BACKERT LABS LINE PREAMPLIFIERS

Backert Labs Rhumba 1.4

$5,000

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At $5,000, the new Rhumba 1.4 linestage preamp has the same basic circuit design as the $12,900 Rhythm 1.4, including fully balanced XLR input and output. That also includes the same power supply design — our patented GreenForce.™

All in a gorgeous chassis.  Like the Rhythm, the Rhumba is designed, machined, and assembled in the USA with NO farming out of the solid aluminum chassis to other countries.

From its debut, the Rhumba Preamps have wowed listeners

The Rhumba has always featured a convenient tube access door to let you change tubes easily. The Rhumba 1.4, as with the Rhumba 1.3, eliminates the detachable thumbscrews on the tube door. A “mono/stereo” switch on the front panel, a feature taken from our flagship Rhythm preamp, which can be helpful to those of you who listen to mono records or CDs. Good stock tubes – we use the smooth and sweet Mullard reissues.

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Features ... Features

Other features carried over from the Rhythm flagship include fully balanced XLR input and output, no use of negative feedback, pure Class A design, a luxurious remote volume control, mute switch, balance control, REC OUT jacks, Home Theater Bypass jacks, custom-made toroidal transformer and Furutech IEC inlet to allow you to experiment with various power cords.

The Rhumba 1.4 has 9dB of gain.

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The Sound

The Rhumba sounds remarkably close to the company’s flagship, the $12,900 Rhythm. Although it is less than half the price of the Rhythm we were able to bring the Rhumba’s dynamics, fun factor, overall musicality and punchy, involving timing extremely close to the Rhythm’s.

These sonic characteristics form part of the company’s mission.

Bob Backert has said : 

“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 impossible to tell the difference.”

To do that, we focus on the accuracy of two things: dynamics and rhythm. Our technical innovations have brought us significantly closer to the goal of reproducing truly live sound.

Compared to the Rhumba 1.3, the Rhumba 1.4 features progressively “bigger” sound with greater weight, more articulate midrange, and more precise imaging.

The Power Supply

One part of the Rhumba that furthers the achievement of Bob Backert’s mission by improving timing and dynamic accuracy is the power supply.  Patented by Mr. Backert, GreenForce™ is the first completely new kind of power supply since switching supplies were invented in the 1950s.  Contrary to other designers’ seemingly unending desire for larger capacitor values in the power supply, Bob Backert wanted to reduce capacitors to the greatest extent possible, because of their detrimental effects on timber, timing and dynamics. GreenForce allows the power supply to use almost no capacitance, and therefore far higher quality capacitors (in the case of the Rhumba, high quality polypropylene capacitors).

The way the power supply works is also key ... and it is very different, because it actively pushes power into the amplifying circuit, instead of passively bleeding out power as the circuit demands it.  That ‘push’ makes GreenForce more nimble in responding to power demands from musical recordings.  This also improves the accuracy of rhythm and dynamics.

GreenForce gets its green “credentials” by shunning typical power supply parts (electrolytic capacitors) that contain environmentally unfriendly chemicals, instead using environmentally neutral “film” capacitors.

Built in the USA

The Rhumba is designed by veteran circuit designer Bob Backert, and assembled in the U.S. under the close supervision of his son, COO Gary Backert.

Tubes

Two 12au7 tubes are utilized for the gain stage, accessible by a convenient transparent access door that highlights the warm glow of the tubes through the top panel. The Rhumba comes with Mullard 12au7 tubes.

Gain Stage – “Dynamic Linearity” Circuit

As in the Rhythm, the gain stage features a unique tube support circuit that allows more accurate dynamics, lower distortion and very low output impedance (just 75 ohms). These benefits are achieved without resorting to common tools such as negative feedback and cathode followers, which Mr. Backert feels are detrimental to sonic accuracy.