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Dave and Charlie's visit to the Berlin factory.
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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.
ASL Group
in my life, but I can not remember
when.
Many of the city streets were closed off
because the Berlin Marathon was taking
place on Sunday. During our long trek
across Berlin Mitte, we were able to
witness some of the last marathon par-
ticipants crossing the line at The Bran-
denburg Gate. It was actually quite a
stirring sight to behold since it was dur-
ing my lifetime that the Berlin Wall fell.
Another very interesting trip was to visit
different retail establishments that carry
the Burmester line. Several of those
shops were much like any other spe-
cialty shop in the US. The biggest differ-
ence came when Ralf showed us the
Saturn store. This was essentially like a
We were lucky to enough accomplish
everything on the agenda by late Sat-
urday evening, so we had Sunday to
stroll throughout the city. By stroll, I
do mean walk from one side of Berlin
to the other. I can imagine that I have
walked further than that at some point
Fry’s or Best Buy, but at least ten times
larger.
The last stop of the day was to see the
Bugatti Veyron. 1001 Horsepower, 253
mph, with a Burmester stereo. What more
could I possibly say.
-Dave
A Walk Around Berlin.
8709 Castle Park Drive Indianapolis, IN 46256
Phone: 317-841-4100 Fax: 317-841-4107 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]
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http://www.aslgroup.com
2008 Bugatti Veyron 16.4
Top floor apartment being used by the local Burmester dealer.
The Siegessäule