Thanks Gary! I'm just waiting for my dealer to give me the details on the 111 and see if we can make it happen.
True!
Burmester Music Server 111 ...
- Thread starter joeinid
- Start date
Thanks Gary! I'm just waiting for my dealer to give me the details on the 111 and see if we can make it happen.
True!
Additional info:
The 111 Musiccenter represents Burmester’s high-end statement for a new era of
digital music entertainment, uniquely combining maximum sound quality with an
unparalleled diversity of functions. The unit’s logical and intuitive operation
guarantees untarnished listening enjoyment of the absolute highest level. The
design of this product highlight incorporates new avant-garde elements but still
retains the timeless form language and clear lines for which Burmester is famed.
The new Reference Line Musiccenter not only excels in its outstanding sound quality but
also in its ability to process even very large volumes of data extremely quickly. When a
title is selected, it is available within a fraction of a second. The local player can be
controlled either via the apparatus, by means of a web browser, or via an iPad, using the
specially developed Burmester app. It is also possible to stream data via WLAN.
The 111 Musiccenter is a veritable all-round performer, whose capabilities go far beyond
the functions of a mere server. Thanks to its fully functional preamplifier unit, it serves as
the central element of your sound system. Music connoisseurs have as many as three
analogue and six digital inputs at their disposal, enabling them to connect a wide range
of sound sources. The preamplifier section is galvanically isolated from the server section
to prevent potential interference from the server unit affecting the analogue circuitry
containing the integrated DA converter. Like all Burmester preamplifiers, it consists of
balanced circuitry with a fully DC-coupled signal path and no coupling capacitors getting
in the way of the signal. The sophisticated analogue X-Amp2 output stages obtain their
signal from a Reference D/A converter section, guaranteeing a sound which is highly
defined and musical.
An integrated slot drive is available to allow users to rip their CD collection in optimum
quality. Any album covers and title information not entered is automatically obtained by
matching with the database.
Since audio CD drives only have a forward error correction (FEC) of a few seconds, it can
happen that the data streams outputted by old or scratched CDs suffer from dropouts
during playback. If no appropriate countermeasures are applied, this can seriously impair
enjoyment of the music. However, when a CD is ripped (and not simply played back in
real time) it is possible to read the audio data several times over if necessary, until the
data is completely recovered. In this way, the Burmester Musiccenter is able to process
audio data in maximum resolution and quality and reconstruct a data stream free of the
deficiencies described above.
The high-resolution 7“ display is borrowed from airplane construction – it was originally
conceived as a display for use in the Airbus A380. This is our response to our customers’
expectation of long service life and equipment availability. The unit can be operated
directly using the rotary encoders designed especially by Burmester for the Musiccenter.
To ensure the safety of your valuable music files, the unit contains two mirrored hard
drives, each with a capacity of 1 TB. The first drive is used for storing your music library
while the second stores the same information in parallel, to ensure that your files are
secure, in the event that a hard drive becomes defective. The system drive is a Solid State
Disc (SSD) and optional SSD solutions are also being considered as future updates for the
data storage drives. Your data is also safe in the event of a power cut. The server
undergoes a controlled shutdown with the aid of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS),
guaranteeing maximum protection of your stored music and ensuring system stability.
Features:
· 3 analogue inputs (3x XLR)
· 6 digital inputs (3x RCA, 3x TOSLINK)
· Min. 2x 1TB hard drive capacity for music data storage/data storage with two mirrored hard drives)
· RAID 1
· SSD hard drives
· Supported audio formats: FLAC / wav / mp3
· Can be integrated in a network via LAN / WLAN
· Sampling rate for D/A conversion can be selected from either 96kHz/24bit or 192kHz/24bit, according to personal preference
· High-resolution 7” display for good visibility
· High-end ripping function
· UPnP server
· Local music database containing over 3,000,000 titles for matching file data from ripped CDs
· Internet radio
· Songs assessed using standard five-star evaluation system
· Local playlist management + playlist streaming on all clients
· Samba share
· Audio ID function for recognizing unknown music titles
· Napster accounts can be incorporated
· Worldwide access to stored music data library possible via VPN tunnel
· Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
· Customer specification of cabinet possible
The 111 Musiccenter represents Burmester’s high-end statement for a new era of
digital music entertainment, uniquely combining maximum sound quality with an
unparalleled diversity of functions. The unit’s logical and intuitive operation
guarantees untarnished listening enjoyment of the absolute highest level. The
design of this product highlight incorporates new avant-garde elements but still
retains the timeless form language and clear lines for which Burmester is famed.
