Dieter Burmester founded Burmester Audiosysteme in Berlin in 1977, on a single conviction: that an amplifier’s job is to disappear inside the music. The label has held that line for five decades.
By day he repaired tube radios; by night he played guitar in a band — and somewhere between the two, he started building the equipment he wished existed. His first preamplifier (the 777, 1978) was hand-finished in chrome and silver-wired throughout — a finish that has remained Burmester’s signature for half a century. The company stayed in Berlin, family-owned and hand-built, even as the audio industry consolidated around it.
Burmester’s topology choices have been quietly contrarian — DC-coupled signal paths, dual-mono construction, generous power supplies, and circuit boards built one at a time on a bench. The 808 preamplifier (1980) is still in production, with the same circuit, forty-five years later. The 100 phono preamp and the B-series loudspeakers are the current benchmarks.
Dieter passed away in 2015. The company continues under his name and his standards, in the same Berlin factory. Audio Autobahn is the exclusive Montréal partner — the full current range is in residence and on audition by appointment.
