Kick-Ass Dynamics! – Burson Timekeeper Voyager Mono Amplifiers Review

In 2022, Burson Audio unleashed their third-generation mono amplifiers – the Timekeeper GT3 monoblocks, their biggest leap forward in amplifier design. We tried them, loved them, and even swapped out our own AHB2 power amps for the Bursons, as they excelled in conveying music’s charm and emotion, unleashing powerful dynamics when needed. It seemed that 100 watts per channel was more than enough for demanding loudspeakers without burning a hole in your pocket.

However, these crafty mates didn’t rest on their laurels. Instead, they started tinkering, putting their minds to good use. What could further enhance their performance while addressing the complaints people still had with their current generation? These were some of the main questions. The massive 120 mm Noctua fans that cooled the power transistors are now out of sight. The low-RPM whispers of the Timekeepers GT3 were replaced with a dead-silent performance thanks to smaller fans positioned just below the main PCB, cooling the beautiful heatsinks. Whisper-quiet is what we got in return, combined with bigger heatsinks, better cooling, a slightly beefier case, a new generation of power transistors, a new generation of discrete op-amps, higher power output, and…wait for it…a complete redesign of the power delivery system that supposedly unlocks the ultimate transparency in sound.

In the head-fi world, Burson Audio is already synonymous with great-sounding headphone amplifiers and feature-packed all-in-one combos that leave no headphones unsatisfied. But in the stereo world? Things aren’t as rosy, though improvements are steadily happening. However, with their flagship Timekeeper Voyager monoblocks pushing their portfolio upward, hopefully, audiophiles and music lovers will realize that we don’t have to spend a fortune to get Class-AB power numbers combined with the richness and saturation of full Class-A designs. And yes, those were the second set of ideas!

Nobody wants brute, overwhelming power numbers without a hint of transparency, refinement, and class (I’m looking at you, Emotiva). And that’s where Burson’s latest devices draw plenty of attention. Since these are part of their Voyager lineup, they naturally represent the top of the line, offering excellent measurements and presumably the best subjective performance. You can only buy them as a stack, which is a big plus, as it almost eliminates channel crosstalk distortion faster than you can say Jack Robinson. Like the Soloist Voyager and Conductor Voyager unveiled just a couple of days ago, the newest members of the Voyager lineup feature the same orange accents and design cues, clear hints of Burson Audio’s design language. Since this is their best attempt at high-end audio, all the bells and whistles are already included in the package, including their latest V7 discrete op-amps and the best silent power modules. I’ll be testing them with a challenging pair of loudspeakers that demand plenty of current to properly control their Tantalum diamond woofers and ribbon tweeters. I’m also curious about the advantages of the Gallium Nitride MOSFETs found in the Fusion Core power supply. The Timekeeper Voyagers are now available in two distinct packages. In case you’re wondering, here is the clear difference between them:

Standard Package ($4,999):

• Timekeeper Voyager Monoblock X 2 (with V7 Vivid Pro Op-amps and Silent Power 02 Modules)
• Burson Super Charger X 2 (32V/7A)

Max Package ($5,999):

• Timekeeper Voyager Monoblock X 2 (with V7 Vivid Pro Opamps and Silent Power 02 Modules)
• Burson Fusion Core X 2 (32V/15A)

Design & Build Quality

If you’ve already checked out our Burson Soloist Voyager review, then you’re familiar with the look and build quality of the latest Timekeeper Voyager, and feel free to jump to the next chapter.

The fact that Burson completely redesigned the PCB layout, active cooling, heat dissipation, and overall appearance speaks volumes about the scale of the Voyager project they embarked on a year ago. Sure enough, this case design was also used for the Timekeeper and later for the Conductor series.

As for the Voyager itself, it resembles an alien spaceship more than a Voyager probe. It’s a bit taller and slightly wider than the regular Timekeeper GT, featuring a custom cooling system beneath the PCB designed to efficiently expel hot air from the case. These models look way cooler than any of their older siblings, offering a fresh and modern aesthetic compared to anything they’ve done before.

The orange elements, which might appear to be copper, are actually colored aluminum parts, including the custom cooling system at the back. Don’t confuse them with copper heat pipes, usually used for cooling blazing-hot CPUs and GPUs. Since the Voyager gets warm after prolonged use, I took the liberty of gauging its case temperature using a professional Bosch infrared thermo-detector and here are my insights.