The new Reference Line Musiccenter not only excels in its outstanding sound quality but
also in its ability to process even very large volumes of data extremely quickly. When a
title is selected, it is available within a fraction of a second. The local player can be
controlled either via the apparatus, by means of a web browser, or via an iPad, using the
specially developed Burmester app. It is also possible to stream data via WLAN.
The 111 Musiccenter is a veritable all-round performer, whose capabilities go far beyond
the functions of a mere server. Thanks to its fully functional preamplifier unit, it serves as
the central element of your sound system. Music connoisseurs have as many as three
analogue and six digital inputs at their disposal, enabling them to connect a wide range
of sound sources. The preamplifier section is galvanically isolated from the server section
to prevent potential interference from the server unit affecting the analogue circuitry
containing the integrated DA converter. Like all Burmester preamplifiers, it consists of
balanced circuitry with a fully DC-coupled signal path and no coupling capacitors getting
in the way of the signal. The sophisticated analogue X-Amp2 output stages obtain their
signal from a Reference D/A converter section, guaranteeing a sound which is highly
defined and musical.
An integrated slot drive is available to allow users to rip their CD collection in optimum
quality. Any album covers and title information not entered is automatically obtained by
matching with the database.
Since audio CD drives only have a forward error correction (FEC) of a few seconds, it can
happen that the data streams outputted by old or scratched CDs suffer from dropouts
during playback. If no appropriate countermeasures are applied, this can seriously impair
enjoyment of the music. However, when a CD is ripped (and not simply played back in
real time) it is possible to read the audio data several times over if necessary, until the
data is completely recovered. In this way, the Burmester Musiccenter is able to process
audio data in maximum resolution and quality and reconstruct a data stream free of the
deficiencies described above.
The high-resolution 7“ display is borrowed from airplane construction – it was originally
conceived as a display for use in the Airbus A380. This is our response to our customers’
expectation of long service life and equipment availability. The unit can be operated
directly using the rotary encoders designed especially by Burmester for the Musiccenter.
To ensure the safety of your valuable music files, the unit contains two mirrored hard
drives, each with a capacity of 1 TB. The first drive is used for storing your music library
while the second stores the same information in parallel, to ensure that your files are
secure, in the event that a hard drive becomes defective. The system drive is a Solid State
Disc (SSD) and optional SSD solutions are also being considered as future updates for the
data storage drives. Your data is also safe in the event of a power cut. The server
undergoes a controlled shutdown with the aid of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS),
guaranteeing maximum protection of your stored music and ensuring system stability.
Features:
· 3 analogue inputs (3x XLR)
· 6 digital inputs (3x RCA, 3x TOSLINK)
· Min. 2x 1TB hard drive capacity for music data storage/data storage with two mirrored hard drives)
· RAID 1
· SSD hard drives
· Supported audio formats: FLAC / wav / mp3
· Can be integrated in a network via LAN / WLAN
· Sampling rate for D/A conversion can be selected from either 96kHz/24bit or 192kHz/24bit, according to personal preference
· High-resolution 7” display for good visibility
· High-end ripping function
· UPnP server
· Local music database containing over 3,000,000 titles for matching file data from ripped CDs
· Internet radio
· Songs assessed using standard five-star evaluation system
· Local playlist management + playlist streaming on all clients
· Samba share
· Audio ID function for recognizing unknown music titles
· Napster accounts can be incorporated
· Worldwide access to stored music data library possible via VPN tunnel
· Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
· Customer specification of cabinet possible
Hi,
One thing I do not know yet is what resolution the 111 will accept on the toslink and spdif inputs (24/96 or up to 24/192). I know it will up-sample cd to those resolutions. I also do not know if it will play 24/192 without down-sampling it. My dealer is trying to find out more specifics.
