Balance

The BALANCE turntable has been in production for 15 years, attracting excellent reviews, but we have been working continuously to improve it. Ouir aim is to combine timeless beauty and workmanship with the best in sound quality.

The chassis is milled from a 40mm strong dural-plate and is equipped with intakes for the bearing and tonearm base. The tonearm base has a special clamping technique to enable the customer to change between various tonearms, each one installed on a separate base, and that allows for precise and easy adjustments.

The turntable features an intake for the tonearm base that fits like a draw-in collet and can be fixed or loosened via a single screw. This enables the base to be moved freely, allowing the user to adjust for the effective length of the tonearm.

The most precise element of the turntable is the bearing, especially with the BALANCE, as it is important to drive the 20kg aluminum low resonance platter without any reeling. We believe that the temperature of the bearing assembly is of great importance, so we have provided an electronic temperature control to provide a stable temperature and guarantee smooth turning of the platter.

The platter is topped with a cristal glas pane that provides a very smooth and even surface. A plastic ring in the middle of the plate lifts the cristal glas pane minimally and is pressed back onto the plate by the provided record clamp, at the outer rim of the label.

The motor with its switch unit is placed separately beside the turntable. A motor control constructed specially for this turntable drives the Pabst motor electronically to speeds 33 and 45 rpm, and speeds can be fine adjusted separately with two rotary switches. A precisely cut round belt transfers the drive from the motor to the plate.

The turntable is available in a black/brass or black/high grade steel design. The turntable includes chassis, tonearm, a base machined specially for the tonearm, plate, record clamp, motor, switch unit and the transistorized power supply for bearing temperature control and motor, plus tools for adjustment, cables etc. Also available are separate tonearm bases, the tubed power supply and a sandwich support made from aluminum / granite or a complete stand. The turntable is delivered with its own transistorized power supply, but is optimally driven by Brinkmann’s tubed power supply.

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La Grange

Some people use various tonearm-cartridge combinations for different musical needs in order to get the best out of their vinyl records. To comply with this demand, we have created the LaGRANGE turntable, for music lovers who use two tonearms, and who want all of the outstanding qualities of the Balance turntable. Tonearms with lengths from 9 to 12 inches can be installed and adjusted optimally according to their effective length. The special clamping technique of the tonearm base allows arms to be changed and set properly within seconds.

The right side base is constructed for short arms (9 to 10.5 inches) and the left hand one for longer arms (10.5 to 12 inches). Our own 10.5 inch tonearm fits onto both of the bases, making it possible to combine it with longer as well as shorter tonearms.

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Tonearm

After a long time spent on development and careful elaboration we have now brought our 10.5 inches tonearm to perfection. As a light- to middle- weight arm with an effective mass of approximately 10 grams it is perfectly capable to handle all modern cartridges. The tracking force and the dynamic mass can be adjusted by the graded counterweight using two differently shaped discs for fine adjustment. That gives the tonearm a good adaptability for a great number of cartridges.

The counterweight and the bearing housing are made from high-grade steel, most other parts from black anodized aluminium, and the tonearm tube is an anodized dark grey. The choice of the material and the special surface treatment of the tonearm tube guarantee an extremely fast discharge of possible resonances. Combined with a high torsion resistance this allows for a fast and open timbre of sound.

The tonearm has a double-cardanic suspension, a fixed headshell and play-free bearings. We can adjust the bearing to zero play individually for every user, and the tonearm itself has an infinitely variable vertical tracking angle. The internal wiring can easily be modified, adaptable for Custom orders.
A fully hydraulic tonearm lift lowers the arm evenly and will provide many years of use. The magnetic anti-skating adjustment guarantees a friction free run of cartridges, even with critically cut needles, providing the best possible groove maintenance and eliminating interfering noises. A draw-in collet fixing connects the tonearm shank with the base and cuts out vibrations. The fixing can be loosened with a screw to adjust the shank playfree in its height. The draw-in collet fits around the whole shank to prevent pressure marks that could hamper the adjustment.

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Fein

The Fein is a phono preamplifier with volume control, which can provide high output voltage and the ability to drive a power amplifier directly, without another preamp. This is an excellent feature for those who listen only to recordings on vinyl. The potentiometer which controls the volume is followed by a buffer amp with low output impedance allowing the use of longer signal leads. Therefore the FEIN can be placed close to the turntable, yet far away from the amp and speakers for those who choose to isolate their sources from the rest of the system as much as possible. The volume control also allows you to volume match or adjust for optimum performance if you are using another preamplifier.

On the back panel there are the input-and-output-sockets for the left and right channel, a ground terminal, a screw-on-socket connector for the power supply. There is a rotary knob with three different positions to allow for various MM and MC loads.

The Fein phono preamplifier and its power supply are mounted on a granite base for support and isolation.

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Calvin

The CALVIN is a new BRINKMANN preamplifier for the new millennium.
As the Audiolabor era ended 15 years ago, a new, absolutely purist preamplifier was
conceived from the experiences we had had with the VV2020, Klar and Rein.

Even now, after 15 years, this preamplifier still has a reputation of being first
class among music lovers and High-End purists. At the same time, our experience gained in amplifier construction throughout a quarter of a century led to improved construction technique, which we now present with our new preamplifier, the CALVIN.

