Belt-Driven, 190-Pound 069 CD Player Features 96 and 192 kHz Sample Rate Conversion, Fully Balanced DACS, Oversize External Power Supply and No-Compromise Build Quality for Impeccable Performance
Burmester USA, a division of Burmester Audiosysteme, Germany’s leading manufacturer of high-performance electronics and speakers, introduces the 069 Reference Line CD Player, representing the state of the art in musicality and natural sound reproduction, at CEDIA EXPO ‘07.
The 069 CD Player is an elegant, cutting-edge digital playback system created for connoisseurs of musical performance and sophisticated product design. As the successor of the legendary 969/970 CD Drive/DAC Combo, it achieves its superb performance partly by using a proprietary belt drive built completely in-house (instead of the off-the-shelf direct-drive other manufacturers commonly use), and by completely de-coupling the drive unit mechanically and electrically to insulate the reading process from all external interference. This also allows the 069 CD Player to better capture those small parts of the signal that the human ear translates as spatial image, focus and musical accuracy.
The belt drive is hand-made at the Burmester factory in Berlin. The drive unit rests in the massive double-chamber housing in a solid aluminum capsule block to further isolate it from mechanical and acoustic interference, such as footfalls and sound waves from nearby speakers. To isolate the drive still more, the 069 CD Player’s spiked feet may be set directly on the unit’s proprietary aluminum base (supplied as standard with the unit), using special carbon-fiber spring pucks to isolate them from footfalls.
The 069 CD Player also boasts newly developed and highly precise 96 and 192-kHz oscillators with minimal phase noise and high thermal stability. The oscillators also function as the system’s clock, and as a low-jitter clock for the Sample Rate Converter and DACs. These efforts result in perfect digital replication of the analog wave shape.
The 069 CD Player’s exceptional build quality includes a sophisticated belt-drive CD mechanism built entirely in-house by Burmester utilizing the best available micro optics. The belt-drive unit ensures the CD’s correct rotation at all points. A 4-mm thick spindle — rotating friction-free on a polished sapphire in a precision bearing with a tolerance less then one three-thousands of a millimeter — enables the 069 to read each CD perfectly. No reading errors need to be found, measured and corrected.
The unique external power supply houses oversized and separate 50-watt toroid transformers for both the digital and analog sections, and a central stabilized distribution system with a special DC filter for mutual de-coupling.
The 069 CD Player’s connection panel includes balanced outputs (switchable between fixed or variable), two unbalanced outputs, two unbalanced digital RCA outputs with 75-ohm impedance, and a Toslink optical digital output. AES-EBU and ST (AT&T) Digital outputs are planned to follow as an optional module in 2008. The digital inputs process all incoming signals with the selected sample rate conversion. A remote control is supplied as standard.
The 069 CD Player can be optionally equipped with the newest version of Burmester’s BurLink interface, which features RS-232 and USB2.0 ports. It’s ideal for integration with home automation systems, such as those from Crestron, AMX and other manufacturers.
Burmester’s new 069 Reference Line CD Player will be available in October in a silver housing with a chrome front panel at a suggested price of $49,995. It is also available as an option with a black anodized chassis and in other finishes. It can be seen with the company’s other outstanding products at the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown, 1400 Welton Street (2 blocks from the Colorado Convention Center), during CEDIA EXPO.
http://www.cepro.com/article/burmester_introduces_reference_line_cd_player/K3
