Sporo źródeł analogowych przewinęło się przez mój system. Brinkmann Balance należy do tych, które akceptuję bezwarunkowo.

Brinkmann Balance przez krótką chwilę balansuje na krawędzi zaskoczenia, by następnie wciągnąć słuchacza w świat muzyki odtwarzanej tak prawdziwie, że wrażenie realizmu pochłania bez reszty. W prezentację wchodzi się stopniowo. Najpierw uwagę zwracają spójność brzmienia i opanowanie. Potem pojawia się zaskoczenie, jak dużo słychać, a świat dźwięków zapisany na powierzchni czarnego winylu rozkwita kolorami. Scena jest bardzo szeroka, z pięknie zakreśloną głębią i zróżnicowaną wysokością. Chciałoby się powiedzieć: holograficzna, jednak to pojęcie nie oddaje wypełnienia jej dźwiękami ani nasycenia powietrza muzyką. Dźwięki są idealnie „wpasowane” wolumenem i niezwykle spójne barwowo. Ta wielowymiarowość, szczególnie zaznaczona na dobrze zrealizowanych płytach, nie bierze się znikąd. Nie wynika przecież z zastosowania procesorów dźwięku. To raczej efekt założeń konstrukcyjnych, które wszystkie zmierzają do minimalizacji rezonansów i pasożytniczych drgań oraz zapewnienia niezakłócenie stabilnych obrotów. Wyekstrahowana w ten sposób muzyka brzmi wyjątkowo czysto i naturalnie. Brak podkolorowań, a także unikanie podkreślania jakiś aspektów prezentacji pozwalają się skupić na jej treści.

Balance równoważnie traktuje każdy z zakresów. W dopracowanie każdego wkłada mnóstwo serca, ale i rozumu. Nie ucieka się do sztuczek; nie próbuje czarować efektami pierwszego wrażenia. Gra inteligentnie. Średnica to najwyższa klasa światowa. Wyrazista, czysta, bez śladu rozedrgania czy zafalowania dźwięku, mikrodynamicznie zabójcza i niezwykle czytelna w odniesieniu do czarnego tła. Każdy jej detal jest wycyzelowany do granic percepcji. Wysokie tony pozostają w doskonałej proporcji. Dźwięczne, a jednocześnie łagodne, tak jak w naturze. Podobnie prezentowany jest bas. W pierwszym wrażeniu spokojnie, ale w odniesieniu do całości – w sposób pełny i kontrolowany. Nie brakuje mu masy ani szybkości uderzenia. Zupełny brak nerwowości brzmienia powoduje, że mimo potęgi doskonale pasuje do wyrafinowania średnicy i wysokich tonów. Zakresy są zgrane nie tylko dynamicznie, ale i barwowo. Mają spójny koloryt, który jest jedną z najmocniejszych stron Brinkmanna.

Link do recenzji: Brinkmann Balance – Hi-Fi i Muzyka

With my regular fi rst test-track of The Eagles’ ‘Long Road Out Of Eden’ from the album of the same name [Universal 060251749243 1], all the artefacts of the piece were present, correct and highly detailed, but I was rather surprised by the way in which the bell that tolls quietly in the background during the intro to the song had real weight to its strikes. Usually this is evident but is very much something that lurks in the distance. The Balance 2 shone a spotlight on it and really dragged it into the main action in an uncanny way.

The reason for this was simply that the Brinkmann has some seriously weighty bass behind it. The kick-drum strikes punched out with real force and bass notes were solid but without making everything sound boomy and overblown. It never seemed to be trying to thump and bang its way into grabbing my attention: rather the whole performance had a big, enthusiastic gait to it and presented an overall feeling of commanding effortlessness.

To accompany this, Don Henley’s vocals projected from my loudspeakers in a most gratifying manner, giving the whole song a commendable sense of depth and scale, with backing instruments around him easily placed within the soundstage. I did feel that this soundstage appeared not to have a great deal of lateral extension beyond the limits of the loudspeakers themselves, but the Brinkmann certainly made the most of the central area, fi lling it with great precision.

Equally impressive was the Balance 2’s rendering of instruments, whether acoustic or electronic. Each was pushed out into my room as it took up the main action and then dropping back as attention re-focused elsewhere. The Brinkmann’s midrange is defi nitely an appreciable quality.

The Balance 2 is a fi tting fl agship for the Brinkmann range and a true high-end product, offering intelligent engineering and superb sound. Both tonearms tested offer their own slightly different takes on proceedings and can be used to fi ne-tune the end result desired by the user, as can the addition of the RöNt II power supply. Choose each by audition and this could be the last turntable you’ll ever need. 

Link do recenzji: Brinkmann Balance – Hi-Fi News

The Brinkmann Balance reproduces music in a way that is focused, detailed and highly resolving on the one hand, yet refined, nuanced and relaxing on the other. Listening to LPs on the Brinkmann is like reading a well-crafted short story or novel. In reading, you could, were you so inclined, pause to appreciate individual sentences, paragraphs or chapters. But you don't. Instead, you read on captivated by the movement of the work. Only when you have completed the story do you find yourself pausing to consider the elements of the writing, the construction of the plot, the unfolding of the work's themes, the arc of the characters.

And so it is with the Brinkmann Balance turntable. All the distinct musical elements are displayed and laid bare. Everything is revealed and in its place. Still, listening never invites one to pause and attend to the parts. Rather, to listen through the Brinkmann is to want to experience the whole of a work, to understand it as something organic and complete. There will be time aplenty after the fact to go back and parse the elements that comprise the whole. But that is not time to be taken away from listening.

