The “plug and play” luxury turntable dream eludes the industry, though the gleaming, massive, high-chrome Burmester 175 comes closer than most—not that the buyer will be doing the setup. The dealer will do that. Most tonearms are too delicate to travel with the counterweight hanging off the stub, but the 175’s massive arm is capable and so arrives ready to play—counterweight set for correct tracking force, cartridge installed with overhang pre-set. Setting anti-skating is the only required tonearm adjustment. The not-ready-for-travel components are the tapered bearing structure and the high-mass platter to which it is mated, both of which are easily installed, and with a few cables connected, the buyer is ready to play records. The installer needn’t even be a “turntable guy,” though after a few spins following the setup he might become one!
The 175 is a complete $60,000 playback system consisting of the turntable and magnetically damped base plate, the tonearm, the cartridge, an outboard power supply, an inboard motor controller, and a phono preamplifier. It doesn’t take a turntable “insider” to note that the mechanical parts of the 175 were built to Burmester’s specs and sourced from Acoustic Signature, another top-quality German manufacturer, located outside Suessen, Germany, a short distance from the key manufacturing hub of Stuttgart. With such neighbors, who needs to start with a “blank piece of paper”?
Quad Motor Plattenspieler
The 175’s unsuspended, mass-loaded, relatively compact plattenspieler, the chassis of which is machined from solid-aluminum billet, weighs 60.8kg (approximately 134 pounds) and features four equidistantly situated A.C. synchronous motors hidden under a plate, similar to the 3-motor system found in the Acoustic Signature Montana, which I reviewed a few years ago. Up until then, I remained skeptical of the need for multiple motors, purportedly used to alleviate a single motor and belt’s “pull” and resulting stress on the bearing. Considering this turntable’s high-mass aluminum/brass/aluminum-sandwich platter and spindle bearing, if a single rubber belt can “stress” a bearing, how robust can the bearing’s construction be, I thought (and still do), and what, I thought, were the advantages of multiple motors, each of which just adds noise and vibrations, and what is the likelihood they will all perform identically? And what are the odds the pulleys will be machined identically? And what are the odds the belts will all be manufactured to identical and uniform thicknesses? These are all important questions to ask about any such complex system and its purported benefits when comparing it to basic one-motor/one-pulley/one-belt platter drives.
Much time with the Montana, and now with the Burmester 175, convinced me that if properly designed and manufactured with great care and machining excellence and with careful motor testing and matching and belt manufacturing, combined with a precision motor controller (here a Burmester originated and manufactured, high-precision oscillator-regulated circuit, resulting in “perfect sine and cosine voltages completely immune to mains voltage frequency fluctuations”), such a design can produce outstanding sonic and measured performance as well as transmitting little or no vibrational energy into the plinth and platter—at least as confirmed by a stethoscope inspection. It can also produce sufficiently high torque for the platter to quickly achieve speed, and more importantly in my opinion, to not be affected by “stylus drag,” which is a bigger problem and more audible than some people think! It’s one of the reasons I ended up buying the direct-drive OMA K3 prototype.
The hidden drive system enhances the 175’s “plug ’n’ play”-ness in that the installer never has to see, much less touch or install, a belt. The multiple belts are pre-installed on the motor pulleys and around the subplatter, all of which are buried under an aluminum plate—not so in the Montana where the belts must be installed in a somewhat complicated arrangement either by the dealer or buyer. Burmester avoids that here by doing a factory-install, made possible by a re-design of the subplatter assembly.
The 9-inch tonearm (222mm pivot-to-spindle distance, 232.2mm effective length), made by Acoustic Signature to Burmester specs, features a massive bearing housing and a multi-layer carbon arm tube that looks like what Acoustic Signature uses on its TA-5000 NEO arm. The effective mass spec of 2.8g is surely a typo. It’s more likely 12.8g since the TA-5000 NEO’s is 12.4g and 2.8g is more appropriate for an arm of balsa wood! (Burmester had corrected that typo in the manual; it is indeed 12.8g.) The bearing type isn’t specified, and it’s not necessarily critical for a product of this type, but it’s most likely the Neo 5000’s SKF-sourced, pre-tensioned hybrid ceramic/stainless-steel one. The arm allows for the full range of adjustments including VTA/SRA and azimuth, all of which have been factory pre-adjusted. Since end users will not be checking, I chose to not “second guess” these settings by inspecting SRA with a digital microscope or azimuth with a digital oscilloscope.
