Preamp for Burmester power amp

Hi, nibongese,

A few years ago I played around with your amp (or was it a previous model?) driving a pair of ATC scm50 (not my spkrs)—coincidence, eh!
With the owner, we tried the following pres on loan from shop & friends. Cables were from Nordost. The cd source from Burmester, Ayazi dac (modded; 1st I'd heard of that). We listened to classical, chamber and orchestral music:

• *Burmester 099-- excellent result, music had a sense of urgency/dynamics, low-level detail was OK, hi frequencies OK and pleasant rather than super-detailed, low-frequency extension very good 
• *Burmester something else (cheaper than 099): pronounced midrange, recessed hi & low frequencies, somewhat pronounced mid-bass; not bad result, but pale compared to its big brother.
• *Cat Ultimate (yes that's tubes): similar to 099 but with less pronounced highs; I remember that low frequencies were unusually good, however.
• *Dartzeel "NHB-something": outstanding result. Extension at both ends fantastic, details, no edges, no screeching, good sense of air around the instruments and good dynamics. The amp seemed to have been inspired to boost its dynamics!
• *FM acoustics FM122 single-ended with FM IC: outstanding (- I rarely use superlatives). I remember being so enthusiastic, we switched to a blues & similar (JL Hooker, Clapton, B Guy) just for the sheer joy of it and spent some time drinking and listening and not auditioning!
• *The big Ayre of the moment (XK5?): excellent result overall: no frequency group was pronounced, nice flow to the music ("liquid")-- but lacking in dynamics & extension vs compared to FM & Dart.

(Ultimately, the choice was to trade in the Burmester & buy a used FM pre/power combo... )

Good luck, the fun is in the journey as well as the destination!

3)The balanced inputs of your amp have an **extremely** low input impedance of 1.88K. I suspect that the Pass and Ayre preamps would be able to drive such a low impedance with good results, but it would probably be a good idea to check with the manufacturers to be sure.

I know of a few tube preamps that can drive low impedances like this no sweat, and balanced as well.

Why would anyone design an amplifier with only an 1,880ohm input impedance? It makes very little sense unless they want to force the buyer to (also) purchase their supposedly matching preamp. Just curious.

I know of a few tube preamps that can drive low impedances like this no sweat, and balanced as well.

I know of some too. I hear they are quite good!

Best regards,
-- Al   :-)

Hi Almarg,

How about Mark Levinson 326s or 523 preamp? Do u think they are good match?

After looking at their specs and at Stereophile’s measurements of the 326s and the 526 (which is spec’d similarly to the 523), I don’t see any technical or compatibility issues. I have no knowledge of their sonics, though.

With either of those models, btw, you would want to avoid the higher of the various gain settings they provide, certainly in the case of the 326s. The specified input overload voltages for that model are very low for its 12 db and 18 db gain settings.

Regards,
-- Al