The Brinkmann is that rarest of rare breeds in audio, a turntable for the lover of music who believes, as I do, that not only are musicality and high resolution not incompatible with one another, but that high resolution is a precondition of musicality.

The Brinkmann Balance presents music the way you hear it live: as an organic whole, not as disconnected parts. Nevertheless, no information has gone missing and a listener intent on following particular musical parts is surely free to do so. It is all there as every aspect of the music on an LP is available for those inclined to listen analytically or as through a microscope. Still, the Brinkmann discourages detached, analytic listening. It invites the listener to embrace and be moved by the music, not to study or scope it.

The Brinkmann Balance is one of the very few turntables I have heard that pretty much gets the timing right. Because it gets the timing right, it plays music and invites the listener to see deeply into the music, to embrace and be moved by it: to experience its meaning while avoiding any tendency to parse it into component elements.

Link do recenzji: Brinkmann Balance – 6Moons

Leaving aside the Rockport System III Sirius, which is in a class by itself, the only competition in my experience for the Brinkmann's sonic performance, aside from my reference Simon Yorke S7, are the SME 30/SME V, the Avid Acutus, and the Kuzma Stabi Reference. However, the Brinkmann's mass-loaded system was unchallenged in bass performance. I had never experienced such fundamentally correct, deep, tight, articulate, yet delicate bottom-end performance from any turntable, including, perhaps, the Rockport. As the Yorke shattered my then reference VPI TNT back in 1998, so the Brinkmann demolished the Yorke's bass performance, carving out and sculpting deeper, more muscular, more dynamic, yet tighter and lither renderings of stand-up and electric bass, timpani, and kick drums. With both 'tables connected to the Manley Steelhead tubed phono preamp, it was easy to perform A/B comparisons. When I replaced the Brinkmann-EMT cartridge with the Lyra Titan, the results were the same.

I don't see the point in reciting particular sonic experiences with familiar reference material; if you've been reading this column, you know the usual suspects. I will say that, thanks to the Brinkmann's subterranean reach, uncanny quiet and solidity, and overall effortlessness, all of these LPs sounded new and subtly improved, with greater holography of imaging but without etch, blacker backgrounds, and deeper, vaster soundfields.

Playing old standbys as well as less familiar LPs I hadn't heard in years was always an act of discovery through the Brinkmann—not because of the small, new musical or sonic gestures it might reveal (though it did), but because of the exceptionally musical presentation it provided overall: an effortless, coherent, solid, musical whole; a rhythmically tight, emotionally uplifting propulsive drive that gave the music an indelible sense of purpose that couldn't be denied.

The Brinkmann Balance remains one of a handful of the finest turntables being made today. Oh, and Brinkmann's RöNt tubed power supply made a not particularly subtle improvement in the sound, helping to produce cleaner, better-articulated mid- and high-frequency transients.

Link do recenzji: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile

I have had high mass turntables in the past and I've also enjoyed some with 12inch arms but none have had such a stately bearing as the Balance, you can hear the engineering in turntables and this one sounds like a Rolls Royce. It is totally confident yet understated, it makes music that's as powerful or dynamic as it needs to be and does nothing to emphasise or elaborate on what's in the signal. This is the hardest thing for a turntable to do, their mechanical nature means that it's far easier to impart a character on the sound than not and this is why you get such big differences compared to other sources.

Starting with the Pi in the 10.0 arm I was struck by how low the noise floor is, it’s almost unnatural and means that the music has the element of surprise when the run-in groove gets to the signal. I learned to be careful with the volume control! Leo Kottke’s guitar playing is strong and definite under the Balance’s auspices. It has all of the energy and zing that new strings deliver but this is accompanied by a very distinct sense of presence. Dynamic range is massive which gives you the quiet run-in followed by the high level music, it also adds to the realism and life force of the music. All this being topped by an effortless high resolution of the sort that digital systems are rarely capable of delivering.

A more audiophile recording, Patricia Barber’s Café Blue, lets the Brinkmann show off its imaging skills with results that are positively holographic. The noise floor is non existent and the voice and instruments are manifestly real. The acoustic instruments are the most convincing because they haven’t undergone so much treatment in the studio, Barber’s voice is less natural but no less in the room. When Mourning Grace comes on the drum sound is immense, the piano and guitar keep the groove locked down and the voice really soars. It’s quite a visceral experience with a turntable like this.

I hope you get the picture, this is an incredibly revealing record player that can easily turn an audio signal into a source of top flight entertainment. It’s not only able to deliver detail, separation and precision but it combines all of these elements to deliver an addictive sound that lets you get the most out of your vinyl. By building a Balance with two arm bases Brinkmann has produced a real luxury for those who want to use different cartridges and arms on a regular basis but don’t want to compromise results. The engineering on offer is exemplary, as is the finish and design. Anyone in the market for a top notch twin-arm turntable should put it at the top of their list.

Link do recenzji: Brinkmann Balance – The Ear

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Hi-Fi i Muzyka – Wyróżnienie Roku 2015

Link: Brinkmann Balance – The Ear – 5 Star Badge

Link: Brinkmann Balance – The Stereo Times – Most Wanted Components 2022

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Hi-Fi News – Highly Commended

Link: Brinkmann Balance – 6 Moons – Blue Moon Award

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2021

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2021

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2020

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2020

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2019

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2019

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2018

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2018

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2017

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2017

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2016

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2016

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2015

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2015

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2014

Link: Brinkmann Balance – Stereophile – Recommended Components 2013