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The tour. Arriving in a large sturdy carton cradled by very thick foam end caps, the classy John Chapman metal remote and tube lid in a separate small box inside, owner's manual in a Manila envelope, first impressions were thoroughly professional.
This continued when inspecting how the lid worked. Secured by five little magnets and marked with a finger symbol for where to press, it's simply a loosely fit insert with enough give against a vertical foam pad to remove easily. Basic but very practical.
Ditto for the mentioned socketry markers.
The entire top cover slides out inside its channel when the small retaining lip is unscrewed and a third lock screw removed.
The cover's inside is damped with two pieces of mat beloved by modifiers like PartsConnexion.
The insides show what looks like through-hole construction* for the mother board and clearly is SMD for the green control board. Unusually the two valves are completely surrounded by metal bins whose sides are additional damped with the same absorptive mats.
Because the volume control sports a lit slit to show position, a little wire powering its green LED travels with the pot when triggered by hand or remote.
* Bob Backert actually practices "component-to-component mapping" which "takes point-to-point assembly to a different level by directly connecting components—e.g. resistor leads directly soldered to transistor leads—to reduce terminal connecting points and jumper wires. The goal of CCM is to reduce the numbers of solder joints and minimize the physical path from each part to the next. Careful layout is required like solving a puzzle. We don't claim that CCM is unique to Backert Labs. Bob just hasn't seen it before."
Whilst it doesn't look neat like traditional circuit-board construction, it does make repairs easier. I'd simply question how consistent this technique can possibly be from machine to machine; and add that many connections in this photo look like solder itself made a connection rather than wire leads being physically crimped first to have solder merely create an airtight seal around the joint. Minimized path lengths between parts can be achieved also with 3-dimensional circuit board layouts of four layers or more.
Bob Backert's triple-decades experience modifying and repairing hifi kit clearly favours this type of construction over robotically assembled boards or the rat's nest of classic point to point.
And he very obviously dislikes computer-style ribbon wiring for flying leads. The Rhythm 1.1 is entirely free of it. Added Andy Tebbe: "We used input 3 and output 1 during break-in. The best-sounding internal wiring ended up being part Kimber, part VH Audio. We assume you have various EU-terminated power cord options. If you would like one, we'd send one. For domestic customers we selected the 18-gauge Volex 17757 rated for 125V/10A after testing and rejecting a few beefier candidates and doing some web research on which stock cords received audiophile praises. We are not in stores at this stage. Those interested may call or email us at 302-723-7549 in the US or email at info @ BackertLabs.com."
Here is the nightly light show. The red LED signifies 'mute' and is on also during thermal ramp-up after powering on to extinguish when the deck is ready to output signal. Yellow is the power indicator, green shows the volume setting.
