Last year, I dove headfirst into the world of the Burson Audio Conductor GT4, and it didn’t take long before it became my primary head-fi companion for a whole constellation of reasons. Not only was it lightweight and desktop-friendly, especially when perched vertically, but its sound quality was the driving force behind my decision to sell my second digital-to-analog converter. Its pristine, transparent character mirrored the source with honesty, standing in stark contrast to earlier Burson designs such as the Conductor GT3 or the good old Reference 3.
After weeks of putting it through its paces both in my head-fi battle station and at the heart of my stereo system, I was surprised by its technical prowess, snapping into action with lightning speed, pushing the boundaries of headphone listening when it came to soundstage and stereo separation, and flexing serious muscle when powering the most demanding cans on the market. It wasn’t exactly a budget-friendly unit, but compared to European and Asian offerings, it was certainly gentler on the wallet. So yes, I adopted it as my all-purpose audio sidekick for over a year. It still stays with me today, and those bright orange accents never fail to bring a smile.
When I flew out to Warsaw for this year’s Audio Video Show, the folks at Burson nudged me to keep an eye out for their upgraded wonder child: the Burson Conductor Voyager, or in average Joe speak, their absolute best all-in-one creation. They pushed everything into overdrive: the amplifier, the DAC section, and even improved the thermals for marathon listening sessions.
I immediately dissected the PCB from the photos they sent, and the revelation hit instantly: a 100% symmetrical design and a shorter signal path! And it looked like a similar idling current was hammering those power transistors. With external power supply options and internal discrete op-amp upgrades already part of Burson’s audiophile LEGO ecosystem, they still found ways to extend the envelope. Gone were the soldered voltage regulators, replaced by removable Silent Power modules that further suppressed the already sub-atomic noise floor.
“How do you improve something that’s already hanging with the big boys?” I asked them. Their answer was simple: by catering to modern listeners. Music lovers who want one machine to do it all: ultra-sensitive IEMs, desktop headphones, and full-fledged loudspeakers while also elevating sound performance in key areas. Then there was the thermal refinement: the Cool Case 2.0, now sporting two silent active coolers spinning beneath the motherboard, delivering a more stable temperature over prolonged listening sessions. This wasn’t just an upgrade; it was a reinvention of the Conductor series. And the cherry on top? Its price didn’t skyrocket compared to last year’s GT4.
But today, I’m not only reviewing the brand-new Conductor Voyager all-in-one. I’m also looking at their equally impressive 24V Fusion Core external AC-to-DC power supply, a unit compatible not only with the Conductor Voyager, but with every 24V DC product they’ve released to date. All of your Conductors, Composers, and Soloists, including the Voyager variants, can be powered by the Fusion Core. And even before writing a single dedicated word about its performance, I can already tell you it’s worth the asking price. That’s how transformative it has been for the GT4, the Soloist Voyager, and now the latest Conductor.
The Conductor Voyager comes in three distinct packages, and in case you’re curious, here’s what separates them:
Standard Package ($3,799):
- Conductor Voyager with V6 Vivid Op-amps and Silent Power 01 modules installed
- Standard Power Supply Unit 24V/5A
Deluxe Package ($4,399):
- Conductor Voyager with V7 Vivid Op-amps and Silent Power 02 modules installed
- Burson Super Charger 5A Power Supply
Max Package ($4,999):
- Conductor Voyager with V7 Vivid Op-amps and Silent Power 02 modules installed
- Burson Fusion Core 24V/15A Power Supply
Design & Build Quality
The fact that Burson completely redesigned the PCB layout, the active cooling, the heat-dissipation mechanics, and the looks already speaks to the scale of this project. The original Cool Case was first introduced with the Conductor 3 Reference back in 2019 and later used in the rest of their lineup. However, starting with the Soloist Voyager, the case including its active cooling was upgraded to the Cool Case 2.0 that completely removed the active 120mm Noctua fan blowing on top of the electronics, instead we got much lower RPM active fans sitting just below the motherboard, blowing directly to the copper heatsinks that in turn are cooling the power transistors that do most of the work when using it with headphones.
As for the Conductor Voyager itself, it looks more like an alien spaceship than a Voyager probe, getting a bit taller and broader compared to the regular Soloist GT4, since on the bottom floor of the unit, a custom cooling system was designed that moves hot air outside its case from a 100-Watt idling current flowing through its PCB. The unit looks way cooler; it’s fresh and modern compared to anything they have done before.
Before you ask, the orange elements that might appear as copper pieces on its sides are colored aluminum parts, including the custom exhaust on its back. Don’t confuse them with copper heat pipes, which are usually used to cool blazing-hot CPUs and GPUs. An unexpected but welcome change was seeing its metallic remote, which looks like a miniature version of the Conductor Voyager. The same lines and geometry were used, including the color palette. The remote is a hair longer and heavier than the one on the Soloist GT4, which I appreciate seeing on flagship units.
Since the Voyager gets hot after prolonged use, I took the liberty of gauging its case with a professional Bosch infrared thermometer, yielding the following insights compared to the previously tested Soloist Voyager and Conductor GT4.
It appears that the latest unit is running cooler than the less-populated Soloist Voyager! The Burson team hinted months ago that they are actively working on a Cool Case 2.0 that will further lower thermals without ever pushing the active fans to higher RPM, and these fellows kept their word. The top and bottom plates are, on average, ~7 °C cooler, having a lesser impact on room temperatures than the hotter Soloist Voyager. These measurements were taken in a room maintained at 27°C, after powering them for 1.5 hours. From this point onwards, their temperatures remained constant. If you already own a Motherboard rack, then you should know that the Voyager fits in like a glove, including the Fusion Core, and if you don’t like leaving them on a table, the two-level Mothership seems like a logical recommendation.
While ~50°C at the top is quite hot, all the internal components were built to withstand much higher temperatures (around 100°C) on a 24/7 basis, so there’s no need for excessive concern. The Voyager runs hot, but it’s in line with what I’m getting from Enleum’s AMP-23R, Trafomatic Primavera, Cayin Soul 170HA, and Feliks Envy Susvara Edition, primarily due to their 100% Class-A working bias.