This measurement was taken at a room temperature of 26°C, after running them for six hours. It seems the latest units run slightly hotter than the older ones, and you might notice the room temperature rising slightly. If you have a Motherboard rack, these will fit just fine, but don’t expect it to drastically lower the temps. At best, a ~2°C drop, depending on room conditions, surrounding space, and air circulation, can be expected.

While ~60°C is quite hot and you wouldn’t want to keep your fingers on it for more than a few seconds, most of its internal components are built to withstand much higher temperatures (around 100°C) on a 24/7 basis, so there’s no need for excessive concern. The Voyager does run hotter than Burson’s previous models, but its heat level is similar to what I experience with the Enleum AMP-23R and Trafomatic Primavera, mainly due to their 100% Class-A operation bias.

Given that the Voyagers operate in a deeper Class-A region, active cooling has been employed (again). However, despite opening up the case, I couldn’t remove the main PCB to peek underneath. I can’t comment on the size or speed of the fans, but try as I might, I couldn’t hear them under any conditions or load. These units are completely dead silent, and if noise was a concern with the Timekeeper GT3, the Voyagers maintain the sound of silence. The wind tunnel beneath the PCB is divided into three sections: two intake cool air, and the remaining one expels hot air.

Their cases are CNC-milled from raw aluminum. They come with short rubber feet installed, but you can elevate them further using third-party footers. If your listening space is crowded with electronics, cables, and various accessories, I’d suggest considering third-party footers or a dedicated HiFi rack that offers enough breathing room for the unit.

With a larger-than-usual case (265 x 270 x 85 mm) and weighing about 7 kilos (15.5 lbs) each, you can feel the added heft of the Voyagers compared to the classic Timekeepers. Overall, they maintain the minimalist look typical of Burson devices, and while their raw aluminum cases will certainly catch some eyes, I definitely appreciate their understated minimalist design.

Controls & Connectivity

As power amplifiers, you won’t find a lot of buttons, a remote, or volume controls. There’s just an On/Off button on their front panels, and a line of tiny LEDs will indicate their status. On the back, you’ll find a 32V/6.5A 4-pole DC power socket, two 12V triggers (In and Out) for controlling your entire setup with a single remote, a pair of speaker terminals, and both RCA and XLR analog inputs.

The orange buttons on the far right allow you to switch their gain and select either the RCA or XLR analog input. If your speakers have a sensitivity of 88 dB or higher, I’d recommend using them in low gain, whereas if your speakers are harder to drive, switch to high gain (an extra 6 dB) for greater flexibility with the volume wheel. With my speakers, I definitely prefer the high-gain setting. Don’t worry about the noise floor on high gain, as I found them to be dead-silent on both settings.

Under Their Hoods

Can you guess the first thing I do when new gear arrives for a headbanging session? Do I rip open the box and start listening to music right away? Hell no! I open up their hood and carefully inspect the PCB, because most of the magic starts there.

I carefully open a unit, and five seconds later, I burst out laughing and nodding my head! Ever since I heard some old EXICON MOSFET-based amplifiers and experienced an almost liquid-sounding performance, akin to listening to an end-game single-ended triode (SET) amplifier, without any of the drawbacks of solid-state designs, I’ve started cherishing these EXICON MOSFETs. Then, I saw them in the Enleum AMP-23R, and once again, that liquid, smooth, relaxing, and organic sound flooded my playlists, sounding much more refined than any other MOSFET, JFET, or bipolar transistors I’ve tried so far. Since then, I’ve been recommending them left and right to various amp builders around the globe. And sure enough, Burson Audio took my advice: I see six of these on cooling pads just below the PCB.

I’m impressed by the care Burson put into cooling this unit. All of the transistors, not just the EXICONs, are mounted on cooling pads, which are placed on heat sinks. Beneath the heatsinks, several fans are installed for air intake, with one dedicated to exhausting the hot air. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the fans clearly because disassembling everything and putting it back together would take hours, so I focused mainly on the highly populated PCB sitting on top.

About a third of the PCB actually hosts the second half of the power supply design. I see several ultra-low-noise power regulators and remember, the Fusion Cores already deliver clean DC power, meaning the power is regulated and filtered twice. Squeaky clean power? That’s the secret ingredient for squeaky clean sonics. The power filtering and capacitance are overkill, but that’s the spirit of high-end audio: overkill design that leaves a lot of room to breathe. You can also spot their latest generation Silent Power 02 modules—those are their lowest noise floor modules ever designed (only 0.8 microvolts of noise!). At the input buffer stage, there’s just a single transistored V7 discrete op-amp, released only a few months ago. Overall, this is exactly what I expected from a pair of well-built monoblock amps with ultra-short signal paths, a simplified input buffer, and a power stage that avoids hundreds of components that could compromise the purity of the signal.

