Burmester BX100 floorstanding loudspeaker

By: Alan Sircom [hi-fi+ Issue 240]

If you look closely, there is a quiet revolution taking place at Burmester. There is a bit more pep in its step today. The new BX100 floorstanding loudspeaker exemplifies this change on several levels.

Firstly, the BX100s’ had a very swift turnaround from ‘prototype’ to ‘realised product’ by the standards of any manufacturer, regardless of what that company makes. However, this isn’t some part-finished project, and Burmester is not using its early-adopters as beta testers of the BX100. This fast turnaround time is the result of something altogether good and positive: Burmester is investing in a larger Research & Development team. Easy to say, but as with anything worth doing properly, hard to do well. And Burmester has got the balance just about spot-on!

Design Capacity

The BX100 is the product of a company that possesses design capacity. This contrasts with the ‘one man band’ nature of many audio brands; where new products get stuck in process because the designer doesn’t have enough hours in the day to finish the project, sign it off and hand it over to production. This design capacity at Burmester combines some highly innovative product and industrial design concepts, avoiding both ‘designer’s folly’ and the pitfalls of being ‘designed by committee’. This outcome stems from investing in the crucial aspects, both in the BX100 itself and in the back office responsible for designing and manufacturing that product.

Then, there’s the company Burmester keeps today. The Berlin-based brand has never been weak on finishing touches, but audio enthusiasts can be forgiving. If it sounds good, they will happily put up with a product that looks like it should be harvesting wheat. However, once a company starts being associated with some of Germany’s finest brands outside of audio, it must raise its game. So, it is with Burmester; already, outstanding levels of fit and finish are a given, but when your brand name sits in the main seat of a Maybach and you are working with brands like the silversmiths Robbe & Berking, the subtle touches make all the difference. That’s the case with the BX100.

Tackling Preconceptions

This not only emphasises the company’s industrial design but also tackles audiophiles’ preconceived notions about a brand. Long-standing enthusiasts likely began their Burmester experience with something like the 808 preamplifier (now in Mk5 form) and consider other brands when searching for loudspeakers. New buyers in this shared luxury concept have no such prejudices and regard the BX100 as a pair of exceptionally good, well-crafted loudspeakers.

But what marks the BX100 as unique and different from previous Burmester loudspeakers? The BX100 is a large floorstanding four-way bass-reflex design, with an AMT tweeter, a 170mm polypropylene/carbon fibre driver for midrange and midbass and two 260mm side-firing polyester/GRP bass units. It stands a shade under a metre and a half tall on its spikes and weighs in at an impressive 136kg all up. While impressive, these raw figures describe a typical modern top-end Burmester speaker design.

What’s changed is the approach to the loudspeaker as a concept. The most apparent aspect of this change is that AMT tweeter. It’s now a free-standing design sitting in the smallest enclosure you could comfortably house an AMT without exposing its wiring. That gives the already open and fast-sounding AMT a level of transparency and speed that is usually the preserve of small, two-way stand-mounts. It also contributes to an unusually wide horizontal dispersion. This tweeter block sits in front of an absorbent, curvilinear wraparound that visually hides the loudspeakers’ ‘spine’ and helps prevent rear reflections from the almost point-source tweeter.