At the end of September, Charlie and I took a much anticipated trip to Berlin to visit Burmester. Both Charlie and I have visited several different factories, so we thought we knew what to expect from Burmester. Oh, how little we actually did know. Right from the start of the factory tour, we saw exactly what Burmester quality means. We have all heard about how they make their own screws and such, but the care taken in the manufac- turing process is nothing less than spectacular. Each and every person involved in the daily procedure is an arti- san in every sense of the word. From the time the raw parts enter the factory, to when the finished product is shipped, the time and atten- tion to detail invested is on par with complex neurosurgery, let alone high-end audio manufacturing. With each area that we visited the first morning, I began to see what Udo and Ralf meant when they said, “It’s the Burmester Way”. -Dave Adams The Burmester Visit Burmester believes in torture The picture (below-left) shows the torture testing that each item is subjected to for at least five days. These particular 911s were pushing, essen- tially, a dead short for 120 hours. The amount of heat being generated was simply amazing. The drivers ( right) are also subjected to the same type of stress. They are then measured again and the frequency response is recorded so that each loudspeaker will have exactly match- ing drivers loaded into it. Another benefit is that any replacement driver ever needed will be a matched duplicate of the one being replaced. A Visit to Burmester ASL GROUP Various loudspeakers being inspected A Burmester board being hand-filled Another Master-Craftsman at Burmester The power for the Burmester sauna A full excursion test
Dave and Charlie's thoughts about their recent trip to the Burmester factory in Berlin.
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
At the end of September, Charlie
and I took a much anticipated trip
to Berlin to visit Burmester.
Both Charlie and I have visited
several different factories, so we
thought we knew what to expect
from Burmester. Oh, how little we
actually did know.
Right from the start of the factory
tour, we saw exactly what
Burmester quality means. We
have all heard about how they
make their own screws and such,
but the care taken in the manufac-
turing process is nothing less than
spectacular.
Each and every person involved
in the daily procedure is an arti-
san in every sense of the word.
From the time the raw parts enter
the factory, to when the finished
product is shipped, the time and atten-
tion to detail invested is on par with
complex neurosurgery, let alone
high-end audio manufacturing.
With each area that we visited the first
morning, I began to see what Udo and
Ralf meant when they said, “It’s the
Burmester Way”. -Dave Adams
The Burmester Visit
Burmester believes in torture The picture (below-left) shows the torture testing that each
item is subjected to for
at least five days.
These particular 911s
were pushing, essen-
tially, a dead short for
120 hours. The amount of
heat being generated
was simply amazing.
The drivers ( right) are
also subjected to the
same type of stress.
They are then measured
again and the frequency
response is recorded so
that each loudspeaker
will have exactly match-
ing drivers loaded into
it. Another benefit is that any replacement driver ever needed
will be a matched duplicate of the one being replaced.
A Visit to Burmester A S L G RO U P
Various loudspeakers being inspected
A Burmester board being hand-filled
Another Master-Craftsman at Burmester
The power for the Burmester sauna
A full excursion test
The attention to detail on all fronts—be it the component selection, the assembly, the redundant
inspection process, or the meticulous documentation of all of the aforementioned—was evident
from the moment Dave and I stepped into the stark-white entryway of the Berlin-based facility.
Fresh off of a 12-hour commute, we were bright-eyed and ready for the tour of the factory. Not looking to the outside ob-
server as bright-eyed as we thought, we were handed espressos and almost im-
mediately met by Dieter Burmester himself. International Sales Manager Ralf
Mannhardt then walked us through the product development department.
Scores of color-coded files bearing the number of every model of Burmester
component covered a wide swath of one wall. These files contained the research
and development information—electrical, mechanical, and operating code—for
every product. A treasure-trove of carefully catalogued details that lead to the
production of (insert favorite Burmester product here).
-Charlie Krone
But wait, there’s more!
Let’s suppose that you are the owner of a 777—a 31-year-old ampli-
fier—where, oh where might you find spare parts? A new front
panel? A new input selector?
It does not matter what unit you have. Burmester
maintains a very costly inventory of original spare
parts—cosmetic, mechanical, and electrical—for
every product that they have ever produced.
Everything can be fixed. Period.
-Charlie
When Burmester does need to service a
product, they can match every internal
component and can be sure that the fre-
quency response, noise floor, THD—
everything—is as close as possible to
the state it was when it was first tested.
When a Burmester unit is serviced, it is
literally As Good As New. And they have
the records to prove it.
Details...
Service and Support
I could go on about the layout and organization of every window-lit room of the
building, but being Mr. Service and Support, I would like to focus on two aspects
of Burmester that are tied closely together: quality assurance and customer ser-
vice.
While I was being introduced to Uwe, my service trainer for the week, another
technician had an 001 CD player hooked up to a computer for analysis. It was
explained to me that the unit had just finished its five-day burn-in period, and
was ready for final diagnostic testing before going to a listening room. Again,
every step was documented. I was then led to The Archive. The Archive is a fire-
proof room with the build record and test results for every serial number of
every unit ever built—all the way back to Dieter’s very first 777 that he built in
his flat (that 777, by the way, is on display in Burmester’s museum).
- Charlie
Tested drivers awaiting a cabinet
“The” 777
Page 2 A Visit to Burmester
Enzo, I doubt we would get the same
answer.
Simply put, it is the Burmester way.
-Dave.
measured, re-measured, and then meas-
ured again. Not to mention all of the docu-
mentation for each and every step of pro-
duction. Can we call
Bugatti and ask for an
exact acoustic match for
the tweeters in our new
Veyron 16.4 (of course
we can, it is built by
Burmester).
But, if we tried the same
thing with a Ferrari
If jewelry-like construction, hyper-
meticulous quality assurance, the best
sound in the business, and service and
support that will make the product live
longer than you do does not meet your
standards, then you might need to
consider a different luxury audio line.
At least that is what I saw whilst walk-
ing through the Burmester factory…
-Charlie
The Burmester Way Here at ASL we are lucky enough to
do business with some of the best
companies, making the best products
in the world. There are times that, at
least for me, I get a little spoiled since
I am used to the job that Burmester
does. It did take a trip to Berlin to jolt
me back into the reality that they are
the only company that takes the time
and effort to insure the quality of the
product to this extent.
Not even your favorite super-car is
Page 3
A rack of crossovers waiting installation.
Another shipment being packed.
Charlie next to an early cross-over design Interior design of a local Burmester shop The usual suspects
Based in Indianapolis, IN, The ASL Group is proud of its thirty year history as one of the leading US distributors of high per-formance audio and audio/video products.
Founded by Tony Gregory and the late Gary Warzin, the Company provides award-winning sales, service, and sup-
port to a specialist dealer network accustomed to presenting products from a select group of interna-tionally recognized manufacturers.