Last but not least, the MAX Package includes much higher-end external power supplies. These are so advanced that Burson decided to give them a name: Fusion Core. One unit powers a single amplifier, so two Fusion Cores are needed in total. It’s a fancy name for a specially designed power supply, but if you have some basic electronics knowledge, you’ll quickly realize that the Fusion Core is worth every penny. Traditional power supplies use MOSFET transistors to switch power on and off, essential for effectively regulating voltage and current. The Fusion Core takes a different approach: it uses Gallium Nitride transistors, which switch at a much faster rate, at 1 MHz, well above our hearing range. This ultra-fast, ultra-high-frequency switching, combined with a beefier DC filtering and regulation stage, leads to more effective noise reduction and delivers cleaner power to all the components inside the Timekeeper.

Now, let’s talk about power ratings. Burson specifies 200 watts per channel into 4 ohms and 100 watts into 8 ohms. I should point out that the first 30 watts are always delivered in full Class-A operation. Beyond that, the amp switches to Class-B. I know a few amps that deliver about 5 to 10 watts in full Class-A, but 30 watts? That’s Pass Labs territory and at a whole different level price-wise.

My buddy Raul Trifan measured these, and with his permission, I’ll share a graph showing a higher power output when used with Fusion Cores. At the end of the day, the Super Charger 5A power supply is rated at 225 watts, while the Fusion Core is 480 watts, enabling the power transistors to draw more juice and provide more power to your speakers.

And here it is! We have 34.63V RMS, which roughly translates into 299.8 watts per channel into 4 ohms without even considering peak power, which should sit somewhere between ~340 and 360 watts per channel. Don’t mistake their slim bodies for just good looks; these pack a serious punch, even with inefficient speakers. But more on that in a minute.

In the end, we are looking at fully discrete, fully differential, fully balanced, pure Class-A power amplifiers that will operate predominantly in Class-A mode even at very high SPL levels.

Test Equipment

What would be the best partners for the Timekeeper Voyager mono amplifiers? Naturally, a family reunion with the rest of the Voyager lineup would ensure the best synergy between the components. Since I wanted a clearer view of Burson Audio’s house sound, I naturally brought along the Conductor GT4 DAC and the complementary Soloist Voyager preamplifier, both designed to work seamlessly with the Timekeeper Voyager monoblocks. For fun, I also tested these with my own setup, and in both cases, I had plenty of headroom at my disposal. They handled quite a difficult load – the Raidho TD 2.2 loudspeakers with their 87dB sensitivity. The biggest challenge wasn’t their low sensitivity per se, but the super-stiff tantalum diamond woofers that require extra power to be fully controlled. The planar tweeters are also highly sensitive to noise coming from downstream equipment, which puts additional pressure on every component in the HiFi chain.

Alright, everyone, I’m ready for some well-deserved music, so let’s hit some eardrums!

Sound Performance

I. Preliminary Sound Impressions

I’ve been writing about Burson Audio gear for a very long time, and if you do a quick search around here, you’ll find that I’ve been deeply into all of their products. From the affordable Funk and Playmate to the mid-level Soloist X and Conductor X series, all the way up to the GT series, and now their brand-new flagship Voyager series. Every time I left music playing on some of their higher-end equipment, I needed to change my pants… because there was always a substantial jump in technicalities, with more resolution, better dynamics, a wider soundstage, and just an overall more enjoyable experience with a higher WOW factor along the way.

The so-called house sound was strong with every Burson release, and even with my eyes closed, I could sniff out the Burson Audio house sound from a mile away, even with a brand-new pair of speakers and/or headphones. Last year, however, I felt the biggest performance leap from the house of Burson. That mind-blowing moment happened when I removed the Super Charger 5A external power brick and attached a Fusion Core to the Conductor GT4. What initially seemed like a great all-in-one combo transformed into a very different beast…bringing so much peace, refinement, and beautiful overtones along the way, as if a much pricier converter had been sleeping inside that case all this time. It was unbelievable…

Even though I’m currently rocking some higher-end power amplifiers, I still have the Timekeeper GT3 somewhere around the house. When a new pair of speakers comes along and I need to burn them in for a couple of days, the good old Timekeepers always save the day. Every time I power them up and spend a minute experiencing the sound change, I’m surprised at how dynamic and vivid they still sound.