· Sampling rate for D/A conversion can be selected from either 96kHz/24bit or 192kHz/24bit, according to personal preference
Joel
I have been a Burmester fan for long time they don't do things half way I am willing to bet a lot that it will play 24/192 with an upgrade path for more. SO don't sweat it ... As for your CDs just rip the darn things on the HD or a NAS with a PC DBPoweramp (Cheap) or and accurately so. with that you are done. it comes with its own preamp so this is an end of th game product..
Must sa that Burmester like the one Box approach. Audiophiles would prefer to tinker and they had to oblige.. Deep inside they like one box.. For example the 909 amplifier was to be an integrated amplifier with its integrated preamp. it might not have been wise from a marketing standpoint that the top of the line product be an integrated so they took out the preamp from it. i saw a version of the 909 with the preamp myself. The 111 represents the same kind of thinking ... Almost one box just add the amp or the amps as the case may be. Keep in mind it is a networked product so more capability will be available as time passes... I see it as the center on an whole house music system very easily ... Wonder if it plays FLAC... and mp3 don't fown people I listen to mp3 in mybedroom or on iPod... and so do you
The price is dear and that itself would give me pause as I am very comfortable with Gary's server and my NAS ... All I really need are preamp and DAC. I must say I like the concept and the fact that the darn thing is also a preamp and a DAC and a Music server with RAID Drive in one box plus the eye candy factor must not be underestimated ...
I am dreaming for now but in the meantime I soooo hate you
I have been a Burmester fan for long time they don't do things half way I am willing to bet a lot that it will play 24/192 with an upgrade path for more. SO don't sweat it ... As for your CDs just rip the darn things on the HD or a NAS with a PC DBPoweramp (Cheap) or and accurately so. with that you are done. it comes with its own preamp so this is an end of th game product..
Must sa that Burmester like the one Box approach. Audiophiles would prefer to tinker and they had to oblige.. Deep inside they like one box.. For example the 909 amplifier was to be an integrated amplifier with its integrated preamp. it might not have been wise from a marketing standpoint that the top of the line product be an integrated so they took out the preamp from it. i saw a version of the 909 with the preamp myself. The 111 represents the same kind of thinking ... Almost one box just add the amp or the amps as the case may be. Keep in mind it is a networked product so more capability will be available as time passes... I see it as the center on an whole house music system very easily ... Wonder if it plays FLAC... and mp3 don't fown people I listen to mp3 in mybedroom or on iPod... and so do you
The price is dear and that itself would give me pause as I am very comfortable with Gary's server and my NAS ... All I really need are preamp and DAC. I must say I like the concept and the fact that the darn thing is also a preamp and a DAC and a Music server with RAID Drive in one box plus the eye candy factor must not be underestimated ...
I am dreaming for now but in the meantime I soooo hate you
Joe
I have been a Burmester fan for long time they don't do things half way I am willing to bet a lot that it will play 24/192 with an upgrade path for more. SO don't sweat it ... As for your CDs just rip the darn things on the HD or a NAS with a PC DBPoweramp (Cheap) or and accurately so. with that you are done. it comes with its own preamp so this is an end of th game product..
