Broadening of Horizons€¦ · · 2016-03-20Thecrossovers$aremadefrom$...
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Transcript of Broadening of Horizons€¦ · · 2016-03-20Thecrossovers$aremadefrom$...
Broadening of Horizons The following is a translation of an i-‐fidelity.net article titled “Horizont-‐Erweiterung” written by Philip Cornelius on March 2, 2015. The full article, in German, can be seen here: http://www.i-‐fidelity.net/testberichte/high-‐end/burmester-‐ba-‐71/test.html. With the impressive BA 71 acoustic transducers, Burmester aims to set a new record in the realm of audio. To accomplish this, even the backsides of these stylish made-‐in-‐Berlin loudspeakers emit sound.
f you intend to listen to music through big speakers, you aren't crazy at all. On the contrary, doing so appears to be the initiating highlight of most
audiophile careers. My journey began in the 80s with a pair of Heco Phon 23; a small three-‐way speaker originating from the “Taunus-‐Sound.” You know, the kind of speaker that abstracts the frequency response of a bathtub: Lots of bass below, loud treble above, and nothing in the middle. In the years, or rather decades since, the equipment in my audio room has of course evolved significantly but I never imagined my amplifiers would some day be allowed to control a pair of Burmester BA 71s. If the product name reminds you of a British Airways flight, you are not quite right. BA stands for “Burmester Audiosysteme” and the digits stand for the number and placement of the chassis: seven in the front, and one in the back. The aspirations of this Berliner can be seen from this basic data: an individual loudspeaker weighs 61 kilograms (134 lbs.), stands at a height of 1.23 metres, has a depth of half a metre, and one pair costs 55,000 US dollars. Five colour and wood designs for the cabinet can be combined with three different shades of aluminium for the front. As expected, the workmanship is absolutely flawless. And despite its dimensions, the BA 71 is real eye-‐candy thanks to the intelligent design with its convex side curves.
The Burmester BA 71 is a sophisticated beauty. It rests its 60 kilograms on four
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precision spikes. The four-‐man team, consisting of Dieter Burmester, Bernd Stark, Martin Lorenz, and Dennis Wassner, has committed about two and a half years of development to this acoustic transducer. I can imagine every day was a game of puppies and kittens, and different positions were defended vehemently. The four gentlemen couldn’t always agree but found an acceptable compromise, which can be seen from the rather interesting terminal in the back. It includes the well-‐known Burmester connections as well as a WBT-‐Bi-‐Wiring-‐Field. A customer may now decide which one sounds better for his or her configuration. Consistency instead of compromise is a means to an end to reach sonic perfection, even if one or the other may not understand or want to understand this position. All seven drivers in the front are fitted into the 12 millimetre aluminium baffle board. The transmission of the low frequencies occurs through two 7“ drivers with relatively heavy but rather stiff membranes made from a fibre glass and paper compound. There are eight of these drivers, selected individually as well as in conjunction in the pair. It should be obvious to everyone listening to the BA 71 for just one minute that this statement is no empty marketing pitch, but reflects actual performance. There is no way to get any more precise sounds with unlimited pressure. The woofer-‐foursome works in a series-‐parallel connection through two generous openings in the back of the cabinet. Burmester includes two big plugs for various placement and room configurations, with which you can close the holes and thus reduce the amount of low frequency sounds. In the upper portion of the three-‐way construction, we have one AMT-‐tweeter working from three kilohertz upwards with a powerful neodymium magnet, it is accompanied by two midrange speakers. This positioning reduces floor and ceiling reflections that would otherwise disturb the spatial impression. To improve the pulse accuracy of the oscillating characteristics in the midrange chassis between 110 and 3,000 hertz, they were fitted with an extremely powerful magnet. Additionally, the distortion values are outstandingly low according to Burmester.
The backside of the BA 71 sports another AMT-‐tweeter where the volume can be adjusted with a controller. The idea for this construction originated in the automotive area of the company. As you might know, Burmester sound systems are used in cars made by Porsche and Mercedes. Mainly, they are characterized by their ability to represent the sound three-‐dimensionally. This is exactly the task of that tweeter in the backside. Because the higher the frequency of the signal, a bundling effects occur – the emission angle becomes lower. Through this ambience tweeter the additional sound provides a broader and deeper room ambience. If you turn the volume up too far, however, the instruments and voices can lose focus. Thanks to the generous controlling range, however, that can be easily and quickly heard and adjusted.
The level of the air motion transformer in the back can be adjusted. It
greatly improves the size of the audible room.