The Timekeeper Voyagers, however, feel like upgrading from McDonald’s to a one-star Michelin restaurant bringing a much-needed refinement across the board; it’s no longer just about the skills an amplifier should have, but finally about the whole package, about your relationship with music, about what makes you move and your mind tick. Need some specifics? Sure. Why not?

The treble, in particular, is no longer itchy, as I felt it was for a long time on the Soloist and Conductor series. And the bass? It feels more muscular and of higher quality than before, revealing additional layers of information that were still dormant in the music you’ve known for such a long time. The Voyagers now step into uncharted territory for Burson Audio, with a skill set worthy of a high-end moniker. It becomes almost redundant to write about resolution, sound transparency, or dynamics. Because, simply put, the gap between my pricier Chord Ultima 3 monos and the TK Voyagers has shrunk considerably. If I could fill several pages with the crazy dynamic swings the old Timekeepers were capable of, as well as their absurd power output in high gain, easily driving floor-standing speakers like my former KEF Reference 3 and my current Raidho TD 2.2. Right now, I see a very different picture. The flagship TK Voyagers handle the heavy lifting with ease. At this point, I’d happily spend several pages describing the beautiful overtones that suddenly appeared before my eyes; I could tell stories about the blooming vocals, which can be gentle or powerful depending on the track. The harmonics are now more vibrant than ever before, but above all, the sound is coherent across the entire hearing range. And, for the first time in a Burson Audio product review, nothing bothers me in the big scheme of things.

The treble no longer bites or makes me clench my teeth; the midrange has the right tone and timbre. It becomes emotional the moment I start putting my blues collection on repeat. And it wouldn’t be a Burson unit if the bass wasn’t deep-reaching, calling down thunder when needed, and gently pulsating on other occasions. With a reworked buffer stage, high current delivery, and all while utilizing higher-quality electronics, the sound has matured. The chaos has been tamed, and that made me appreciate the music much more because all those technicalities that always matter to me…they vanished like shadows and dust. The sound is unmistakably of a higher refinement, while still retaining the core values that made Burson Audio famous all around the globe.

Before moving on to other important matters, I cannot go forward without mentioning the massive headroom still available with these units. With the Ultima PRE2 set to the 0.5 gain position (the lowest gain setting), I’m cutting the voltage output from the Rockna Reference Signature DAC in half, which ultimately puts more pressure on the power amplifiers. And yet, I was unable to reach the upper power limits, no matter what.

I typically leave the gain at 0.5 on my preamp only when using it with my Ultima 3 mono amplifiers, which can output some insane 900 watts per channel. Everything else usually demands unity gain (1.0), and some entry-level units from China often require a gain of 1.5 or even 2.0.

Now, I’m not entirely sure what ritual dances the Burson team performed while developing the TK Voyagers, but even with a gain set at 0.5, the maximum volume I could reach on my preamp before risking deafness or breaking the glasses around the house was just 60 out of 100 steps available. A comfortable 100 dB listening level would usually sit around ~45 to 48, depending on the dynamic range and loudness of the track. However, under any circumstance, even with speakers as sensitive as the 86 dB Raidho TD 2.2, the Voyagers never broke a sweat or pushed the limits. The sound never lost control or refinement; clipping never occurred, even with loud, bass-heavy tracks. No matter what I did or how hard I pushed, the sound remained in perfect control at any volume, retaining the same refinement and coherence I experienced at lower listening levels.

My Raidho TD 2.2s aren’t exactly easy to drive. If my memory serves me right, a couple of Topping and SMSL amplifiers previously tried to power those speakers but ended up heavily clipping, completely incapable of driving them, even though their specs initially looked promising, but I was forced to send them back. It’s one thing to have a mediocre power supply that struggles for power, and quite another to have a Fusion Core populated with ultra-fast, switching Gallium Nitride MOSFETs that deliver tons of current in the blink of an eye to power-hungry speakers. The Standard package already looks like a great deal, and it is, but the Fusion Cores offer so much more. I would sincerely advise saving up a bit more and opting for the Max Package. The performance jump on the Conductor GT4 was colossal, to say the least, and I believe the difference would be similar or even greater given the much higher current and voltage swings involved.

One thing is clear: if these units can power my speakers effortlessly without limiting dynamics or increasing distortion, then they should be capable of driving pretty much everything else out there, leaving a ton of headroom on tap, no matter the load.

