Burmester Musiccenter 151 MK2

Ah, domesticity. Just when I had the reference system sounding better than ever, the husband decided to relocate his electric keyboard and music stand, which had been positioned along the right wall of the detached music room, to the dining room in the main house. His reason was rational: While I did the reviewer thing in one space, he’d be free to practice keyboard and sing in another. But what was rational to him screwed with my reference sound and drove me to the brink of irrationality.

Before I could pull things back together, the shiny, just-released Burmester 151 MK2 Musiccenter ($27,500) arrived for review. As I scrambled to treat the room and find my way back to audio nirvana, I felt a bit like the cat in a vintage Disney cartoon, crashing into walls as it chased three blind mice who scrambled this way and that with the speed of first-order reflections. After I moved around the heavy bass panels and analyzed acoustic measurements performed with REW, ¹ I was back on the path to tighter bass, smoother highs, and first-rate imaging—but now with a few more silver hairs on the top of my head.

Eventually, I felt ready to investigate the 151 MK2. Described as the “little brother” of Burmester’s Reference Line 111 Musiccenter, the 151 MK2, which is part of Burmester’s “Top Line,” is a music server/network streamer with an internal DAC and volume control that can directly feed power amplifiers or active speakers. If you engage the 151 MK2’s fixed volume output option and move interconnects, you can pair it with a preamplifier, utilizing that component’s volume control without compromise. You can also bypass the 151 MK2’s internal DAC and use it solely as a music server/streamer.

The 151 MK2’s playback options are numerous. It can play files from USB sticks: There’s a USB-C input on the front panel for convenience. You can play files stored on an external solid state drive (SSD): There are four USB-C inputs on the back panel, including one USB 3.0. You can import files onto its 2TB internal SSD. You can play files from network-attached storage. The 151 MK2 can stream internet radio and music from the Tidal, Qobuz, and Idagio streaming services via Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

The 151 MK2 has a CD drive