Given that the Voyager is operating in a deep Class-A operation, active cooling was (again) implemented. However, after opening up its case, I decided to leave the main PCB in place, unable to peek under it. I can’t say for sure how big the fans are or how fast they’re spinning, but no matter what I try, I can’t hear them under any condition or load. The unit is completely dead-silent, and if that bothered you on their older devices, then the Voyager won’t be breaking the silence.
Once again, we’re treated to threaded volume wheels that offer a comfortable grip. However, I wish the physical resistance could be slightly higher to provide enhanced precision, especially with higher-sensitivity headphones. Burson Audio has relocated all screws to the back panels for a modern, stylish look. Its case was CNC-milled from raw aluminum once again. Short rubber feet are preinstalled, but you can further elevate it from the ground with third-party footers. The Iso-Puck Mini by IsoAcoustics adds 24mm of height to the unit, boasting a substantial elevation from the ground. If your listening station is crammed with electronics, cables, and various accessories, I’d suggest opting for third-party footers or using a dedicated rack that offers enough space for the unit to breathe.
With a bigger-than-usual case (265 x 270 x 85 mm) and weighing around 7 kilos (15.5 lbs), you can feel the added weight of the Voyager compared to the good old Soloists, which adds a level of confidence that I’m dealing with serious engineering.
Controls & Connectivity
On its front panel, you’ll find a 4-pin XLR jack, a regular 6.35 mm (1/4”) jack, and a 3.5 mm (1/8”) microphone input that accepts gaming headsets with 4-pole jacks. From left to right, you have an On/Off button, an input & output selector, settings, and a screen flip button. The volume wheel offers 99 steps, and there’s no more guessing how much power is left on tap. A monochrome OLED screen is located exactly in the middle. It’s fairly small, but thanks to a larger font, everything’s visible even in a stereo rig, sitting a few meters away from it. It will show all the important stuff like the volume position, the selected input, output, and sample rate.
On its back panel, you’ll find a substantial number of inputs and outputs, so you can hook it up to almost anything. On the digital side, there’s a USB Type-C, Optical, Coaxial, and Bluetooth antenna socket. On the analog side, there are four pairs of analog inputs, two single-ended and two balanced inputs, allowing you to compare two or even four sources at once easily, and I’m genuinely glad that it offers so many analog inputs. In case you need it, a dedicated preamplifier is also on board, providing a pair of variable RCA and XLR outputs, including a subwoofer output. Besides that, you can spot three triggers and a 24V/5A DC input powering the unit.
Its versatility is unquestionable. It can be used as a DAC-only unit, as a DAC + headamp combo, as a DAC + preamp, or as a dedicated headphone amplifier or preamplifier, covering all our stereo and personal audio needs.
Display Settings
With the included metallic remote control, you can adjust the volume, mute & unmute, and select your desired input. All other features can be controlled on the unit itself, as follows:
- Input: USB, Toslink, Coaxial, Bluetooth, RCA1, RCA2, XLR1, XLR2
- Output: Headphone Out, Headphone + Subwoofer Out, Pre Out, DAC Out
- HP LVL: Low or High – It will impact the gain setting on its headphone and preamplifier output. Use Low with sensitive IEMs and High with desktop headphones.
- DPLL BW (Digital Phase-Locked Loop Bandwidth): HI (default), MID, or LOW. HI provides maximum tolerance to lower-quality input signals and prevents dropouts, though it may slightly reduce audio transparency. MID seems to be the recommended setting for most scenarios, balancing stability and sound quality. LOW was optimized for asynchronous operation, delivering the best jitter rejection and overall DAC precision. I would try LOW first with your digital transport, and if you get dropouts or sound artefacts, then move it to MID or HI.
- FIR FILT (Finite Impulse Response Filters): MP – Minimum Phase, LPAFR – Linear Phase Apodizing Fast Roll-Off, MPFRO – Minimum Phase Fast Roll-Off, MPSRO – Minimum Phase Slow Roll-Off, MPSROLD – Minimum Phase Slow Roll-Off Low Dispersion. These digital filters operate at the hardware level within the DAC chips, but the sound difference is slight at best or nonexistent at worst.
- THD COMP (Total Harmonic Distortion Compensation): C2 ON – Compensates distortions for the 2nd order harmonics. C2 C3 ON – Compensates distortions for both 2nd and 3rd order harmonics. BP ALL – Bypasses this feature completely, so no THD compensation is used.
- IIR BW (Infinite Impulse Response): BW/8, BW/4, BW/2, BW, BWx2, BWx4, BWx8. Infinite Impulse Response settings adjust how the DAC’s digital filters shape the frequency response. Unlike FIR filters, IIR filters use both past input and output samples in their calculations, providing a different tonal and transient character.
- DAC PATH: NO BP – Standard signal path (no bypass). BP IIR – Bypasses IIR filtering. BP FIRx4 – Bypasses FIR filter (×4 oversampling). BP FIR×2 – Bypasses FIR filter (×2 oversampling). BP ALL – Bypasses all filters entirely.
- OLED LVL: LOW (default) or HI – sets the brightness level
- MIC: OFF (default), ON – disables or enables the microphone input.
- REMOTE: OFF or ON – disables or enables the infrared remote control
- DISP OFF: OFF, 15s, 30s, or 60s – Sets the duration of inactivity before the display automatically turns off.
- AUTO OFF: OFF Keeps the unit continuously powered; ON shuts it down after a few minutes of inactivity
- RESET ALL: YES or NO. YES restores all menu settings to factory defaults.
This is by far the most complex and meticulously detailed user interface I’ve seen thus far on Burson devices and quite probably on any other all-in-one unit, catering to a tech-savvy audience that loves to tune the sound to their preference.