At its finest – Proceed with Care
o perform according to its purpose, the cabinet requires the proper space allocated the crossover. In the BA 71, however, there is not only one crossover but one for each area situated as close as possible to the drivers. These crossovers include extremely high quality Mundorf parts. Of course, the manufacturing team didn't just go and buy the most
expensive capacitors on the market, but they listened, they measured, and they compared. They came to the conclusion that the Mundorf components, among other advantages, have superior sound quality as well as the required series stability. Before I could lure the first sounds out of the BA 71 I had to meet some requirements. As I moved the two speakers to their designated positions in my audio room that have proven to be ideal for the best sound, the spikes were not installed. Only after I was absolutely satisfied with the slightly angled positioning I installed the adjustable steel spikes. For the ambience tweeter on the backside I only knew two positions at first: off or one o’clock. This either-‐or-‐application makes it easy to realize the effect of this tweeter that emitted sound towards the wall. For my room, the eleven o’clock position ended up being the ideal mix of wide-‐ranging spatiality and ideal focus on
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single instruments.
The customer has two pairs of terminals to choose from. On the far left and far right are the jacks Burmester uses for the electronics they make themselves. Between them are high-‐quality WBT terminals The signal is generated and amplified, in my case, by components from Transrotor (analogue), Esoteric and Marantz (digital), Audionet (PRE and MAX) as well as Moon (Evolution-‐Series). The cables are largely from the Leverkusen-‐based expert HMS. Naturally, the power supply – a Burmester 948 among others – as well as the equipment furniture from Finite Element, are optimized for their respective application areas. I was very excited to hear the first sounds.
I premiered the new speakers with a Wailin' Jennys performance in my audio room, starting with the song “Untitled” supported by acoustic guitars. At first I was dismayed at what I heard: smallest details and unimaginable precision, a life-‐sized display and on top of all that this swinging groove. Either my previous acoustic transducers were never particularly good – or this BA 71 was just broadening my horizon. If the women sang in a choir, I could easily follow each one of them or enjoy the vocal synthesis. I could also notice a great airiness in the spatiality that served to make the acoustic events seem even more immediate. The thing that ran through the whole performance from the start to the last chord, and through many hours of intense listening, was a completely new dimension of precision. Whatever they did there in Berlin – they somehow managed to create something bigger and united from all 16 drivers. This can be easily realized by getting into the “Trans-‐Europa-‐Express” of Kraftwerk and leaving Paris behind. Every piece of the puzzle that is this title is easily liberated by the Burmester and put back together to one impressive wholeness. This precision is never boring, I would even say it's contagious. What a great pursuit high end audio can be.
Sophisticated Massiveness
he illusion grew to perfection beyond the test course late in the night with the piece “Danny Boy” by the “King of the Tenors” Ben Webster. The sax, the flowing air, and the reserved accompanying instruments transported me into an old jazz club that was entirely
empty save for me and the band. It was almost surreal. The next day I began with a lavish bass orgy of the Jazzkantine, and “Lieber Langsam.” The song runs against the spirit of the age: only two notes of the bass guitar suffice to carry the whole title. The BA 71 works with an enormous pressure that relaxes with impudent depth – it showed no flaws whatsoever.
This man has led his company successfully for more than thirty
years. He is not thinking about stopping, as the
fun in his everyday work is too great. His name stands for the high-‐end of the high-‐
end area: Dieter Burmester.
Friends of classical and jazz music will find this precision very satisfactory. It's like in photography when you use different lenses. Even if you take photos of the same object again and again, the pictures will show variations. That is exactly how I felt listening to Mendelssohn's “Sommernachtstraum,” that I had never heard in such authenticity in my own house before. The individual instruments that form groups and end in unclouded unity were just as highly accomplished with the spatial expansion of all three dimensions, made possible thanks to the rear-‐facing tweeter. There is no limit to the dimension, as the finishing choir of “Freude, Schöner Götterfunken” from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony shows. The tones are not only correct; they virtually glow in the audio room and convey the feeling of the song, one hundred percent. What kind of outstanding experience quality is this? One thing has to be clear, however: if you experience music through a pair of BA 71s, you can't just remain passive. Its tracing, clarity, and vivid character prevent boredom even with boring music.
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The crossovers are made from several components that are installed as close as possible to their application area. Here you can see the crossover on the back of the rear panel. The use of high quality components from Mundorf was decided on due to its sound characteristics as well as its high series stability.
Full power – no problem
y musical repertoire also includes some rock and heavy records; music at which many high end enthusiasts can only cringe. A reaction I can hardly comprehend when faced with excellently produced titles like “Pretty When You Cry“ by Vast. With a higher
volume, the BA 71 started the song with heavy hits that weren't only audible, but tangible. After 90 seconds the intro of the title was over and I was faced with a massive wall of sound, that I had never expected in this glory despite the size and weight of the Burmester. Did I ever have any kind of negative experience or irritation at something? Yes, I did. “Sultans of Swing” by the Dire Straits has been one of my favourite titles for decades, and I should have never listened to it through the BA 71. For one because I heard Knopfler's voice as authentic as never before. And for another because the date of the record, in 1978, became well apparent – but not like with so many systems as reproach, but as a full-‐fledged historic document. I am deeply impressed how close you can get to the music through the Burmester BA 71. I don't want to listen to it any differently in the future!
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