Must sa that Burmester like the one Box approach. Audiophiles would prefer to tinker and they had to oblige.. Deep inside they like one box.. For example the 909 amplifier was to be an integrated amplifier with its integrated preamp. it might not have been wise from a marketing standpoint that the top of the line product be an integrated so they took out the preamp from it. i saw a version of the 909 with the preamp myself. The 111 represents the same kind of thinking ... Almost one box just add the amp or the amps as the case may be. Keep in mind it is a networked product so more capability will be available as time passes... I see it as the center on an whole house music system very easily ... Wonder if it plays FLAC... and mp3 don't fown people I listen to mp3 in mybedroom or on iPod... and so do you
The price is dear and that itself would give me pause as I am very comfortable with Gary's server and my NAS ... All I really need are preamp and DAC. I must say I like the concept and the fact that the darn thing is also a preamp and a DAC and a Music server with RAID Drive in one box plus the eye candy factor must not be underestimated ...
I am dreaming for now but in the meantime I soooo hate you
Hi Frantz,
Ha!
I know, I know. I just think I am looking for excuses NOT to get it. I will only do it if I can trade in my 077 w/ ext. ps and apply that towards to unit. The 077 is really overkill for me. I only have a couple of sources, so the 111 would be all I need
. It is listed as a reference product so I have to believe they are satisfied with the performance of it to classify it as such. I should be finding out more this week and will share what I find out. It supports these formats · Supported audio formats: FLAC / wav / mp3.I really do not want to tinker anymore or at least not too much.
And you think it will sound better than the the Reference preamp, the Reference CD and the Reference DAC when playing red book CDs? (Please note I am purposely not addressing HiRez in this question).
Do I think it will sound better? I don't know, probably close enough for me
. I am told it is supposed to have a reference preamp, reference dac and reference cd player. Do I believe it? Not totally but I am willing to give it a chance. If you add up the retail price of all those reference components, they are waaaaaay over the cost of the 111. So I can't see how it really can compete.
garylkoh
WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
Plus you'll have to add interconnects and power cords. Just 2 more Odin power cords and 2 pairs of Odin interconnects will cost more than the 111.
As someone who plays exclusively hard drive based music, I personally wouldn't consider a product like this for the following reasons, cost aside for a minute (note that this is highly personal and probably does not apply to most people, this is just for general discussion).
In order:
1 - Loss of transparent digital EQ functionality prior to D/A conversion (via PureMusic or Amarra) that allows me to level out unavoidable axial room modes and achieve a +/- 3dB flat response up to 150Hz in my listening room.
2 - Loss of the extremely powerful iTunes library management functionality, given my huge and dynamic music library (smart playlists, powerful tagging, artwork, playback statistics, iPhone/iPad app, apple IR remote, view options, general flexibility).
3 - I use only a single source so am fortunate that I do not need to introduce a preamp into the playback chain, this module would be overkill and would mean additional input/output stages and an analogue volume control in the signal path.
4 - I prefer to have spinning hard drives out of my listening room (although I expect the 111 to be inaudible in this regard, or perhaps they will go full out with dual SSD for $50k).
5 - Flexibility of the NAS unit (automatic backups, accessible from several computers, complete control of the data, this might be the case with the 111 I am not sure).
6 - Ok, and then there is the cost, I could buy 3 additional 911's for this kind of money (or 1 and a whole host of improvements in other areas).
Just my 2 pesos, when I read over this list I realize that these points are probably not considerations for most people, and see how it is a great all in one solution and can be extremely desirable.
The Burmester product I would love to see most is a reference level DAC (i.e. 069 module) designed for power amp direct use with volume control (like the 099 but reference level).
In order:
1 - Loss of transparent digital EQ functionality prior to D/A conversion (via PureMusic or Amarra) that allows me to level out unavoidable axial room modes and achieve a +/- 3dB flat response up to 150Hz in my listening room.
2 - Loss of the extremely powerful iTunes library management functionality, given my huge and dynamic music library (smart playlists, powerful tagging, artwork, playback statistics, iPhone/iPad app, apple IR remote, view options, general flexibility).
3 - I use only a single source so am fortunate that I do not need to introduce a preamp into the playback chain, this module would be overkill and would mean additional input/output stages and an analogue volume control in the signal path.
4 - I prefer to have spinning hard drives out of my listening room (although I expect the 111 to be inaudible in this regard, or perhaps they will go full out with dual SSD for $50k).