II. Dynamics & Transient Response

Apart from effortlessly cruising around while driving my speakers with aplomb and never using the usual unity gain (1.0) on my preamp, can you guess what else stood out head and shoulders above the rest? That’s right: mean, nasty, and badass dynamics! Not going to lie, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a more dopamine-inducing power amp combo than the Timekeeper Voyagers, and if you love everything related to bass… then you’ll be on cloud nine from the start.

The bass speed and impact are, quite frankly, a level above my own Chord Ultima 3 mono amplifiers. These are also meaner sounding in the lowest octaves compared to the LAiV GaNM Monos I tried a couple of weeks ago, and let’s just say that my former Benchmark AHB2 and the Timekeeper GT3 don’t stand a chance against such a bass cannon duo like this. But it would be a pity to experience such powerful bass notes without gaining a strong grip and control over the lowest octaves, don’t you think? The AHB2 duo was quite impressive, delivering a clean bass, but the control and sustain? Good, but far from great. The Voyagers, on the other hand, infuse a much stronger dose, almost going overboard with drum ’n’ bass and all sorts of genres.

The thing is, I no longer have déjà-vu moments with these Voyagers. On paper, they’re only marginally more powerful than the old TK GT3, and yet, the sound becomes way more visceral with every beat drop. GoGo Penguin is about to release a new album called Necessary Fictions in the coming days, but the first tracks are already streaming on platforms like Qobuz and Tidal. What We Are and What We Are Meant to Be start grooving, and if you’ve already experienced these guys before, you know they invented the nu-jazz movement, mixing zen-funk with ambient and experimental music into what can only be described as contemporary jazz. Most of their albums are recorded and mixed by Decca or Blue Note labels, and if any of that rings a bell, you already know it’s about as good as it gets.

There’s a cheeky sense of humor at play with these guys, the music is always playful, and it makes you want to move. And if you’ve seen them live, you’ve felt the joy radiating from their faces when they pull off a well-crafted change of pace or nail a tricky mood shift. What a thrill to be in the audience with musicians so attuned to each other, working in seemingly opposite directions to achieve a cohesive whole.

The interesting part, however, is that the Voyagers reached higher dynamic peaks than the Timekeeper GT3 or even the LAiV GaNM monos. There was a little more bass energy crawling around the room, and the snares hit harder with every strike. There was simply more of everything emanating from my speakers, as if an extra woofer had appeared on the front baffle, adding extra oomph and a stronger kick all around.

Let’s turn it up to eleven, shall we? The next track that hit my playlist was Crooked by Smilk (found on Qobuz and Tidal). Although coming from Melbourne’s underground scene, the mastering of this album is nothing short of spectacular. The pulsating, vivid bass notes are rare to experience around here. Nathaniel Hansen’s prodigious imagination paid off big time; the sound catches you off guard with its interplay, massive separation, airiness, and fat, juicy bass notes.

It goes without saying that the Voyagers are masters of punchy dynamics that almost command you to start dancing, especially when nobody’s watching. This duo knows how to impress a dynamics junkie, and I’m sure you’ll feel the same once music starts doing its mojo on a pair of brand-new Voyagers.

III. Resolution & Transparency

When discussing aspects like sound transparency and resolution, we must first understand the difference between the Voyager, Timekeeper GT4, and GT3 variants. Compared to the older generation, we now have a newer gen of discrete op-amps that push the dynamic range even higher, all while maintaining lower distortion. The inclusion of the Silent Power 02 modules also drowned the noise floor to undetectable levels. What was impressive on the GT3 is now a dead-silent amplifier, with or without music playing. When all its inner workings are fed with cleaner, higher-quality power, you can bet that the sheer resolution and dynamic range will improve as well.

And let’s not forget the magic that the Fusion Core brings along. This isn’t your typical switching-mode or transformer-based power supply; it’s something entirely different. The Fusion Core is nothing short of spectacular from an engineering perspective. In traditional Class-AB power supply designs, MOSFET transistors are used to switch the power on and off, an essential task for regulating output voltage and current effectively. The Fusion Core takes a very different approach by using Gallium Nitride transistors, which switch on and off at a 1 MHz frequency – thousands of times faster than in traditional power supply designs. This switching occurs well above our hearing abilities. In the end, this ultra-fast, ultra-high-frequency switching, combined with a much beefier DC filtering and regulation stage, leads to more effective noise reduction and delivers cleaner power to all the components of the Voyagers.

