By Lam Seng Fatt
I had a shock when I surfed to the Absolute Sound website a few minutes ago and read the following:
“The high-end audio community suffered a tragic and unexpected loss on August 15, when Dieter Burmester passed away in Berlin after a short but severe illness. The loss was tragic because Burmester, who founded and led his namesake company until his death, was both a pioneer and a hi-fi industry visionary. It was unexpected due to Burmester’s unfailing energy and passion, including his typically animated presence at this year’s Munich High End exhibition. Indeed, Burmester’s vitality was such that none of us who knew and interacted with him would have ever suspected he was 69.
“Dieter Burmester grew up as a musician and an inveterate tinkerer of radio and other electronics. Given these twin interests, it made eminent sense for him to study electrical engineering after completing his military service. Yet none of this had him dreaming of launching an audio firm; he was happy to be an audiophile.
“Burmester made the transition from listener to builder when his Quad tube amplifier suffered a catastrophic failure, thereby adding unreliability to his previous complaints—high distortion, low damping factor, the constant aging of valves—about tube electronics. Burmester’s solution was to try his own hand at building an audio component.”
I had never met Burmester before but I have heard his amplifiers and I must say that they sounded as good as they looked.
Burmester components were available at Audio Image in Petaling Jaya and they are the product of a genius who was passionate about music and reproducing music.
May he rest in peace…
“My mission as a musician and an engineer is to let music lovers forget that they are listening to electrical appliances. The highest level of sound reproduction has been achieved when one stops thinking about where it is coming from.” Dieter Burmester