This preamplifier is designed to give the experienced music lover control over selection of digital or analog music sources, with extremely short signal paths and shielding from vibration. It offers our Symmetrical circuit topology, and is available as a line stage or as a full-functioning preamplifier with a user-adjustable MM and MC phono stage. The CALVIN has five line inputs (two are used with the phono stage), a tape monitor circuit, and two outputs. All are single-ended operation with RCA type plugs. The unit has a separate free-standing power supply, and remote control. All heat emitting parts are built into the preamplifier, with its large enclosure and the heat sinks on both sides, thus making the preamplifier capable to dissipate the heat.

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Marconi

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure
as long as life lasts." (Rachel Carson in Sense of Wonder)

MARCONI is our new top-of-the-line preamplifier. We have chosen this name as an homage and reflection toward that great inventor.
To prevent electrical interference a symmetrical circuit- topology has been utilized, as with our mono amps. We use this technique in our MARCONI preamplifier to further reduce all existing influences in our endeavour to keep the tonal influence of the components as small as possible. The phase inverters that are responsible for the symmetrical signals work with
tubes as tubes respond to the input signal without a noticeable time delay, allowing a free synchronized and symmetrical signal. The outputs are provided by four identical, low output resistance transistor amplifiers. The preamplifier is equipped with six linear-inputs, 5 of them correspond to asymmetrical and one to symmetrical signals. As a special feature, the input levels of all the six inputs are individually adjustable, so the user can set the same level of loudness for every connected source. The output phase can be switched between 0° and 180° via remote control. A record output completes the rear panel layout.

The power supply for the preamplifier is in a separate casing. All components that emit heat have been placed in the preamplifier. Its large enclosure with heat sinks on both sides is much more capable to dissipate heat. The tubes are placed inside the heat sinks, enabling the heat to dissipate. So only the power transformer is left in the power
supply casing.

A special feature of the preamplifier is its fully electronic control for level as well as for volume. An AD-converter interrogates the motor pot at the front panel and this information formed as a digital word, is fed into the digital potentiometer-ICs to control the volume passively via a few hundred integrated resistors. This technique allows drive of the four outputs with the same volume, with no differences between the channels.

The volume can be adjusted with a rotary knob on the front panel of the preamplifier or via remote control. A display at the front informs the user about the chosen input, input level for each channel and output phase. The MARCONI is mounted on a granite base.

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Mono

You want to hear the complete spectrum of music, with no limitations, including very low frequencies and the fastest transients. The most subtle colorings within the midband should be fully available. As modern loudspeakers are built to reproduce a very large musical bandwidth at high pressure-levels while still maintaining an exact musical flow, they definitely crave for amplifiers exhibiting full control under these conditions. These demands require the least amount of loss in signal-transfer. To accomplish this, a perfect interplay of all components involved is required, but quite often the circuit-designs are limited by the loss generated within the components and other interferences.

To prevent these interferences or at least reduce them to a minimum, we have used a symmetrical circuit- topology. All amplifier-stages are doubled; they carry the signal in the original wave-form as well as in an inverted one, which is phase-shifted by 180 degrees. In the output-stages the two signals are fed back together to form one signal again. This cancels out any possible component-coloration and all other interferences, allowing for an uncontaminated flow of music. Thus the symmetrical topology of our preamps finds its obvious continuation in the symmetrical input-stages of the MONO amps, which are equipped with both XLR and rca sockets. The extremely impulse-proof power supply, built around a 500 VA transformer, allows for short time power in excess of 1500 watts. The output stage is driven by a line-driver stage, which is built around the same topology and circuit design of our preamps. As the MONO amps are DC-coupled, a DC-detection circuit prevents offset from a preamp to generate DC at the output-stage; the amps are immediately muted!

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Integrated

One of the purest amplifiers in the high-end audio world is our Integrated. Built just for music in the most uncompromising way, it has only the volume control and an input selector in the signal chain. When connected to the mains, the amplifier is automatically set to 'stand-by' as there is no power-on-switch. The quiescent current of the output-stage is switched off and the signal is muted through the dedicated switch on the front panel.
There are four line and two digital inputs, the latter pair drive the optional DAC-module. The signal is fed directly to the blue Alps-pot via the input selector and then is sent through the active electronics, thus the Integrated should be seen as a combination of a high sensitivity stereo power amplifier with passive preamplifier. In addition to that, there is a buffer stage for the tape recording output which carries always the signal of the chosen input.

Furthermore, there is a dedicated headphone amplifier which is activated when the Integrated is in stand-by. The Headphone output socket is located on the front panel and the relative circuit has been optimized for headphones with an impedance of at least 200 Ohms. It is important not to load the inputs with DC, as all stages of the amplifier are DC-coupled. A typical small amount of DC is nulled out by a DC-servo-regulator.
To make the amplifier become a truly digital device , there is an optional DAC-module available: its current-to-voltage stage is built using a miniaturized tube for best sonic results. The digital signals of CD-players, Dat-recorders or digital tuners may have sample-frequencies from 32 to 48 kHz, and our DAC module automatically adjusts itself to the input frequency. The two digital inputs are switched electronically: when a signal reaches dig 1, the output-tube is heated independently from the input chosen, i.e. the tube can be pre-heated by switching on a digital signal source while a different line input is working.

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