Under the hood of Conductor Voyager & Fusion Core
“We’re proud to unveil the Conductor Voyager, Burson Audio’s most advanced creation yet—a flagship all-in-one DAC, Class-A headphone amplifier, and preamp, engineered for uncompromising audiophiles.”
And here we have it, everyone: The biggest, meanest, and hottest DAC, headphone amp, and preamp that Burson has ever made. Class-A and pure Class-A are distinct, and it seems this one never switches off its power transistors. Not only that, but a huge quiescent current now flows through every circuit inside.
We are looking at a fully balanced, fully discrete DAC, headphone amplifier, and preamplifier. Its digital section is based on the flagship-grade ESS 9039 PRO DAC chip. This is a novelty for Burson; they have been using all of the past flagship chips of ESS Technologies (ES9018 & ES9038), but not the latest and greatest, until now. This is also the PRO (read: desktop) version, as opposed to the mobile version they’ve been using for a while, and since it’s an 8-channel chip, one silicon is more than enough to craft a fully balanced signal.
It uses eight ONSEMI bipolar power transistors, four V6 Vivid or V7 Vivid PRO (Standard or Deluxe package) discrete op-amps, six sets of Max Current power supplies, and their best volume implementation yet. While not much time has passed since the Conductor GT4 release, they have been fine-tuning the Voyager for a very long time, incorporating all of the knowledge they have gathered over more than 20 years of making all sorts of HiFi goodies.
Power-wise, we have 10 juicy Watts per channel at 16 Ohms via the 4-pin XLR jack, with half the output via the regular 6.35mm jack. If you have a feeling that you’ve seen those numbers before, then you’re totally right! However, if you consider that these 10 Watts per channel are identical to those coming from the Conductor GT3, then you’re totally wrong! Biased toward pure Class-A operation with a higher current bias, the Voyager will get the upper hand when controlling both low-sensitivity and high-impedance headphones compared to any other Conductor model.
You can spot four V6 Vivid/V7 Vivid PRO op-amps pre-installed, two used at the input stage, and two are buffering the volume control chips. All of these are swappable and will affect the sound, though the ones used at the input stage will have a greater impact on the sound signature. The V7 Vivid PRO and V7 Classic PRO op-amps use power transistors biased into pure Class-A operation; these are something else entirely, and if you want to experience the ultimate sound that Burson envisioned with the Voyager, then I strongly suggest choosing the Deluxe or the MAX package that swaps the V6 Vivids with the V7 Vivid PRO. Like the Soloist Voyager before it, the Conductor Voyager is a dual-mono, fully symmetrical design, meaning that we have two single-ended amplifiers in the same chassis; one amplifier drives a headphone driver, and the second drives the other if the 4-pin XLR output is used.
I’ve been checking out PCB layouts for two decades now, and I must say that the Voyager looks like a Bridget Riley painting on the inside. It’s complicated yet straightforward, following strict geometric rules and using some of the best audio components money could buy.
It should be noted that the brand-new silent power modules (SP-01) introduced with the Soloist 3/3X GT significantly lowered the noise floor compared to their older designs. However, we have four God-tier SP-02 ultra-silent power modules installed on the Voyager for the lowest possible noise floor. Burson improved the precision of its volume control and increased channel separation, and, as with the Conductor GT4, a passive preamplifier is no longer needed for perfect channel balance and volume control.
Please don’t get upset about seeing an external switching-mode power supply; it’s only the AC-to-DC converter; the rest of the power supply design sits inside the unit. Conductor Voyager uses a total of six MAX Current Power Supplies (MCPS, for short), developed by Burson and included for the first time in their Conductor 3 Reference. However, if you want a darker background and a lower noise floor to increase resolution and sound transparency further, you should consider getting a Super Charger 5A or, better yet, the Fusion Core!
A fancy name for a very special power supply, but if you have some basic electronics knowledge, then you’ll soon realize that the Fusion Core is worth every penny. In traditional Class-A/B power supply designs, MOSFETs are used to switch power transistors on and off, an essential task for effectively regulating output voltage and current. The Fusion Core takes a very different approach, using GaN (Gallium Nitride) transistors that switch on and off at 1 MHz, way faster than our hearing can detect. This ultra-fast, ultra-high-frequency switching, combined with a much beefier DC filtering and regulation stage, results in more effective noise reduction and delivers cleaner power to all components of your Conductors, Composers, and Soloists.
Test Equipment
I’m not just a head-fier at heart, I’m also a full-blown stereo addict, which is why the Conductor Voyager was evaluated in two very different, yet equally capable setups:
- In my office, the Voyager served double duty as both DAC and headphone amplifier, fed either by an EverSolo T8 HiFi streamer or by the Onix Zenith XST20 CD/SACD transport. And instead of limiting myself to the usual suspects — low-sensitivity planars and high-impedance dynamics, I made sure to also throw in a couple of ultra-sensitive IEMs to get a far broader, more complete picture of its true capabilities.
- Later, it migrated to the living room, where once again it partnered beautifully with the Onix XST20 CD/SACD transport or the EverSolo T8 HiFi streamer, this time feeding a Chord Electronics Ultima 2 PRE and Ultima 3 mono power amp stack. These, in turn, controlled a pair of famously demanding yet breathtaking Raidho TD 2.2 loudspeakers, handcrafted with love and mild insanity in Denmark.
Alright, everyone, body, mind, and soul are aligned. The gear is warmed up. The room is ready. Now let’s hit some eardrums!
Sound Performance
I. Preliminary Sound Impressions
Having spent time with the original Conductor back in 2009, the Conductor 3 Reference around 2019, the GT3 in 2023, and the Conductor GT4 for more than a year now, paired with every type of headphone under the sun, you’d think nothing could surprise me anymore.