A pre-mounted moving-coil cartridge (sourced from Ortofon to Burmester specs), featuring a nude Shibata stylus fitted to a sapphire cantilever, has a commendably low 5-ohm internal impedance, which usually means fewer coil turns, and lower moving mass. VTF (vertical tracking force) and output are not among the manual’s cartridge specs, and that’s a pair of glaring and somewhat mysterious omissions— even if the cartridge comes pre-installed with all tonearm parameters set. (A revised Burmester manual includes the recommended tracking force of 2.1–2.3g.)
Burmester includes a setup-parameter-simplified version of its highly regarded $27,500 Model 100 phono preamplifier. The one built-in does not include certain features, including dual inputs, a choice of mm or mc cartridge (and both resistive and capacitive loading), a “mono” switch, a defeatable subsonic filter, and a voltmeter, but it does include on the unit’s back panel a choice of six well-chosen resistive loads (4.7k, 1.0k, 470, 330, 220 and 100 ohms), and the spec notes a built-in 16Hz subsonic filter as well as 70dB gain—a clue to the cartridge’s output, which must be around 0.2mV. In addition to the resistive load switch, the open and easily accessed back panel features a set of balanced XLR outputs, a polarity invert switch (labeled “phase”), a power supply connection socket, and an “auto power down” switch that, if activated, puts the unit into standby mode after 20 minutes of inactivity.
While the Shaknspin device is not “lab grade,” it’s reasonably accurate for what it measures and repeatably reliable (so useful to compare speed accuracy among turntables). The 175 averaged 33.664 rpm, which is sufficiently close to 33.33 to not show strobe disc movement. Audiophiles who insist upon 33.33 should consider that virtually all the tape machines used during the “golden age” of analog (and to this day) “drift” and rarely maintain perfect 15 and 30ips speed.
Wow and flutter measurements were commendably low, though the designers of the OMA K3 (see Jacob Heil-brunn’s review, Issue 346) claim minute speed changes down to “arc seconds” of rotation (there are 1,296,000 arc seconds in one rotation) are audible, and I can’t measure any turntable’s speed performance to that resolution. So, let’s just say the 175’s speed performance was very good.
Setup and Use
Starting with a stable level platform, it takes but a few minutes to place the magnetically damped isolation base plate, top it with the heavy main chassis (best done by two people), add the large tapered subplatter and then, using the supplied suction-cupped handle, carefully top it with the platter and the supplied anti-static mat (if necessary, the plinth’s feet are adjustable). Connect the Lemo-plug-terminated cable between power supply and main unit, and once connected to A.C. you’re ready to take the platter for a spin, though to play records you must set anti-skating. However, the instruction—to use the blank section of the supplied record and adjust until the arm doesn’t drift in either direction—is incorrect.
Friction is among the components that produces “skating,” and therefore a blank record delivers unrealistically low friction and cannot produce accurate results (the other cause of skating relates to the “overhang”—that is, the number of millimeters the stylus “overhangs” beyond the pivot to spindle distance (see wallyanalog.com/post/skating-and-anti-skating-force-myths). The Burmester instructions include a note saying setting anti-skating so the arm drifts outwards slightly may help improve the sound. Not may! Will! Another way to set anti-skating that works well according to more than a few trusted sources is to let the stylus ride into the lead-out groove area and set anti-skating so it slowly begins to head back to the grooves. Using the 175 is one-knob simplicity: “off”, “33 1/3,” and “45.” It’s as easy to use as you’d hope a “near plug ’n’ play” turntable would be.
Precise, Well-Focused, Detailed Sound
This will sound like a shameless plug, but the first record I played was the one I recently released and co-produced, Rufus Reid Presents Caelan Cardello (Liam Records ARF-1)—recorded live at New York City’s Klavierhaus. I’ve played it on many turntables at home and at shows, so I know it well. “Thick” and slow-sounding front ends mess up the rhythmic thrust of both Cardello’s light keyboard touch and Reid’s nimble bass lines. The 175’s presentation did not produce that kind of problem. Instead, the piano/double bass recording sounded undeniably clean, fast, and “well-organized,” with both instruments having precise, cleanly articulated transient attack; however, both sounded leaner and a bit sharper than expected, or than either should sound. All string, little wood. Emphasis on attack that shortchanged sustain.
