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: davea@aslgroup.com E-mail: charliek@aslgroup.com

We’re on the web

http://www.aslgroup.com

2008 Bugatti Veyron 16.4

Top floor apartment being used by the local Burmester dealer.

The Siegessäule