Yet just like every other HiFi company spinning on this tiny blue planet, Burson Audio never stops tinkering. They are constantly nudging, refining, upgrading, and continually chasing something better. And honestly, it still excites me when a manufacturer listens, really listens, and goes back to fix the quirks of past devices. The Soloist Voyager is the perfect example. I adore that thing. Nothing keeps me from firing it up daily. It’s my most-used headphone amplifier ever. Pairing it with my own DAC, one I treasure deeply, which outputs a slightly hotter voltage, means I’m exciting the Soloist’s power transistors a bit more, netting extra gain and a hilariously huge volume reserve. It’s undoubtedly the most powerful amp I’ve ever tested. With beasts like the HiFiMAN Susvara OG, I rarely crawled beyond 50 out of 100 on the dial, and the remaining headroom was so immense that you just know the dynamics will never collapse. Most amps buckle under heavy loads, but not the Soloist Voyager.
My only gripe? The heat. Reading nearly 60°C on the surface hinted that things inside were cooking even hotter. I wasn’t exactly thrilled leaving it running for hours, let alone overnight during burn-in sessions.
Thankfully, that worry evaporates with the Conductor Voyager. And now I fully understand why the “Cool Case OG” moniker graduated to a 2.0 version. I’ve been chatting with the Burson team long enough that they know exactly how blunt I can be, both on the site and over email. And instead of brushing off feedback as some manufacturers do, they took everything seriously and went straight back to the drawing board. They weren’t just patching things; they were preventing future issues.
These small, often overlooked changes unrelated to pure sound quality matter enormously. They show a level of care toward the people in this hobby and toward the products we recommend. I can’t say much about Burson’s first-party support since nothing has ever failed on me, but when it comes to refinement and improvement, these folks earn my full respect. They elevate every aspect: thermal engineering, aesthetics, and of course, sonic performance.
With that sorted, let’s shift focus to the actual subject of this review and the impression it has left on me over the past two months. If you’ve read any of my articles, then you know I do not rush. I don’t chase YouTube prime time, nor do I scramble to appear first on Google’s results page. I take my time. I do things properly. I live with a device for at least a month. I test it, poke at its user experience, hunt for flaws, and then look for meaningful solutions. I hope you appreciate the work that goes into these articles and videos, because I’m always on your side, not the manufacturer’s. Credit is given only when it is wholeheartedly earned.
I’ve driven the Conductor Voyager with a mountain of headphones, and along the way, something clicked. I found my rhythm, my joy, my way of living and loving. It took me over 40 years to awaken, but I finally realized that music is the thing I love most. Music has the power to heal both body and spirit. That revelation comes from someone who has walked through fire, who’s been up, been down, and everything in between. And through all of this, I also learned something else: I can’t own just one pair of headphones. There are too many amazing ones out there. But here’s what many people overlook: to truly hear what a great pair of high-end headphones can deliver, you first need a world-class front-end, a great DAC, and a great amplifier, while never forgetting the importance of the source. Getting all of these moving parts aligned can be maddening. I’ve failed many times (hi, YouTube audience!). But failure is good. It shapes you.
Whether by luck or by a beautiful convergence of engineering choices, I think Burson finally nailed it: how a great delta-sigma DAC should sound, and how a fully discrete Class-A solid-state amplifier should behave, all inside one single chassis called the Conductor Voyager.
I’ve had so many DACs pass through my hands that I still chuckle every time someone calls me the DACMan. Thank you for that. But chasing “the one” can be exhausting. The market is bursting with options, and choosing between them is harder than ever. Burson has always been outspoken about their LPF/output stage design across all their gear, and I’m delighted that their flagship offerings pull no punches, especially on the analog side. Everything is built to overkill levels: the LPF, the filtering, the noise suppression, the power output, everything, and the new Conductor is no exception.
Once you dig through its user menu and features, you quickly realize how hard it would be to replicate this synergy using separate components. Matching a DAC to an amplifier is just as important as anything else, as they must counterbalance each other, working like Yin and Yang across your system. After swapping between countless planar and dynamic headphones, not once did I feel the treble becoming too sharp, too sizzling, or remotely fatiguing. The top end stretches well beyond the top octave, yet remains cool, composed, and incredibly controlled. Considering we’re talking about an ESS Sabre DAC feeding a solid-state amplifier, this tonal balance is worthy of applause. Nothing is spotlighted; nothing is hidden. Everything is clear, precise, impeccably detailed, and wonderfully tight. I’m probably going to mention “control and tightness” more than necessary, but with high-end audio, sheer technical brilliance is only half the story; authority and grip matter just as much.
II. Why the FUSION CORE is a BIGGITY, BIG, DEAL?
If you’ve been an audio warrior for more than 20 years, as I have, then you already know that the life of a HiFi system doesn’t begin with the electronics; it begins with the electricity feeding them. Treat it casually, leave it unrefined, and your system will pay the price. The subtleties vanish, the micro-details evaporate, and what you’re left with is a version of your setup that never truly wakes up.
Once you open your third eye and realize that the veins of your HiFi system are just as vital as its mind and heart, only then can you unlock its full potential. I’ve been preaching the gospel of passive balanced power conditioners for as long as I can recall. Sure, some of these devices can cost your arm, your leg, and probably your neighbor’s arm as well, but companies like Tsakiridis Devices, KECES, and Plixir Power have been crafting world-class power conditioners without slapping world-class price tags on them. A solid power conditioner can permanently transform how your HiFi rig behaves. It will also transform how you treat your electronics going forward, because once you hear the improvement, there’s simply no going back.
Looking at Burson Audio, they’ve been on a constant mission to upgrade their power delivery designs: first the AC-to-DC conversion, then the regulation and filtering stages. And here’s what I appreciate: they don’t force you to buy the ultimate package. If you don’t have strong feelings about clean power, you can grab the Standard Package and save your wallet for Christmas presents. Step up to the Deluxe Package, and you get a noticeably improved AC-to-DC converter (the Super Charger 5A) along with higher-grade noise filtering via the Silent Power 02 modules. But it’s only when you reach the MAX package that I feel the Conductor Voyager truly unleashes its full power, not just for IEMs or headphones, but especially for a pair of serious loudspeakers.