I believe that only with the Fusion Cores powering them, the Voyagers fully reveal their true potential. Especially in terms of sound transparency and resolution. Their measured signal-to-noise ratio sits at 110 dB versus 95 dB on the LAiV GaNM I reviewed just a couple of weeks ago. Comparing the two side by side, it becomes clear that the Voyagers unearth additional nuances and micro-details that were still present on the GaNM, but not in such a vivid or clear way. If you’ve already experienced any of Burson Audio’s Voyager or Grand Tourer units, then you know the level of attention Burson puts into this region, striving to show the unspoiled truth to the listener. The Timekeeper Voyagers, however, elevate things further, especially when it comes to dynamics and resolution. Up to the level of Chord’s excellent Ultima 3 monos, I’ve never tested a cleaner-sounding or more dynamically engaging power amp duo.

Listening to Dawn by Ry X (available on Qobuz and Tidal), released by Loma Vista, I immediately noticed the soundscape slowly widening in all directions, with a powerful bass rumble constantly playing in the background. The surprising part wasn’t just the colossal vocal performance, which dwarfs many acoustic albums in terms of scale; it was the way the vocals shifted between foreground and background, yet everything remained so natural and pristine. This album is so peaceful and atmospheric, slowly building momentum again and again, the only thing left to do is pour a glass of old whisky on the rocks and enjoy till the very end. It’s a legendary album, and I hope you’ll experience it with the same calmness and stillness I did.

IV. Soundstage & Imaging

I really don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I’ll just briefly remind you that we’re dealing with two mono amplifiers. Their electronics don’t interfere with each other, their power supplies aren’t shared, and thus, channel crosstalk distortion is no longer a concern, something that usually shrinks the scale, reduces note separation, and adds a bit of fog to reference recordings. This kind of distortion is present in stereo integrated and power amplifiers, but not in mono designs.

Let me tell you a short story about my HiFi adventures. About a year and a half ago, I purchased the Chord Ultima 5 power amplifier after testing it for about a month. I was on cloud nine! The power output felt unlimited; I could never go past 40% of the maximum power, and the dynamics roamed wild while tightly controlling the sub-bass energy. The jump in sound quality compared to the Benchmark AHB2 was, to say the least, substantial! The added texture and fun factor sealed the deal for me… until I heard a pair of Ultima 3 mono amplifiers, which are essentially a pair of Ultima 5s in disguise. I didn’t gain stronger dynamics or cleaner output from them; the sound was exactly as enjoyable, weighty, and natural. However, there was one massive upgrade I simply couldn’t ignore. The soundscape almost doubled in size, and everything seemed to float mid-air in its own bubble of air. I’ve never heard such a massive sound coming from such a small pair of floor-standing speakers, and every friend who visits is taken aback by the sheer scale of the music, as if a large orchestra is constantly playing.

Studio albums suddenly felt like live performances, as if the soloists had gained an extra pair of lungs, sounding stronger and way more present in the room. The depth improved, and what was previously closer sounded like it was sitting not on the sofa with me but in a different space altogether. Conversely, what was meant to sound distant now seemed to escape beyond the boundaries of my living room. I couldn’t send them back… and I was again on cloud nine, finally purchasing a pair of Ultima 3s.

The same story repeats itself when I moved from the Timekeeper 3i stereo amplifier to the Timekeeper GT3 mono blocks, and now to the Voyagers. Every step of the way, the sound has grown bigger and deeper, and right now, I feel that the Voyagers have fully unlocked the music, allowing it to roam freely around the room and fill every gap with sound. I’d estimate at least a 25% improvement in scale versus the GT3s, and this is where the LAiV GaNM sounds extremely similar, constantly making you turn your head on various acoustic tracks.

When I think about cinematic music, I don’t picture movie OSTs; my mind drifts to listening to HAEVN. Anything made by this duo can be described as grandiose, cinematic, blown out of proportion, and almost…angelic-sounding. Their Wide Awake album (found on Qobuz and Tidal) is constantly playing whenever new gear arrives. While it isn’t overly crowded with instruments: just two violins, two soloists, a guitar, a drum kit, keyboards, and lots of percussion – it’s still quite complex. The sound takes flight and floats midair throughout the entire album. Each song has its own story, and I hope this Dutch duo still has a great future ahead of them. The blend of a singer-songwriter and a film music creator is unusual and hard to categorize, but I love them! The tracks are thoughtful and almost meditative at times, and I’ve never felt that my audio setup limited the power of music. If you seek peace and meditation, this is highly recommended.

Frequency Response

V. Bass

You know, there’s a bass head in all of us. Sometimes you want to hide it from your pals, but other times, you want to unleash it. The problem is that with the wrong equipment, you’ll be forced to play the EQ game, which might not be the perfect solution, especially if you’re a purist at heart. I must confess… the beast is being unleashed with the TK Voyagers, and all I want is a nice kick in the eardrums, shattering the floor with some of that nasty energy.

