BRINKMANN AUDIO

The Brinkman Balance

While it is the oldest of Brinkman‘s turntables, it remains, the top of its line because it is that good. The Brinkmnn balance is a turntable I am extremely familiar with as I own one with of course a Ront tube  power supply. The right power supply makes all the difference in the world as without it the Brickman sounds like a very very good belt drive turntable.

But, with at the Brinkmann balance flows  like the Afton River:"Flow gently Sweet Afton among thy  Green Braes “ -Old English folk song         

Brinkmann Taurus                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Reknowned  for their belt drive turntables, Brinkman ,has in recent years ,developed a series of direct  drive transcription decks which equal or surpass the performance  of any similarly priced Belt drive  turntables -whether  by Brinkman or any other Brand! The revolutionary Taurus /Ront combination exemplifies this advanced analog technology.

The Taurus  sounds like an outstanding belt drive turntable in terms of its openness And transparency while maintaining the absolute speed accuracy of the best Direct drive  turntable without any of the sense of the sound being forced which was typical of  this type of drive mechanism in the past.

I love Car analogies as, apparently does, Alan Moulton of the Absolute Sound when he wrote:

“the Taurus as a big naturally aspirated V12 as opposed to an older turbo car with all that sudden (if delayed) accelerative force. Use that big V12 to power Jeff Buckley’s vocals on Morning Theft (Sony Music) and you are left with no other reaction than “Wow!” in the face of something so velvety and present. The Taurus marries big fun with big refinement as well as anything I’ve heard.

by Allan Moulton , THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ,Apr 23rd, 2021.

Yep that’s it. So what does it sound like ?                                                                                                                                                                                             “Evenhanded brilliance. Just a breath of fresh air to listen to a ’table with seemingly no restrictions on differentiating dynamics and space. The Taurus feels both open and powerful, precise yet free. And that’s from way down at the bottom to way up there on top (frequencies, that is).” by Allan Moulton ,THE ABSOLUTE SOUNDApr 23rd, 2021

But wait. All of these remarks relate to the turntable without its Ront  tube power supply. You might say huh? What does the Ront tube power supply have to do with a direct drive turntable .

BRINKMANN’S EXPLANAT: appeared of instruments belonging to the same performance and space, rather than as cutouts on an artificial stage. In my experience with the Taurus, you need the RöNt II to get the “flow” of a great belt-drive ’table. My enthusiasm for the way the Taurus combines fun and involvement with refinement is based on the inclusion of this damn tube box thing. It’s also visually too cool for school. I’ll say a bit more about it in the technical description to follow, but the RöNt II took the Taurus over that little invisible barrier between appreciation and love.Without the Rontii The Taurus is the most open and transparent direct drive turntable you’ve ever heard. With the

Ront II it equals and surpasses most of the great belt drive to turn tables for transparency openness and flow. “ ION

 “At first blush, it seems a crazy idea to use vacuum tubes for a low-voltage turntable power supply. So why do we do it? We found that the vacuum in the rectifier tubes not only isolates their plates from the cathodes, but also the power line from the drive circuitry. Because of this, the RöNt works like a high-class power-line filter for our turntables. The purification of the mains noticeably improves the a TauruS.  BRINKMANN WEBSITE

MOUNTING a Brinkman 12 inch tone arm on this table makes it a $25,000 combination which out performs three tables at twice its price.  

When we think of Brinkmann we think of the marvelous turn tables they have made for many years. So, unfortunately, people often neglect the SUPERB electronics which they make. In particular the Brinkmann Edison is a world-class bargain in hybrid phono stages offering three inputS each of which is fully adjustable for impedance. I think the sound  as described by Jacob Heilbrunn  in the following several paragraphs February 2020 review gets it just right:         

I listened to the Edison both through the Brinkmann and Ypsilon Silver PST-100 preamps. I found it most useful to isolate its sound by using the familiar Ypsilon. This afforded me the opportunity to hear exactly what it was—and was not—doing as it amplified the tiny signal from my Continuum Caliburn turntable and Swedish Analog Technologies reference CF1 tonearm via the Lyra Atlas SL and Miyajima Infinity mono cartridges. 

The phonostage is quite flexible, allowing you to switch the transformers in and out of the circuit to boost the signal from moving-coil cartridges before the amplification stage. On stereo records I found the transformer to be indispensable. On mono records not so much. Many of the mono records from my jazz collection simply sounded incredible on the Brinkmann. Take the album Li’l Ol’ Groovemaker….Basie! The drums were set back far in the rear of the soundstage while the brass choirs came screaming out with what seemed like unprecedented ferocity in my system on cuts like “Nasty Magnus.” Basie apparently told Quincy Jones after the first run-through, “You ought to have written four of these, Quincy! That’s wailin’!” Indeed. Sonny Payne’s drums had visceral impact as the orchestra blasted out a series of crescendos. 

Edison provided a rock-solid rendition of this trio, the best….

 The sheer artistry that the Edison conveyed on the Philips recording The Delectable Elly Ameling was a combination of the sublime and the beautiful. On Mozart’s wonderful motet Exsultate, Jubilate, which he composed in 1773, the Edison tracked every syllable, every quaver, every trill that Ameling enunciated during her ravishing performance. It nailed the antiphonal effects between Ameling and the oboe as she sang “Hallelujah.” Once more, there wasn’t a trace of sibilance or harshness. Instead, the Brinkmann delivered a posh, upholstered sound that was quite delectable. Actually, I should say breathtaking. On the Bach “Floesst, mein Heiland, floesst dein Namen,” the interchanges between Ameling, two oboes, and chorus reach an exalted level. Listening to such works made me think of the eighteenth century German writer Friedrich Schiller’s famous distinction between naïve and sentimental poetry—the former being the natural state that we aspire to but can no longer achieve. In sonic terms, Brinkmann, you could say, tries to bridge the gap.

When contrasted with much more expensive equipment from CH Precision, Boulder, and Ypsilon, the Brinkmann gear doesn’t quite have their magnanimity of sound, grip, and airiness. CH Precision produces a cavernous black space that seems unrivaled. Boulder has a degree of control that is unique to it. And Ypsilon lights up the soundstage. But Brinkmann comes remarkably close and has its own set of virtues. It has a dynamism and smooth continuity that are immensely beguiling. It represents formidable German engineering allied to a profound sense of musicality that will be difficult for most listeners to resist.”

Edison Mk II Phonostage

• REVIEW

• by Jacob Heilbrunn

The Brinkmann Taurus is a tour de force of engineering and performance. When coupled with the Ront  power supply. A performs in the same league as turn tables which cell 42 and three times as much. And we can safely say that in his price range nothing comes close. Just ask Alan Moulton The Absolute Sound who, on April 23, 2021 wrote:

"It’s not just that the Taurus performed technical gymnastics beyond other (admittedly less expensive) turntables I’ve had at home; it’s that it let me love the experience. The Taurus gave me much needed moments where I could just put my head back and feel something.

I’ve had some experience with other big, fancy, expensive turntables. Can I right now definitively tell you that any of them is better than the Taurus? No, I cannot. Can I say that the Taurus is the best turntable you can buy at any price? Come on. You know the answer to that. Of course I can’t. But the best direct-drive Brinkmann manages to combine love and appreciation in a way that few can, and it’s a clear step above the best $10k–$20k ’tables I’ve experienced, fully justifying its status as a reference. It’s one of the only products I’ve heard about which I have no reservations. I actually miss it.

I’ll leave the last words to Lupe, the goat in the animated movie Ferdinand: “Is this love? I love love.”