I won’t re-write everything already covered in the second chapter of my Burson Conductor GT4 review, but I’ll reiterate this much: upgrading from Standard to Deluxe gives you a modest sonic improvement. Upgrading from Deluxe to MAX gives you a significant one. The noise floor collapses to such an extent, and the transparency improves so dramatically, that it can feel as if the music has never been this alive before. You start hearing inner textures that were previously glossed over; you “see” deeper into the layers of the recording; you notice subtle cues that were once blurred into the background. The entire presentation cleans up beautifully, the veil lifts completely, and the sound stands before you—open, unmasked, and full of life.
The Fusion Core is genuinely astonishing, and it is only with it that Burson’s Conductors and Soloists reveal their true, sleeping beauty. If you’re already playing in the realm of upper-class headphones across the spectrum, then I can wholeheartedly recommend the MAX package. It sounds more fluid, more natural, and far more revealing, bringing out all those delicate overtones that were playing hide-and-seek on the standard setup.
III. Dynamics & Transient Response
If we’re talking about the qualities that will grab you instantly on the Voyager, without hesitation, it’s the sheer force of its dynamics: unyielding, thunderous, and explosively punchy. Every beat feels like it’s blessed by the thunder God himself.
I’ll soon prepare a delightful deep dive into the beauty of Italian craftsmanship in the form of the Bandoss Avija planar-magnetic headphone. I happen to be one of the lucky few who have spent time with nearly every headphone mankind has cooked up, yet I’ve often felt a strange knot in my stomach telling me the head-fi world is drifting in the wrong direction. Most upper-tier headphone brands chase flawless measurements these days, endless adherence to the Harman Curve (ugh!), and an obsession with infinitely extended treble. I’m sorry, but if headphone listening had always been like that, I would’ve chosen an entirely different career path. I’ve never cared about the Harman curve; it wasn’t created by audio enthusiasts or by passionate music lovers. So why should you worship it? And who on earth needs that last microscopic droplet of treble sparkle? Give me goosebumps. Give me tears of joy. Make me stand and applaud when a song reaches its final note. That’s what music should be, and that’s what most modern summit-fi headphones seem to have forgotten.
The Avija… is different. It brings a refreshing experience, one that resonates with music, one that breathes soul into notes that otherwise feel sterile. Instead of firing 100 pointless shards of treble at your eardrums with every cymbal strike, it soothes you with a calm, velvety character, like sipping warm milk with honey on Christmas morning.
But the Avija carries a major caveat: it demands an amplifier capable of feeding its voracious current appetite. The more current, the better. Fortunately, the Conductor Voyager is fully biased into Class-A operation, and it has more than enough muscle to unleash the Avija’s inner beast. What starts as a relaxed-sounding headphone becomes, under the Voyager’s command, almost lightning-fast, delivering sharp, piston-like driver movements with absolute precision. Bass goes from “Okay” to “Oh, wow!” in a heartbeat. And beneath its usual syrupy, life-like warmth, I finally heard a far more technical Avija, one capable of wrestling with the top dogs of the headphone world. But more on that in the upcoming Avija review.
I relied on only three planar headphones for the full evaluation of the new Conductor. I began with the queen of jazz and classical, the HiFiMan Susvara Unveiled, followed by the king of rock and electronic, the T+A Solitaire P, and finally landed on the universally adored Bandoss Avija, a headphone that pours extra life into instruments, almost like listening to Audeze LCD-4s on steroids. On some tracks, the Conductor slams the accelerator to the floor; on others, it eases off, inviting you into a more relaxed and contemplative listen. Its transients can go absolutely wild when the music calls for it, and when the drivers can keep up. Not once did I feel the Conductor slipping into sloppiness, leanness, or polite reserve.
Let’s not forget Burson’s long lineage of impressive electronics. But the Voyager, both the Conductor and the Soloist, feels cut from a different mold. They still retain the trademark Burson speed, darting in and out of passages within milliseconds, but the Voyager line brings a level of refinement that clearly surpasses any of the GT variants. It’s not only about those insane, instantaneous transients anymore. It’s also about bass quality, its texture, its layering, and its gorgeous lingering decay when the music calls for it. At times, it even feels tube-like in how gracefully it navigates dense, crowded mixes. Muddiness and veil? They feel like distant memories. Instruments no longer fight for attention; they each shine exactly when they should, and nothing escapes the Voyager’s scrutiny. As you’d expect, resolution has never been higher on a Burson all-in-one.
IV. Resolution & Sound’s Transparency
Terminal 7 by the Tomasz Stanko Quintet (available on Qobuz and Tidal) turned out to be the perfect benchmark for spatial cues, holographic tricks, and most importantly, for the raw resolving power this unit can unleash. Sure, the Voyager flaunts the newest and most capable silicon ESS has ever produced, the mighty ES 9039 PRO, which, on paper, edges out every other commercial DAC chip. But comparing it directly with the Conductor GT4 and its older ES 9038 PRO, running in a nearly identical configuration, isn’t as easy as spec sheets might suggest. Their numbers sit surprisingly close, yet the Voyager sneaks ahead with cleaner channel crosstalk and a lower output impedance, both as a DAC-only device and when serving DAC-and-preamp duties.
From the very first breaths of the track, it was obvious I was dealing with two ultra-precise converters capable of unearthing micro-details most units simply gloss over. A single thought kept echoing in my mind: “This is what high-end audio should sound like.” The Voyager delivered pinpoint accuracy without smearing, haze, or overlapping edges. Nothing felt muddy or glazed over; instead, every note left behind a graceful, natural trail, reminding me that the recording was captured in a spacious studio. The music felt alive, breathing with intention, and locking down bass notes with an iron grip. Even when nudged beyond its comfort zone on low gain, tasked with acting as both DAC and preamp, it remained crystal clear. No added distortion. No thickening of the lower registers. No coloration creeping in from the shadows. The stage felt expansive rather than claustrophobic, and the dynamics were never crushed or restrained.
