Is Burmester 232 worth the price?


Just bought a Burmester 232 integrated amplifier for a hefty price tag. Similar priced models like Accuphase E800 are available for half off on eBay.

 

Did I make a good decision or should I have gone with Accuphase or Esoteric? Pointers are greatly appreciated. Why is Burmester considered ultra high end?

madhusudan_ramaswamy

Strictly and practically speaking I’d say wait until your amp has broken in over at least 200 hours so you can see which direction you might want to go sonically with a new DAC once the sound settles because it could change significantly and there’s really no rush.  That said, I have some thoughts for you to research in the meantime…

I’m a fan of LTA and own one of their preamps, but their DAC is tubed and in your situation I’m not sure you want to start messing with tubes, and it doesn’t offer balanced connections that personally I’d prefer to use with your fully-balanced amp.  I’d strongly consider looking into the Denafrips Terminator 15th DAC for its combination of sound quality and price…

https://www.denafrips.com/product-page/denafrips-terminator-15th-r-2r-dac

Here’s a review of their next level down DAC just to give you an idea of what type of sound characteristics are on offer to see if it might be to your liking…

https://soundnews.net/reviews/sources/denafrips-venus-15th-r2r-dac-review-a-feast-for-your-ears/

That said, if you can’t help yourself there’s a lightly used Terminator 15th available now, so at least if it doesn’t work out you can likely turn around and sell it for little loss. 

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650241770-denafrips-terminator-15th-dac/

@soix I love warm sound and should get warmer sound with the aero DAC from LTA. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

I love warm sound and should get warmer sound with the aero DAC from LTA. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

While the Aero isn’t necessarily a warm DAC per se, it should certainly be warmer/fuller sounding than your Wiim and a significant improvement across the board.  The nice thing about tubes is if you find you want even more warmth you can swap tubes to tailor the sound more to your liking.  And my bad, you’re correct the Aero has XLR outputs but does not have a balanced input, which was a curious omission to me unless of course it’s not a fully-balanced design that my guess is it’s not.  Anyway, don’t neglect the digital cable between the Wiim and Aero because it can make a huge difference.  I’d check with LTA as to which input they prefer but would think it’d be USB.  Here are a few solid recommendations that won’t break the bank…

https://www.lavricables.com/cables/ultimate-silver-dual-usb-a-b-interconnect-cable/

https://veritascables.com/products/velox-usb

https://silversonic.com/products/digital-cables/mirage-usb/