Audiophilepure

What I enjoyed most about the Alyssas was their precise detail. I couldn’t stop listening to them because they truly brought things out of my most familiar recordings that I had not heard before. The sparkle of piano tones, the nuances of different bassoon sounds, and the huge soundstage and presence all suggested a much larger speaker. If you can set them up on stands with some breathing room away from the walls, you will be rewarded with a sound that is much larger than the small cabinets would suggest. Those ribbon tweeters are pure gold. The Alyssas truly disappear into the room.

Burmester BC150 Exclusive First Look

Burmester Audiosysteme GmbH is one of the world’s most renowned manufacturers in the field of high-end audio systems. The owner-managed company based in Berlin was founded in 1977 by Dieter Burmester. With a clear focus on home and automotive audio, Burmester maintains global collabora­tions with industry leaders in other industries (including Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and the Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur Berlin, among others) and is a member of Meisterkreis Deutschland and Initiative Deutsche Manufakturen. 

I cautioned him that I would vet the speaker first in demo before committing to an article, because I was not going to spend my time on an inferior speaker, and I did not intend to destroy a small manufacturer with a review seen globally if his early effort fell short. I have done enough reviews of ok but not scintillating products that I simply do not care to spend any more time on them. Reviewers can damn small enterprises with one article, and they need to be sensitive to the disproportionate power they possess over the welfare of a company. One component maker lamented to me that among several very positive reviews, a single one gone sideways due to what he felt was malfeasance on the part of the reviewer was a sticking point in the minds of many potential customers. They had no idea of the issues the manufacturer had to endure as a result of the reviewer and magazine not following the manufacturer’s advice in preparation and setup of the product. As another manufacturer of a preamp, who had brought it for me to hear, said out of the blue as we were listening, “If you don’t like it, I’m not going to give it to you to review.” I was taken aback by the comment. Is that collusion? Is it the evil industry? No, it’s self-preservation, as he said were I to have a negative disposition, “My family is on the street. I’m literally wiped out.” As it turned out, he was not able to leave the unit and never did send another.