Comparing the GT4 and Voyager would be a real challenge, but even early on, I sensed an extra layer of refinement oozing from the Voyager. Whether it’s due to the upgraded power supply architecture or another behind-the-scenes trick, the background was undeniably blacker, letting notes emerge from total silence. That pitch-dark canvas boosted the unit’s resolution and detail retrieval without forcing anything forward.
Switching to Heart Beat by the Antonio Forcione Quartet (also on Qobuz and Tidal) brought another pleasant surprise. The contour of each plucked note was sharply drawn, and I could feel the physicality of the guitar, its wood, its strings, the way the copper seemed to shimmer as it sliced through the air. Yet despite this clarity, the Voyager never once lost the instrument’s warmth, its natural vibration, its timbre. Eyes closed, lights dimmed, my speakers dissolved completely, replaced with a towering wall of sound that rolled toward me in gentle, textured waves. Forcione’s music often plays in my room, but this level of cleanliness rarely graces the space.
I don’t know if it’s the overbuilt output stage aligning every transient with laser precision, or the Fusion Core lending that eerie sense of realism, but clearly Burson knows how to transform a famously sterile chip into something entirely different. Something calmer. Something that rejects glare and fatigue, and instead invites you to relax while the music simply exists around you.
V. Soundstaging & Stereo Imaging
There are really two Conductor Voyagers living under the same chassis: the one running stock, and the one upgraded with the Fusion Core and Silent Power 02 modules. Between the two add-ons, the Fusion Core is the showstopper; it’s the one that instantly reshapes the entire presentation. First, you notice the spike in resolution, little sonic sparkles tickling your eardrums as previously buried details start surfacing like they’ve been waiting years for their moment in the spotlight. But as you keep shuffling through your playlist, something more dramatic happens: the music stops behaving like a left-right affair. Everything suddenly gains depth. The soloist steps a little closer to you, ever so gently entering your personal space, while accompanying instruments recede just a touch, taking a respectful step back. Notes begin popping into existence from different inception points, some firing straight at you, others arriving a microsecond later, creating the illusion of a living, breathing 3D scene that blossoms between and beyond your speakers.
Add a serious power conditioner into the mix, and the sound decompresses even further, almost fracturing into a million airy micro-events. Suddenly, you’re no longer just listening to a track; you’re tracing each inhale, each exhale, each teeny nuance that earlier felt subdued or slightly blurred. Picking sounds out of thin air becomes addictive, an ear-to-ear grin moment, the kind that makes you pause and ask yourself: Why have I never heard this track behave like this before? How is there spatial information here that the standard Conductor refuses to reveal? The fully upgraded Voyager is a sly performer, a shape-shifter, and if you’re listening through loudspeakers or open-back headphones, prepare to have your attention hijacked. Multitasking? Forget it. With the Voyager taking command, it becomes nearly impossible. It constantly throws sonic cues at you from surprising angles, and the complete silence between notes makes everything feel surreal, tangible, almost touchable. Instruments don’t just appear; they materialize in midair, as if the room momentarily bends around the music.
In terms of spatial performance, it comes tantalizingly close to high-end delta-sigma heavy-hitters like Gustard’s X30 or EverSolo’s DAC-Z10. It still sits a notch below the rarefied R2R royalty, those limb-priced converters with their cult-like following, and that’s perfectly fine. The Conductor Voyager doesn’t pretend to outclass the world’s best separates. It aims squarely at the best all-in-one contenders, and in that arena, it shines unabashedly bright.
Ever since hearing Annette Askvik live, her gentle, crystalline voice slicing through a massive stadium, I’ve had a soft spot for her music on streaming platforms. Liberty (on Qobuz and Tidal) is probably her most-played track for a reason: her voice tests every aspect of a system’s staging, from fast-paced transitions to high-pressure crescendos, from hushed whispers to soaring, spine-tingling peaks. Through the Voyager, her voice anchored itself dead center in the room, perfectly locked in place, while the surrounding instruments wrapped around it like a delicate sonic cocoon. The mixing and mastering shone through with absolute clarity, always keeping me on my toes for the following note or shift. The saxophone at the end deepened the experience further: soothing, calm, and beautifully extended into the room. Everything floated with an effortless sense of air, widening the stage and bringing with it that unmistakable Class A warmth that felt inviting, enveloping, and immensely gratifying.
VI. Noise Floor (IEM Compatibility) & Power Output
For years now, I’ve been repeating the same refrain about Burson’s amplifiers: great with full-size headphones, decent with sensitive IEMs, but never truly exceptional. Not because they weren’t trying, far from it, but because lowering the noise floor while also pumping out massive power is like trying to pat your head and rub your belly while sprinting uphill. The only realistic solution was not just dialing down the gain, but also taming the raw output power itself, and that’s exactly the route Burson took with the Conductor Voyager.
Armed with two pairs of ultra-sensitive IEMs, I threw the Voyager into low gain and plugged into the 4-pin XLR output, theoretically the noisiest of the bunch. To my surprise and slight disbelief, the noise floor was noticeably lower than anything Burson has done before. I’m including both the Conductor GT4 and Soloist Voyager in that comparison. With the FiiO FX17, there was zero hiss during playback, and only when connecting or disconnecting them could I detect the faintest uptick in white noise, and even then, it was so subtle it took effort to notice. It’s only present when the music isn’t playing, and even then, it’s barely audible.
Will it replace the quietest boutique IEM amps specifically built for ultra-high-sensitivity models? Probably not. But for the vast majority of IEMs, it performs beautifully. Even more interesting was that the noise level didn’t fluctuate with volume; it stayed fixed, which boosted my confidence to push the dial a little higher than usual. These FX17 reshaped how I view IEMs; all they really crave is a touch more current, and the Voyager delivers that effortlessly. A few tracks in, I completely forgot about the slight white noise between track changes because the sound turned so alive, so hard-hitting, so dynamically charged. These 13-driver-per-side IEMs held their composure perfectly, refusing to collapse or smear the way they can on entry-level or mid-tier DAPs. The Conductor brought a newfound sense of liveliness and control that made IEM listening genuinely exciting.
