Burmester 259 Power Amplifier

The Burmester 259 is the Reference Line’s stereo power amplifier — the single-chassis statement of what a Burmester stereo amplifier can be and the amplifier around which most full Reference Line systems are actually built. Where the 909 MK5 delivers greater power per channel in the same Reference range and the 218 compresses the topology into a smaller footprint, the 259 sits at the centre of the line: one chassis, two channels, nothing left unrealized.

The topology is X-Amp, fully balanced from input to output. The signal enters balanced and leaves balanced, with no conversion stage anywhere between — no point at which the music passes through the single-ended bottleneck that most nominally balanced amplifiers hide in their input stages. High bias current keeps the output stage running warm at idle, so the first watts — where the overwhelming majority of real listening happens — operate in Class A, with Class AB reserve behind them when the music demands it. The measured character follows: 500 watts per channel into 4 ohms, and a damping factor greater than 3000 — the figure that determines whether an amplifier controls a bass driver or merely excites it.

The construction is as deliberate as the circuit: a chrome front panel over a resonance-optimised aluminium chassis at roughly 100 kg. And for systems that outgrow even this, the 259 is bridgeable to monoblock — a pair of 259s is a recognised route to Reference-tier mono operation alongside the 909 MK5 pair option.

The 259 is on demonstration in the Scottsdale showroom now, partnered with Reference Line sources and the loudspeakers it was voiced to drive. Hearing it against the 218 in the same session is the clearest way to decide which Reference stereo amplifier a given room calls for — walk in during business hours, or book ahead for an extended audition.