Preamp for Burmester power amp

nibongese

With the Burmester 956 Mk II with an input impedance this low.
Input Impedance XLR/RCA, 1.88 kΩ / 13.6 kΩ on both xlr and rca.
http://www.rutherfordaudio.com/products/burmester-956-mk2-power-amplifier/

Make sure you have a solid state preamp with nice low output impedance, passives and most tubes preamps need not apply, unless the tube pre has a "paralleled cathode follower" for an output stage, to get the output impedance down to solid state territory, then the tube nutz say they don’t sound to good, but muso’s love them so wt*.

Gain of the 956 is quite high at 31.5db (.8v in for full watts out) so you really don’t need any more preamp gain, all you’ll need is a active pre with unity gain buffer, this way you be able to use a good range on the volume control.
Where with a active preamp with gain you could be at 9 o’clock on the volume for loud listening.
What is your source output level?

Cheers George

My source is Burmester DAC 113 and Blacknote DAC 30

From what I found the 113 dac gives out 4V!
and the Dac30 is 2.5v

As you can see your 956 only needs .8v into it for full wattage output, so the preamp should be (unity) no gain to get good volume range on the volume control.

Cheers George

Hi George,

thanks for for the advice. So what do u mean is I just need a DAC with volume control ?

nibongese OP
 So what do u mean is I just need a DAC with volume control ?

Oh yes!!, but your the one who said it, now watch the pro preamp brigade chuck a mental, and put a hex on your first born.

If they have volume controls: If not you’ll need that buffered preamp.
The 113dac is 130ohms output impedance so a fine match direct into the 956.
The Blacknote even though it’s tube has an output transformer which is a nice low 75ohm output impedance so it’s fine also into the 956.

Hopefully you can use their digital domain volume controls at 75% or higher and it’s not too loud, below 75% you’ll start to run the risk of "bit stripping" 16bit 14bit 12bit 10bit ect the lower you go on the volume.

Cheers George