March 5, 2024
Dear Andy:
Three years ago, I was shopping for a system and a famous audio dealer in NYC urged me to purchase the Backert Labs Rhumba Extreme 1.3, a company and preamplifier about which I knew nothing. He insisted that I build my new system around this pre-amp, and no other, because the Backert Labs preamp was just that good.
My first discovery: it’s as easy as owning solid-state. At first I thought a tube pre-amp would require maintenance and adjustment, which was a bit intimidating. But when I learned that your preamp is self-biasing and easy on the tubes, I warmed to the idea of tube sound with the simplicity of solid-state. I purchased the Rhumba Extreme 1.3, assembled the rest of my dream system, and sat back and enjoyed the music.
Experimenting with tubes? I would have happily continued down this pleasant road, but for your suggestion a couple of years later that I try other tubes to experience the sonic difference the Backert could provide. After we talked about it I read your informative blog entries, located internet-based tube dealers, and put in my first pair of NOS tubes (as you know, it’s easier than changing a lightbulb). I listened to the marvelous results. It was the start of a wonderful journey in gorgeous sound.
My favorite qualities: I just love this thing. With its self-biasing feature, easy access to the tubes, use of only 2 tubes, use of a low-distortion miniature tube-type, and use of a tube that is common and affordable, your Rhumba Extreme is the dream audiophile preamp. Out of the box, it’s great as-is. But if you want to explore the rewards of tube sound, nothing could be easier. What an amazing product.
Thank you!
Very truly yours,
G. L.
Nothing short of magical. Perfectly quiet and at the ready. Only after the source material ends will you realize what it has really just delivered.
It is difficult for me to convey in writing what I have been experiencing. I’m now completely calm, almost like staring at a vast still lake or beautiful mountain. Each time I listen to the pre, I hear details that I’ve never heard before, textures that I didn’t know were on the recording, and more of each instrument.
I can now easily select just one instrument and listen to the way it’s being played, the attack and decay of notes, and the qualities of the actual instrument (like, “Listen to that low tom-tom…”). It is impossible not to be drawn into the emotion being conveyed. Truly amazing. Why did I wait so long to upgrade???
I wanted to send along some notes about what I’m hearing. First, this thing is fast. It captures everything that the musicians are doing in much more detail… Nothing gets slurred over or buried. I love hearing those pedals working inside the wooden piano, the dampening of strings, the decay of notes with their harmonics.
Earlier I listened to some singers harmonizing, and I could hear each of their voices (and the interaction thereof) so much more clearly than I’d ever heard before. And there is no need to turn it up — The music conveys the expressions of the artists with ease, because now I can simply hear more of it.
It’s a new world!
-John S., Pennsylvania