There are amplifiers that do it better than others. For example, the Voyagers are natural-born killers; they were made for this, they eat bass-heavy tracks for lunch. I might use colorful language on several occasions, but you get my point. I currently have five sets of monoblock amplifiers around the house, and out of all of them, the Voyagers are second to none when it comes to attack, bass delivery, long bass sustain, and natural decay. Everything else sounds just as good on these understated-looking amps, and sure enough, the rest of the frequency response remains energized, clean, and refined, but it’s the bass that will most likely draw your attention.

I don’t consider myself a bass head, even if I love everything related to bass; however, with a pair of amps like these, I’m slowly becoming a proud bass lover. My actual mono amplifiers have a slightly different skill set, but when it comes to bass, they are moving toward becoming the new kings of the bass region. You know what’s funny? I have a pair of unreleased bookshelf speakers that I’m not supposed to talk about… yet. They look fantastic, with a cherry lacquer finish, rocking soft-dome tweeters and 6.5” carbon-coated woofers. They sound damn fine with almost anything I throw at them. The only problem? Their bass isn’t quite putting a smile on my face. But with the Voyagers doing the heavy lifting, it’s like their woofers have grown in size and suddenly, I can hear 40 Hz notes passing by, almost reaching sub-bass territory. You get my drift, bass can be a scary region for affordable amplifiers with mediocre power supplies, but with these, you love it, and you’ll want to have it on every other amplifier.

VI. Midrange

I remember the glorious day when the Soloist Voyager arrived at my place, and I wrote that legendary description of its midrange…I was carried away, and I think that was the most inspiring text I have ever written in my life. Imagine that all those words I dedicated to the Soloist Voyager, driven by the Super Charger 5A instead of the later-released Fusion Core. I would probably have gone to a whole other level with the Fusion Core in place…I don’t even want to imagine.

With the Timekeeper Voyagers, one thing is for sure: I could easily use the same description, and there’s no way you wouldn’t fall in love with this seductive, almost feminine in nature, sound of acoustic instruments. Guitars are no longer shredded, but weeping with emotion, violins make you feel all soft and warm inside. The sins of the founding fathers have been washed clean, and everything that was hard, aggressive, or thin-sounding has been replaced with an almost peaceful sensation. I hope you know the feeling when you start switching between tons of musical genres, and yet everything feels right at home, everything is as engaging and fresh as ever… that’s the exact feeling I get from the Voyagers.

It’s redundant to keep writing about sweetness, gutturalness, or warmth, as such things don’t matter anymore when everything aligns in perfect harmony. You can call it whatever you wish, and yes, all of these words only marginally describe its sound. However, there’s one word that always comes to mind with these: honesty. I find them more honest-sounding than anything else I’ve experienced in this price range.

VII. Treble

If you’ve been fortunate enough to hear the evolution of the Burson sound over the years, like I have, you’ve unmistakably felt a quantum shift in their tonality, especially in how they handle the treble region. Their earlier models add a bit of aggressiveness; the sound becomes rawer and less refined. Even if the resolution isn’t thrown into the abyss, there’s still a haze that covers most of your music, obscuring the sound’s purity.

Once you move to higher-end power supplies, in particular with the Super Charger 3A or 5A, depending on the unit, the sound becomes more refined across the entire frequency range, but the improvement is especially noticeable in the treble. The slight buzz and rattle disappear, exactly what happens once again with the Fusion Core, only to a much higher degree.

Some people associate high resolution with a sharp and overly defined treble, but that’s not how I see it. I’ve been there and done that, and I can tell you that excellent resolution has nothing to do with treble sharpness. I will go as far as to say that the most resolving system I’ve ever auditioned in my life has never, not even once, pushed the treble to sharpness higher than what I’m used to hearing in real life. The purest sound doesn’t need to be sharp or ultra-clinical; it needs to steal your attention, move you emotionally, put goose bumps all over your body, sound real, not fabricated. And you know what? All of these qualities are already present in the newest Timekeepers.

Wrapping Up

There are two things that are stopping me from hailing these as perfect, and they have nothing to do with their sound, which was exceptional from day one. When you start hunting for gear that pushes past the psychological barrier of €/$5,000, you’re not just looking for the best-sounding equipment; you also start considering their cases, temperature, and overall looks.