5 - Flexibility of the NAS unit (automatic backups, accessible from several computers, complete control of the data, this might be the case with the 111 I am not sure).
6 - Ok, and then there is the cost, I could buy 3 additional 911's for this kind of money (or 1 and a whole host of improvements in other areas).
Just my 2 pesos, when I read over this list I realize that these points are probably not considerations for most people, and see how it is a great all in one solution and can be extremely desirable.
The Burmester product I would love to see most is a reference level DAC (i.e. 069 module) designed for power amp direct use with volume control (like the 099 but reference level).
Hi
Like your post and would ask a few questions. I am at an interesting crossroad as I listen to digitalat 90% (the 10 % comes from an LP collection that somehow fell on my lap so) I like the product as I say for its practical aspect and the eye candy factor but I am extremely happy with my NAS -Music Player-DAC _Preamp....
My questions first. You speak of Transparent Digital EQ. Is it performed by the Amarra? Or the pure Music. Do you know of a Windows equivalent of such. I don;t know much about either Amaara or Pure Music and didn't know they could perform EQ.
Would you care to share how you perform this EQ?
Back in the days Burmester had a Line Stage/DAC the 870, I believe with which I had a lot of experience .. it was the first digital product that convinced me digital could be good to great. It was superior to the Wadia, Theta and Mark Levinson of its days and likely would hold its own against many of today's contenders. I carefully compared the 870 to the then best converters I could find including the Krell ... In the design of this product special care was taken so that Volume control wasn't a digital afterthought. It was performed after the D to A conversion ... Thereafter there the 970 DAC which also had a volume control... Straight to the amp the 970 was very good but when it went through the 011 preamp things got to another level ... as they say a whole 'nother level ... Burmester as I've said earlier like the one-box approach and it is in their blood so they replaced the Reference Transport and DAC combo with a one-box CD player with DAC functionality .. I am not sure I liked that move (again similar to what Spectral did recently by the way, these companies share more thins than people would usually realize, with Burmester not as insistent on the cables things as Spectral but aside from that very similar). I would like to know how the DAC module available for the 077 preamp compare to the 069 DAC or even the 970 if it is as good as these units it could be the ticket for me ..
Still one must admit that the 111 is seriously attractive ...
Yes I apply digital EQ in the 15-150Hz region to level out some room modes. The eq filters are generated from actual room measurement data from within the measurement software REW, and I simply copy and paste the parametric data: frequency, dB gain, and Q values, into the playback software.
In the case of Amarra it is with the in-built EQ which allows parametric 5 EQ filters (below is an older version which allows only 4)
In the case of PureMusic it is through a fantastic VST plugin called FabFilter Pro-Q which allows almost unlimited filters.
Any windows player that supports VST plugins will work, I am not aware of any specific examples but I am sure they exist.
There are many reasons why this could be but I am a firm believer that with properly designed output stages power amp direct is always best; preamps can only filter the sound and/or add coloration. But this is for another topic
.It is a hugely impressive piece and I think it will be the all-in-one solution to beat for many years to come.
garylkoh
WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
There is a Foobar plugin that will support VST (I think it's called foo_vst).
Also, a graphic eq plugin that will give 31 bands - foo_xgeq.
Also, a graphic eq plugin that will give 31 bands - foo_xgeq.
This is still a great option I am considering. I've heard the 077 dac module was equal to the 089 and possibly even equal the the 069 DAC (I do not believe it can equal the 069 dac because it retails for under $5K).
Joe
Do you know how much the 077 DAC module costs Joe?
I also doubt a plug and play module with such a small footprint can compete with full blown DAC's such as the 970 and the 069 (which includes a CD transport).
I also doubt a plug and play module with such a small footprint can compete with full blown DAC's such as the 970 and the 069 (which includes a CD transport).
Hi Joost,
Last quote was $4,500 installed. Not sure if that has changed. I don't think it can compete as well plus I was told adding it to the 077 would introduce some digital noise to the system. Not sure about that part.
