Best way to upgrade preamp?

[DrewP]

Hello! Long time lurker...finally registered

BLUF: My largest disappointment in my current system is the very noisy preamp (loud clicks on volume changes) on my Burson Conductor (the OG model that is the headphone amp/preamp/DAC). Willing to replace or supplement the Burson and would love a remote control for volume control.

Current system:
Technics SL-100C turntable
Primare R15 Phono preamp
Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport
Burson Conductor headphone amp/preamp/DAC
Parasound NewClassic 2125 v.2 power amp
Sennheiser HD800S
Audeze LCD-2 (pre-Fazor)
Revel Performa f208 tower speakers

Please help me with a recommendation for either a replacement or supplement to the Burson for headphone/preamp/DAC duties. I've seen great reviews for both Topping and Benchmark Audio products but they're not very current.

 

[staticV3]

Hi @DrewP! Welcome to ASR.

Here's a list of All-in-One units with S/PDIF and Line in, Headphone and Line out, plus a remote control:

-Burson Conductor 3 GT, 3X GT, 3R, 3XR
-Matrix mini-i 3, Pro 3, 4, Pro 4
-CEN.GRAND 9I-90SA PRO, 9i-92SA III
-iFi NEO IDSD 2
-Keces S3

 

[mdunjic]

Hello! Long time lurker...finally registered

BLUF: My largest disappointment in my current system is the very noisy preamp (loud clicks on volume changes) on my Burson Conductor (the OG model that is the headphone amp/preamp/DAC). Willing to replace or supplement the Burson and would love a remote control for volume control.

Current system:
Technics SL-100C turntable
Primare R15 Phono preamp
Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport
Burson Conductor headphone amp/preamp/DAC
Parasound NewClassic 2125 v.2 power amp
Sennheiser HD800S
Audeze LCD-2 (pre-Fazor)
Revel Performa f208 tower speakers

Please help me with a recommendation for either a replacement or supplement to the Burson for headphone/preamp/DAC duties. I've seen great reviews for both Topping and Benchmark Audio products but they're not very current.

IMO, Benchmark LA-4 is a no brainer pre-amp ... measures like no other, ultra low distortion, and is absolutely transparent ... I have it and it works beautifully with my Purifi Eigentakt based class D power amp and SMSL SU-9n DAC (fed by my M2 Mac Mini as Roon server).

 

[AaronJ]

This is a perfect situation for a minidsp flex with rca I/O. It has digital inputs for the cd transport and as long as you aren’t using subs you can set the four analog outputs to distribute either to the parasound amp or to the Burson headphone amp. Added benefit is you could choose to add Dirac Live and have it active for one preset to use with loudspeakers and deactivate it in another preset to use with the headphone amp. Remote control volume for all your needs.

 

[Waxx]

I would also use a MiniDSP flex, i actually do for my setup and it's a great preamp, with high quality dac and dsp inside. if you would need more than 4 channels out, the 8 channel is also great, maybe not as good as the 4ch on dac, but still better than most. And it's probally more durable than a lot of cheap asian devices (at least in my impression with both Topping, Smsl and MiniDSP).

An RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE can aslo be great. It measures great and has a good track record on durability. Other variations of the ADI-2 may also be intersting

 

[Purité Audio]

Do you mean the volume control it self makes a noise or is that noise propagated through the speaker?
Keith

 

[antcollinet]

This is a perfect situation for a minidsp flex

I would also use a MiniDSP flex,

No headphone output on the flex though. So a separate headphone amp would be needed.

 

[AaronJ]

No headphone output on the flex though. So a separate headphone amp would be needed.

That’s why I described a way to route the output to the headphone amp using the Flex presets.

 

[Waxx]

No headphone output on the flex though. So a separate headphone amp would be needed.

That's why i menioned the RME, for when headphones in the preamp are mandatory for the OP.