Burmester B25 loudspeaker Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ittok tonearm, Spectral cartridge; Day-Sequerra Classic FM tuner.
Digital Sources: Bryston BCD-1 CD player, Sony SCD-C555ES SACD/CD player.
Preamplifier: Mark Levinson ML-7.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson ML-2 monoblocks & No.334.
Loudspeakers: Quad ESL-989, Revel Ultima Salon2.
Cables: Digital: Wireworld Starlight Coaxial. Interconnect: Mark Levinson Silver, Red Rose Silver One, Totem Acoustic Sinew single-ended, Pure Silver Cable, Bryston balanced. Speaker: QED X-TUBE 400, Pure Silver Cable R50 biwire double ribbon, Ultralink Excelsior 6N OFHC, Coincident Speaker Technology CST1.
Accessories: Torus Power RM-20 Isolation Unit; ATI SLM-100 analog sound-level meter. Listening room: 26' L by 13' W by 12' H with semi-cathedral ceiling; rear of room opens into 25' by 15' kitchen through 8' by 4' doorway; large bay window in left wall covered with Hunter Douglas Duette Honeycomb fabric shades; moderately furnished with sound-absorbing furniture.—Larry Greenhill

COMPANY INFO
Burmester Audiosystems GmbH
US distributor: Audiophile Systems, Ltd.
8709 Castle Park Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46256
(317) 841-4100
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
rimu's picture

The whole review becomes somewhat redundant after reading the Setup section: terrible amplifier pairing and incorrect positioning make auditioning a speaker completely useless. Burmesters have a side firing bass driver and are designed to be positioned in parallel without or with very little toe-in. As for the amps: Burmester sounds OK with many amps, making somewhat better pairing with some particular models, but among all I've heard Mark Levinson was the worst pairing for them by a large margin. With ML monoblocks the sound was just small, unambitious and zero-fun, although detailed.
Many people would give a serious credit to reviews on Stereophile, so it's a pity that sometimes such weird things happen with the reviews. The best pairing I've heard for these were Audionet AMP monoblocks, and the sound was just a miracle.
In fact B25 has its sonic character and is not a 100% neutral 'audiophile' thing. It's musical and in the same time insanely coherent and resolving. There are not many speakers that could boast combining these traits so well. It particularly shines reproducing vocals. B25 is not so good for orchestral music, so if this is what you are after, B25 won't be the best choice.
For my taste it was the best speaker I could find after listening to a very long list of candidates.

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