Moving on to some other favorites produced similar results, so it didn’t take long to pronounce the 175 possessed of the same “Teutonic cool” often found on 70s era German rock pressings that always sounded brighter and cooler than their American counterparts. But I also noted that there’s been zero cartridge or bearing break-in and that at first, I was running the 175’s output “single-ended” using XLR to RCA adapters. And, of course, this was a system not a component, so who knows the cause of the cool? Cartridge? Phono preamp? Turntable? All three?
So, I switched to XLR balanced “out,” and set about breaking in the cartridge and bearing by playing an expendable record repeatedly without listening. Following that, I listened again to Rufus Reid Presents Caelan Cardello, and the presentation had improved but was still on the noticeably cool (“chilly”) side, as were the other “usual suspect war horses” played. Then I realized I’d not checked load setting, which is on the back of the chassis. It had been set by the installers as directed in the instructions to “the optimal value” of 4.7k ohms.
The instructions say load, “greater than 40 ohms,” which makes complete sense as the “rule of thumb,” for mc loading is 10 times the cartridge’s internal impedance, and the cartridge’s internal impedance is 5 ohms; however, it also says “recommended: 4.7k ohms,” which makes little sense unless the cartridge has unusually high inductance, which a cartridge with 5-ohm internal impedance will almost certainly not have, because that would require many coil turns.
“Loading” a moving-coil cartridge is intended to damp an mc’s inherent high-frequency peak, but loading a 5-ohm internal impedance cartridge at 4.7k ohms will not damp the peak, which explains why all the music sounded “chilly!”
Set to 470 ohms, the sonic picture warmed up considerably, and familiar well-recorded records began to sound as they should. The overall frequency response now sounded linear and well-extended, with pleasing warmth on recordings intended to deliver that, which included the Rufus Reid Presents Caelan Cardello. Caelan plays a Fazioli Grand and Rufus is on his big double bass—both instruments produce far more than the transient shells first heard and with the loading correctly set, the warm sustain accurately filled in the picture.
While in Haarlem, The Netherlands, for the Making Vinyl event, I lucked into a near-mint copy of Ahmad Jamal’s Alhambra (Cadet LP 685) engineered by the great Ron Malo at Jamal’s nightclub, June 1961. I got it for $10! The master was lost in the Universal fire, and all that’s available are hard-to-find clean originals and a 1997 Bernie Grundman-cut reissue for the German Alto Analogue label that also sounds “you are there” superb, with dynamic slam when Jamal attacks the keyboard. It goes for more than $200 when a copy shows up on Discogs.
The 175 delivered the goods on this record—hard piano transients and bass line attack, sustain and decay reproduced with great clarity and precision, along with a pleasing sense of the club space behind the instruments. The stylus profile’s thin contact-patch also results in “snappy” rhythmic pacing. Why? Think of a spherical stylus, which is the worst-case vertical modulation scenario if your goal is snappy pacing. The stylus rides up the vertical modulation on the back side of the sphere and at the top contact must transfer to the front side of the sphere after which it can slide down the modulation. The narrower the contact patch, the faster is the “hand off.” In this “micronscopic” world that delay might as well be measured in miles.
With its tall and exceptionally narrow contact patch, the Shibata stylus is among the most revealing, and in this setting—on this unsuspended turntable and low-resonance tonearm, through the Model 100 phono preamp variant—the results on every record played produced exciting “PRaT” (Pace, Rhythm, and Timing), as Brit audiophiles say. If your sonic preferences tend toward the soft, warm, and fat—and there are many who prefer that “romantic” sound, thinking that’s what live music sounds like (which it doesn’t)—the Burmester 175 will most likely not be for you.
But if you want to listen to Miles Davis’s muted trumpet sear your ears as it should on Relaxin’ (especially on the recent Craft “Small Batch” “One-Step” reissue) and if you want to hear lifelike, ear-shattering cymbal hits on closely mic’d recordings, the 175 delivers.
