBU (110 Ohm balanced) digital inputs. Both USB and built-in upsampler are asynchronous. Please note that the USB allows for “device DMA” when paired with J. River Media Center and ASIO4ALL which allows for much better results compared to Kernel Streaming, WASAPI and Apple based solution, all IMHO of course! The analog output stage is Lundahl-transformer-coupled (Amorphous core), has no negative feedback, no OpAmps and can drive most headphones direct.

Best,
Alex Peychev

Going back to the Burson HA-160D, anyone tried it? How does it sound? I´m particularly interested in it as a DAC and preamp.

How does it compare to other DACs?

If its anything like their headphone amp, then its probably going to be a winner. Srajan at 6moons loved it.
I have their older integrated and am awaiting their newer on as I write this and trust me, they make a great sounding product.

It has a very similar sound to the W4S's DACs. The biggest differences I found were in the low end and overall dynamics. The Wyred unit has a more powerful low end, while the Burson's low end was a little thinner but slightly more articulate. I also found the Wyred unit more dynamic overall. Both are fantastic sounding units, but it's a little disappointing that the Burson unit doesn't have a remote and or balanced out either. There are other small technical differences, but you would have to study the literature on both units to compare.