The CEO of Backert Labs, Bob Backert.
Our goal at Backert Labs is to make you absolutely thrilled with your stereo.
Our strategy for doing this is to pay special attention to the music signal in its smallest state – in other words, the preamp. We seek a dynamic sound that will give you the feeling that performances are “happening right now in the room” when you play your favorite music.
When you consider how to buy a new preamp, we hope you will think about this factor — that is, whether the preamp will allow you to feel that an original performance is truly “happening right now” in your room as you listen.
Many of our clients have written us thank-you notes about this, for example:
“I began to neglect regular life as I renewed the joy of listening. I have heard instrumental details, special subtleties (most importantly with vocals) as if I had never heard some of my recordings before.”
“There are details in the music and overtones of instruments that I have never experienced in over 40 years as an audiophile. I’ve partly owned 2 high end audio stores during my career, and was able to audition some of the very best high end equipment ever made. The Rhumba combined with my Pass amp produces the most listenable experience that I have ever had.”
“Holy ####! Right out the box… compliments to the chef(s). You’ve knocked this one out-of-the park. It sounds passionate, decadent, provocative, on-point/spot-on incisive… this Rhumba Extreme is just enthralling!”
Our Team. Bob Backert has been working with amplifiers and all other kinds of stereo components since the 1960s. His circuit designs are highly innovative because he is dedicated to thinking outside the box in every key area of an amplification circuit.
Outside-the-box thinking in a circuit is complicated to talk about here, but you can see a quick and easy example of Bob’s thinking by noticing the tube door on every preamp we make – Bob wanted it to be easy for people to look at their tubes and change them if desired, without forcing them to remove many tiny screws (which always seem to get lost) and the entire preamp cover. You can see another example of his thinking by looking for the ventilation slats — because there aren’t any. Vents are not elegant, so he designed a way to fully ventilate each preamp without showing the method to the customer.
Bob is a true veteran of high-end audio, specializing in small signal amplification. His motivation for starting Backert Labs is summed up in this quote: “When you enter a club or restaurant, it’s usually pretty easy to tell whether the music is live, or being played on a stereo. I wanted to make it much harder to tell the difference.” To do that, we focus on the accuracy of dynamics and rhythm, perhaps more than any other manufacturer.
Bob’s son, Gary Backert, provides the expertise to lay out each circuit board and assemble each board and chassis securely. Circuit board layout is almost a lost art, and one that we take very seriously. Andy Tebbe, a musician for over 35 years, provides input on voicing and sound quality. Our team auditions and runs-in each Backert Labs preamp for at least 192 hours so that its owner can open the box and immediately hear exceptional sounding music.
American Made and Risk-Free. Backert Labs™ is pleased to present our Rhythm, Rhumba Extreme, and Rhumba linestage preamplifiers, and our Rhumba Xphono 1.1 phono preamp. Every unit, designed and built by hand in the USA. We hope that you will visit one of our dealers. Or if you wish, order a preamp direct from us risk-free, as you can return any purchase for up to 14 days and receive a full refund of your purchase price.
We are very proud of the work that goes into each Backert Labs preamp, and we can’t wait for you to hear one in your home system.