On distantly mic’d recordings, or when musicians back off their instruments to allow the soloist breathing room, the 175 holds it together, where less precise, softer-sounding turntable/arm/cartridge combos lose their grip and allow the presentation to fall apart. Loudspeakers also make or break these kinds of recordings or interludes. I noticed that at the recent Warsaw audio/video show where I debuted the Rufus/Caelan record. When both musicians back way off to allow one or the other to solo, on some speakers with some turntables the performance fell apart and “smeared,” but on the better systems those soft passages produced added magic, forcing the listener to lean in rather than tune out. I never tuned out listening to the Burmester 175.
Conclusion
Not that this can be a 100% accurate comparison for many reasons, but when you consider that Burmester’s Model 100 phono preamp sells for $27,000 and Acoustic Signature’s 3-motor Montana NEO costs $35,000, its TA5000 arm around $8000, and its Shibata-stylus MCX4 cartridge costs $2995, that adds up to $73,000. The Burmester 175 costs $60,000, and its arm might be a pay grade above the TA5000. It also appears to have a far more robust and sophisticated power supply, though it probably serves both the phono preamp and the turntable, and the 175’s platter doesn’t include the Montana NEO’s 24k-gold-plated silencer modules (though even without them the 175 provides records with a very quiet ride).
A direct sonic comparison between the 175 and the $13,000 more costly separate componentry would be interesting, but what’s clear is that there are always savings to be had when you can avoid a chassis or two, and here, with the built-in phono preamp, you avoid one, as well as two sets of interconnects that alone could cost thousands.
Along with the theoretic cost savings, for someone interested in getting into vinyl playback minus the usual mix-and-match componentry and set-up difficulties, an almost-ready-to-play integrated package like the Burmester 175 presents an attractive alternative, and given what the package includes, you get a top-tier performer in a super-attractive, space-saving bundle. If you are ready to take the vinyl plunge and have the resources, with the right software you’ll immediately “get” what the vinyl resurgence has to offer. Just be prepared to clear some shelf space!
Specs & Pricing
Record Player
Drive: Belt drive
Motors: 4 synchronous motors
Turntable speeds: 33RPM, 45RPM
Dimensions: 450mm x 250mm x 395mm
Weight: 60.8kg
Tonearm
Type: Multi-layer carbon arm tube
Effective length: 238.2mm
Overhang: 16.2mm
Azimuth setting: Via clamp screws
Weight setting: Fine thread
Tonearm weight: 0.7kg
Effective mass: 2.8g
Phonostage
Outputs: XLR
Frequency response: 16Hz–102kHz (subsonic filter at 16Hz, +2dB, –3dB)
Intrinsic noise at output: –71dBV (unweighted, 22.4kHz)
Input impedance (mc): 4.7kΩ, 1.0kΩ, 470Ω, 330Ω, 220Ω, 100Ω
THD @1kHz/0.5mV: 0.0018%
Gain: 70dB
Channel offset: 0.1dB
System price: $60,000
BURMESTER HOME AUDIO GMBH
Wilhelm-Kabus-Straße 47 10829 Berlin, Germany
burmester.de
Burmester Home Audio USA
250 A Butler Industrial Drive
Dallas, GA 30132
(303) 845-0773
norm.steinke@burmester.de
Associated Equipment
Speakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Chronosonic XVX
Preamplifier: darTzeel NHB-18NS
Power amplifier: darTzeel NHB 468 monoblocks
Phono preamplifier: (None)
Tonearms: (None)
Phono cartridges: (None)
Cable and interconnects: AudioQuest Dragon & TARA Labs The Zero Evolution & Analysis Plus Silver Apex & Stealth Sakra and Indra (interconnects). Stealth Helios DIN to RCA phono cable, AudioQuest Dragon and Dynamic Design Neutron GS Digital (A.C. power cords)
Accessories: AudioQuest Niagara 7000 (line level), CAD Ground Controls; AudioQuest NRG Edison A.C. wall box and receptacles, ASC Tube traps, RPG BAD, Sklyline & Abffusor panels, Stillpoints Aperture II room panels, Stillpoints ESS and HRS Signature stands, HRS XVR turntable base, Thixar and Stillpoints amplifier stands, Audiodharma Cable Cooker, Furutech Record demagnetizer, Orb Disc Flattener, Audiodesksysteme Vinyl Cleaner Pro X, Kirmuss Audio KA-RC-1 and KLAUDIO KD-CLN-LP200T record cleaning machines, full suite WallyTools