Switching to desktop headphones, the noise floor vanished entirely. Regardless of sensitivity or impedance, from 16 ohms all the way to 300, silence filled every gap between notes. This was probably the darkest background I’ve ever encountered in an all-in-one.
As for power, there’s no need to dissect every headphone I own, but just for context: out of the 99 steps available, I never exceeded the ~75 mark with the HiFiMan Susvara OG, the least sensitive headphones I currently own. Burson also reworked the volume curve, which now feels more linear and less aggressively logarithmic. You might get the impression that the Voyager outputs less power than the GT4, but that’s an illusion; in practice, it hits harder, especially on high-impedance headphones like the Sennheiser HD800S and the Beyerdynamic T1 series. On a few electronic tracks, I reached 100 dB SPL and still had roughly 25% headroom to spare. Unsurprisingly, the Susvara Unveiled and Bandoss Avija followed next, both slightly more sensitive, but still incredibly demanding, and even then, the maximum I ever reached was around 70 out of 100, and only for a moment. Everything else required far less juice.
In short, the Conductor Voyager laughs at difficult loads. It will drive anything and everything with ease while leaving a mountain of headroom untouched. Dynamics remained snappy, energetic, and downright punchy, echoing the commanding authority of the standalone Soloist Voyager. As expected, every headphone on my wall was handled with confidence, regardless of topology or driver type.
All of my headphones were properly punchy at all times, and I didn’t need to crank the volume way up for that to happen. Even at lower listening volumes, you could still feel the bass energy kicking your eardrums with substantial force, so rest easy, midnight listeners, as the Voyager stays impactful at low volumes and roars when pushed.
VII. Burson Conductor Voyager MAX ($4,999) VS Burson Conductor GT4 MAX ($3,999)
I’ve tested a comprehensive list of all-in-one devices by now, ranging from affordable to sell-a-kidney type. However, looking back, I realized that most of them had amazing DAC sections and mediocre headphone amplifiers, while others had outstanding headphone amplifiers and preamplifiers, with less impressive DAC sections. It’s rarely a perfect match, and I can’t blame them for that, because sharing the whole power supply and even the output stage with so many components might degrade the sound a little by little. In an ideal world, each one of us would use dedicated electronics that won’t compromise the sound in any meaningful way. Still, not all of us are as lucky, and sometimes limited office space forces us to look for all-in-one devices, which is why so many of them have been developed lately.
From the ones I tried, the Conductor GT4 seemed like a perfect DAC/Amp combo, with no serious drawbacks overlooked in either the digital or analog domains, and I see it as the ideal candidate for a sparring session with its bigger brother.
I won’t touch on their looks or build quality. I will only mention that the Voyager has a (much) better remote control, its case is taller and a bit wider, and it’s also cooler during prolonged listening sessions thanks to a better cooling system around the motherboard. Its user interface is considerably more complex, and if you like to fiddle with sound enhancements, then the Voyager already looks like a more sophisticated unit inside and out. Not a single design choice or UI element was left to chance, and everything was carefully selected to reflect its flagship status.
Sound-wise, after conducting double blind tests for over two days now, I have drawn my conclusions. As much as I would like to tell you that there’s a massive difference between these two, that wouldn’t be the real story. I will, however, mention that as long as you use higher-grade headphones and loudspeakers, then the differences will be much easier to spot, even in the first five minutes.
The most significant difference lies in their tonal balance and how they handle the frequency response. The Conductor Voyager fully relaxes you and instead focuses on showing off the beautiful intricacies of the music. Its bass output might sound similar, but it’s of higher quality, and I was surprised to hear extra layers of bass even in less-than-ideal recordings, like Unlimited Love by Red Hot Chili Peppers. The music feels less strained or agitated on the Voyager, and sometimes there are slight hints of aggressiveness on the GT4. Once you move to more complex renditions where tens of musical instruments interplay, the difference slowly starts to grow in favor of the Voyager. Not only does the bass region feel purer, more articulate, and tighter, but the upper registers are no longer boosting the music’s sharpness. Please don’t mistake a higher sharpness on the GT4 with better detail retrieval, because that isn’t the case here. The whole treble region feels less compressed, with no smearing or over-sharpening artefacts on the Conductor, while sometimes it might slash your eardrums on the GT4 with a more defined sharpness. One might find the Conductor Voyager more natural or organic-sounding, while the GT4 is a bit more linear and less effective at conveying music’s emotion.
Once you move to vocal-intensive tracks, the Conductor once again shows its flagship status, mildly smoothing out the rough edges, but retaining the long decays of vocal and string-based instruments. The Conductor flows with every musical genre I throw at it, while the GT4 might struggle here and there, especially with aggressive and treble-intensive tracks.
While juggling a couple of headphones, I also realized that the Voyager could be used with everything I had on hand, with both treble-intensive planars such as the HiFiMan HE1000 Unveiled or Susvara Unveiled, and also with high-impedance dynamic cans such as Sennheiser HD800S that need a gentle helping hand with the midrange presence. I enjoyed every single headphone on the Voyager, but sometimes I felt that the GT4 won’t be the absolute best companion for either the HD800S or the Susvara Unveiled. Last but not least, the Voyager had a better grip over the headphone drivers, and I felt that, especially with the HD800S, it was quite an unexpected surprise! The Helmholtz resonator inside the HD800S sometimes feels like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it reduces the strong 6 kHz peak for a more linear frequency response; on the other hand, the bass loses some of the tightness of the original HD800. The Voyager removed the smearing and restored the tightness in the HD800S, not only further relaxing the top octave but also tightening the bass output, to almost planar tightness, if you know what I mean. The more music I put on the playlist and more headphones came into play, the more I realized that the Voyager is a fine-tuned version of the GT4. Maybe the power output remained intact (except for high impedance headphones, where there’s considerably more grunt and power), but the overall presentation was beatified, becoming one with the music.
