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212 REVIEW Otherworldly Power Burmester 909 Mk5 Power Amplifier By Jeff Dorgay TONE AUDIO NO.53 March 2013 213
214 TONE AUDIO NO.53 Jst as mega sports cars all offer different approaches to performance, giving the Aston Martin driver a completely different experience than the Ferrari, Porsche or Corvette driver, so do mega power amplifiers. I’ve spent a lot of time these last few months with some of the world’s top amplifiers and it’s amazing how different from one another they sound. But each amp, in its own way, defines state-of-theart audio performance. Burmester’s smaller 911 MK3 has been a reference amplifier here for almost four years. Surviving a fall from the FedEx truck in the middle of a busy intersection, the 911 has played nonstop for the duration, rarely being powered down, always providing fantastic performance. But even considering the 911’s prowess as an amplifier, more power changes the game. Beyond the obvious ability of bigger amplifiers to achieve higher soundpressure levels, they also offer more control at all power levels. Most, if not all, speakers present a treacherous load to an amplifier’s output terminals, changing impedance with frequency and generating back EMF—some speakers are even highly capacitive to boot. The dynamic load a speaker presents does not adversely affect a mas- REVIEW sive amplifier like the 909 MK5, with substantial power reserves and a high-damping factor, in the same way it does a small amplifier. The end result? A spacious sound, free of fatigue. Big Power, Big Price Tag Merely swapping out the 911 for the 909 provides an immediately noticeable and revelatory improvement—which it should for $73,495. The German Physiks speakers I’ve been auditioning for the last month appear to grow in stature, feeling like someone snuck in overnight and moved them about 4 feet farther apart; the effect is not at all subtle. And that’s starting with the amazing Burmester 911 as a baseline! The instant Alex Van Halen’s drum stick hits the opening cymbal in “You’re No Good,” there’s more decay, more weight and more meat on the bone. Right from the first power cord, the guitar has a much fatter sound, feeling more like a wall of amplifiers at a live performance, with a feeling of unlimited power. The bass line underneath Radiohead’s “In Limbo” not only has more texture, but there’s also more space between everything— said bass line, the ethereal guitars, keyboards and dreamy, overprocessed vocals. (continued) March 2013 215
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