The TAS Review of the Burmester $65K 069 Reference CD Player / PRE
Let’s talk about TAS’s review of the $65K Burmester CD player / PRE.
If it was $650K then that would be something… but $65K. Pshaaah. This is US Dollars we are talking about. This new Burmie is less than the old $30K Burmie in real $.
Second, even though Mr. Cordesman who reviewed the player seemed to like th Emm Labs CDSA better than the Burmie, without saying as much, I hated to see him perpetuate the misnomer about the sound of redbook versus SACD, especially on the CDSA.
A few SACDs do sound better than most redbook: DSOTM, Abraxus, … uh, any others? The problem is that, although SACD did have more resolution and a cleaner sound, say, 5 years ago – redbook keeps improving and SACD is kind of losing (lost) momentum. So, to my ears, a good redbook, which is most of them made in the last, 3-5 years, say, sound as good as most SACD.
Ah Ha! you say, then why get the Meitner CDSA when SACDs are not the cats meow anymore? Well, because redbook on the CDSA sounds better than the redbook on any other solid-state player that we have heard, tho we have heard that the Esoteric $50K+ implementation has some goodness as well.
And maybe this Burmie plays redbook well as well. Kind of hard to tell from the review. Mr Cordesman was moving things around …. Pass on Vandy 5s? Boulder on Hansen Prince speakers? Audioquest cables? Sounds like the system was/are tuned to his ears [and not mine! :-)] and subtleties are not what these system designs are going for.
All this is to say, RedBook is pretty darn good, the CDSA (and CDSD/DCC2) play redbook better than anything near them in price, and all those [many] reviewers comparing things to the Meitner players are just trying to avoid saying that the players under review do not sound as good, *playing redbook*, as the Meitner [assuming they have ears and a balanced system] and so spin it by back-handed compliments that imply the CDSA is all about SACDs. Only about 20%-30% of the CDs we play here on the CDSA are SACD. In fact, I never pay attention anymore to what FORMAT it is we are playing – and haven’t for years now.
There are not many ‘deals’ in audio these days, what with the dollar sinking and the flooding of the market of ridiculously priced equipment – the barrier to entry for new manufacturers so low. But the $10K CDSA is one. The Audio Note $4.5K/m PALLAS cable is another. The $4.2K Acoustic Zen Adagios. And uh….uh….uh…. down the list would be the $10K Audio Aero Capitole CD player and $7.5K Lamm LP2 Phono and perhaps their $14K L2 Reference as well. The SoundLabs [even the U1] and the Kharma 3.2. [and we like Odyssey but Quad prices have gone up significantly. Anything else? There are lots of ‘good values’ out there – but if people know of other ‘GREAT values’ out there, please post a comment]
Funny thing about all these great price/performance pieces in the high-end – is that they do not get as much respect from the people who look at price tags: on both ends. The brands are too respectable for the cheaper-is-better crowd and the prices are too low for the expensive-is-better crowd. So… only the people in the middle somewhere, dare I say ‘better-sounding-is-better’ audiophiles? seem to understand and can appreciate the balance of features and performance that makes something worth much more than its asking price.
I think it’s funny that anyone would consider the Audio Note PALLAS interconnect cable to be a ‘GREAT value’ at $4,500 per meter.
Hi Malcom,
We are talking about ‘GREAT values’, not ‘cheapest’. I think there are other places on the net where one can find people talking about the Low Price Leaders and Bargain Basement Specials (and completely different class of brand names) .
Thanks,
Mike.
[Anyone notice that the percentage of hecklers is way, way up? A sure sign of success. …Ugh. Next they’ll say that they are going to cancel their RSS feed subscription in a fit of disgust when we express our opinions about their favorite misconception ;-( ]
Hi Mike,
I was not trying the heckle you. I was simply sharing my surprise that you think a $4,500 interconnect is a ‘GREAT value’. Your reply about ‘Bargain Basement Specials,’ aside from being rather condescending, misses the point of my original comment entirely.
The definition of ‘value’ is the same no matter what tax bracket you are in. For something to be a ‘GREAT value,’ it must not only beat competing items that cost more, but also competing items that cost less–AND by a margin that is proportionate to the difference.
In other words, to be a ‘GREAT value,’ the PALLAS must be at least somewhat better than, say, a $5,000 cable, AND it must also be an order of magnitude better than a $500 cable.
If your opinion is indeed that the PALLAS is many times better than a $500 cable, as well as at least somewhat better than more expensive cables, perhaps you could tell us which models you are basing your opinion upon so we can learn something.
Thanks,
Malcom
Sorry about that, Malcom. A single sentence like that reminded me of so many similar posts on the Asylum and AVSforum.
A ‘GREAT value’, yes. You can see the results of one of our shootouts written up here:
http://audiofederation.com/blog/archives/440
For example, the Jorma Design Prime interconnect was also a GREAT value, at $7K. It is now $10K [darn that U.S. dollar] and is back to ‘good value’ status. The PALLAS will eventually end up at $7500 – $10K, just based on comparables.
And we carry most if not all of the comparables.
Most cables out there suck, in our opinion, sucking [:-)] the life out of the music by removing micro-dynamics, harmonic information, removing time-and-phase information, etc. Some cables suck less. Those are the ones we like 🙂 We are continuously looking for more brands of cables to carry – but so far, well, if we can’t stand to have them in our own systems…
Take care,
and again, I apologize,
Mike.
[I added a link to one of the Jorma Design PRIME reviews we did. It is 8:30pm. It is August 15th. and it is 46 degrees outside and raining and raining. I am hoping it snows tonight – which will be a first ever for this area for August. Then I hope it goes right back up into the 90s. :-)]