Engaging ultra-sensitive IEMs or using it as a stereo DAC & preamp, the superior noise-suppression mechanics and fine circuit polishing show again why the Voyager reigns supreme. There’s less noise and distortion, and therefore a bit more music goes to the surface. It’s pretty evident on speakers and IEMs, and if you plan on using it in all sorts of situations, then again, the Voyager looks like a better choice, sounding better and retaining a lower working temperature that might even prolong its life in the years to come. The Voyager demands a bigger financial commitment; in return, it further improves every aspect you might find overlooked on the GT4. The bottom line is that both are spectacular, and if you already own the GT4, I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle of selling it and then getting the Voyager instead. However, if half measures don’t define you (they don’t define me, that’s for sure) and you accept only the best, then there’s only a single option.
My Conclusions
If I were to pick ONE unit from the tens of all-in-one devices I have played with over the years, the Conductor Voyager would be it. Everything I envisioned a DAC, preamp, and headphone amplifier should be is already available on the latest Conductor. I complained about higher working temperatures on the Soloist Voyager and Conductor GT4, and instead of starting a war, the Burson team took it as constructive feedback and lowered the working temperature on average by ~7 °C on their most crowded component. I also complained about the low gain offering too little foreplay with sensitive IEMs, and the high noise floor always stopping me from enjoying the music. This issue has been taken care of as well: having greater freedom on the volume wheel while gently dropping the noise floor to almost inaudible levels.
Absurd power ratings and ultra-low noise floor can rarely be used in the same sentence, but Burson’s team found a solution, and it’s working great as long as you don’t intend to use the absolute highest-sensitivity IEMs on the market.
The power output feels almost infinite, and you should always be careful with the volume wheel on high gain and on the 4-pin XLR output, as the volume pot offers little to no physical resistance, and that’s the last tidbit I can nitpick about.
In retrospect, I adore the new remote control! It feels and looks so much better than any other remote they sculpted before, and the added buttons add an extra layer of control, letting you control all of their devices singlehandedly. Stereo heads will appreciate its larger buttons, the nicer grip, and, lastly, the large font of the user menu, which is visible even at 3 meters.
The sound matured considerably, and it’s no longer about hearing the last drop of information or getting hit by a thunder-like bass impact, or about expanding the sound in all directions, things that we already have on the Conductor GT4. This time around, it’s about adding a few layers of refinement that were only mildly present on the Conductor GT4 and completely missing on Burson’s lower-tier devices. This Voyager is no longer raw and unpolished-sounding, but much more exquisite when portraying music’s emotion, beautiful overtones, and inner textures. It’s one of the very few ESS-Sabre based DACs that doesn’t sound like one, choosing a more organic presentation at the end of the day.
Undoubtedly, the Conductor Voyager deserved our coveted Highly Impressive Award, and I’m looking forward to their next endeavors. It can be yours starting at $3,799 for the Standard package and ending with the MAX package at $4,999, all of which can be purchased directly from Burson Audio here, with free trackable shipping to your door.
If you are getting one, please share your impressions with our community in the comments section below. That’s all for now, Sandu’s singing out!
PROS:
- A fresh-looking unit with a rock-solid build quality
- Advanced feature set, complex-looking UI, and all the inputs and outputs you can ask for
- Thanks to double ultra-low RPM coolers, the Conductor Voyager is whisper-quiet in operation compared to its older Conductor series
- The Cool Case 2.0 lowered the working temperature by an average of 7 °C
- The DAC section was improved versus their previous best, and it now works with a wider variety of HiFi streamers
- Thanks to an even lower channel crosstalk, the note separation and soundstage are the widest I have experienced on Burson electronics thus far
- The headphone amplifier section remained intact, still able to power every load with aplomb and leaving a ton of headroom on tap
- Sounds incredibly resolving and utterly transparent at all times
- Covers the frequency response in full
- Impressive dynamics, pace, rhythm, and timing
- Excellent preamplifier section that bypassed the need for a dedicated one
- Distortionless at higher volumes; tightly controlling headphone drivers
- Sounds effortless, almost mimicking the sound of vacuum tubes
- Delivers an honest presentation without deviations from linearity
- A highly technical, yet engaging-sounding unit
- The Best all-in-one unit you can buy right now
CONS:
- The Fusion Core feels like a mandatory upgrade; only with it can you unleash the full might of the Voyager
- Would like to have an extra USB type-B input on its back, together with the USB type-C input, and it’s never too late to implement an I2S input
- While the low-gain was improved to work with a broader range of IEMs, there is still a slight amount of white noise passing through with ultra-sensitive loads
ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT:
- Digital Transport / Streamer: EverSolo T8
- CD / SACD Transport: Onix Zenith XST20
- Network Switch: Ansuz PowerSwitch D3
- DACs: Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature, Burson Conductor Voyager
- Headphone Amplifiers: Burson Conductor Voyager, Conductor GT4, Soloist Voyager, Feliks Envy Susvara Edition, Cayin Soul 170HA
- Preamplifier: Chord Electronics Ultima PRE2
- Power Amplifiers: Chord Electronics Ultima 3 monoblocks (X2)
- Full-sized headphones: HiFiMan Susvara OG, Susvara Unveiled, T+A Solitaire P, Bandoss Avija, Sennheiser HD800S & many others
- IEMs: FiiO FX17, FA19, Westone MACH80 & many others
- Loudspeakers: Raidho TD 2.2
- Interconnects: Crystal Cable Art Series Monet XLR (X2)
- Speaker cables: Crystal Cable Art Series Monet
- Power Cables: Crystal Cable Art Series Monet (X4), Crystal Cable Art Series Da Vinci, Roboli Stars (X2)
- Ethernet Cable: Crystal Cable Art Series Da Vinci
- HDMI/i2S Cable: AudioQuest Dragon
- Balanced Isolation Power Conditioners: KECES IQRP-3600