The Timekeeper Voyagers sound fabulous with the Fusion Cores, but I’m looking at four metal boxes instead of two and if you add the Soloist Voyager PRE and a brand-new Conductor Voyager DAC, you’re (again) adding four boxes instead of two, since the Fusion Cores can only power a single component at a time. And while ~60°C on the lateral heatsinks isn’t dangerous territory for a power amplifier, having internal components that handle 100 degrees Celsius on a 24/7 basis (I’ve experienced hotter amplifiers over the years, the Trafomatic Primavera, for example, shows 65°C on its lateral heatsinks). They’re still quite hot by my standards, but remember that the first 30 watts going into your speakers are biased in full Class-A operation. If you’re willing to accept these compromises for a fabulous-sounding power amp duo that infuses so much liveliness into everything I throw at them, then I wholeheartedly recommend them.

For the first time in a Burson Audio component review, I can’t find anything to complain about in the sound department. Starting with dynamics, resolution, scale, and stereo separation, all the way to a bold tone and timbre that treats your music with respect and drives your speakers with tons of authority and finesse, these will impress both true music addicts and hardcore audiophiles alike.

The leap in performance from my two-year-old Timekeeper GT3 to the Voyagers felt substantial; everything was improved, with the biggest gains in sound finesse, refinement, and effortlessness. Technicalities also improved, including power output, but the GT3 was already quite stoic in those departments, sounding clean and quite powerful even with hard-to-drive loudspeakers.

These two can be yours for $4,999, and if you opt for the MAX Package that includes two Fusion Cores, then we’re looking at $5,999. Both packages can be purchased directly from Burson Audio right here.

If you’re getting a pair and still have some burning questions, please let me know in the comments below, and don’t forget to press that Subscribe button on YouTube. It means a lot to me. That’s all for now, Sandu’s singing out!

PROS:

• A fresh-looking duo, having a solid build quality
• Rocks a small footprint and lightweight chassis
• Whisper-quiet in operation compared to the Timekeeper GT3
• Fully balanced from input to output
• Outstanding component selection, and the new power transistors? They feel like a chef’s kiss
• The power output is now higher than that of the older generation, and much higher if the Fusion Core is used
• Easily drove demanding loads with tons of headroom remaining on tap
• Nasty, wild, dynamic swings, possibly the juiciest bass delivery I’ve experienced so far
• The dynamics coming out of these amps need to be experienced to be believed
• Without a doubt, these are the most natural and pure-sounding amplifiers Burson Audio has ever created. It’s no longer just about sheer resolution; it’s about overwhelming lucidity that hits you
• The overall scale of the music is now on par with mono SET amplifiers, and the depth has also improved. With these amps, Burson is gradually stepping into high-end audio territory
• A dead-silent background with or without music playing, on both low and high gain settings
• Fully covers the frequency response, adding more life in the midrange and extra oomph in the bass compared to older designs
• Tightly controlled TD 2.2 speaker drivers, and I’m confident this level of control and precision will translate to a wide range of other speakers
• A highly refined and effortless sound, as if the amp never stresses to do its main job

CONS:

•  I hope the next generation will incorporate the Fusion Core into the same chassis as the amplifiers, as right now, the WAF is low with four metallic cases that need to be accommodated
• They run a bit hotter than your usual integrated or power amplifiers
• The MAX package is pricier… but it’s also so much better

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT:

• Digital Transport / Roon Server: Rockna Wavedream NET 4 Tb
• Network Switch: Ansuz PowerSwitch D3
• DACs: Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature
• Headphone Amplifiers: Cayin Soul 170HA, Feliks Envy Performance Edition
• Preamplifier: Chord Electronics Ultima PRE 2
• Power Amplifiers: Burson Timekeeper Voyager (X2), Timekeeper GT3 (X2), Chord Electronics Ultima 3 (X2)
• Full-sized headphones: HiFiMan Susvara Unveiled & Susvara OG, HE1000 Unveiled, T+A Solitaire P, Meze Elite, Erzetich Charybdis, Kennerton Rognir, Sennheiser HD800S & many others
• Loudspeakers: Raidho TD 2.2
• Interconnects: Crystal Cable Monet XLR (X2)
• Speaker cables: Crystal Cable Monet 2.5m
• Power Cables: Crystal Cable Monet 1.5m (X4), Neotech NEP-1001 (X2)
• Ethernet Cable: Crystal Cable Monet
• HDMI Cable: AudioQuest Dragon
• Balanced Isolation Power Conditioner: KECES IQRP-3600
• Audio Racks: Woodyard Suspended Triple & Baby Modular