This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below

A detour. Reader Dr. Mike Woolias: "I'm considering a new preamp. I currently have a Supratek Syrah. I know that at one stage you owned the Cabernet. Mick Maloney now only makes two preamps. One is a DHT version of the Cabernet with the 4P1L tube. I like my Supratek Syrah although the old Mullard NOS 6SN7 tubes are slightly microphonic. Mick reckons the new Cabernet is the best pre he has ever made. That's a very fine endorsement. Unfortunately the 4P1L tube is very microphonic. So are most DHT variants he's used including the 801A. There is a DIY site dedicated to a 4P1L preamp. It describes various remedies to tame or at least reduce the microphonics. But Mick isn’t interested in implementing them. I am extremely sensitive to microphonics. Irrespective of the preamp's likely merit, I suspect it'd always aggravate me. So I was considering alternatives. I would be driving Merrill Audio's Veritas Ncore 1200 power amps into KingSound King Electrostatic speakers. I purchased the Merrill amps based on your review of the similar Atsah amps. I also own the Bakoon integrated amp based on your recommendation in a second system."


I assured our good doctor. Like my Nagra Jazz, the Rhythm 1.1 is decidedly not a direct-heated triode preamp to suffer the breed's general propensity for noise. As such there are no hum or surf issues to which I'm allergic too and which at this price I'd find utterly unacceptable. This hurdle the Backert Labs cleared with ease. On 85dB (in)sensitive Mythology M1 super monitors from EnigmAcoustics however when fronted by my 60wpc Crayon Audio CFA-1.2 amp with passive attenuator set to max, Metrum Hex as source, I could barely open the Rhythm 1.1's volume before things got too loud*. Even set to 12dB of gain I have room to 9:00 on my Nagra Jazz. Set to zero gain I can hit 11:30. With the Backert Labs, I barely made it past 7:00. For someone with a similar gain/SPL scenario, this preamp would be fatally flawed. For us the taper of its pot is far too steep. Whilst Andy Tebbe reported that they've evaluated their deck in various systems to never encounter gain poisoning, I can only report on my own results. I'd lobby for a shallower taper to have average levels get closer to 12:00 for plenty of fine adjustments in the most critical range. Zero to hero might be good in business but it spells bankruptcy for hifi volume.
* On all my speakers with any of my amps, a passive preamp like my Bent Audio TAP-X sits well below unity gain, hence below the output voltage of my standard sources. Clearly *any* preamp gain is redundant. Source-direct without volume control is always too loud. That's why many modern preamps are low-gain devices. It's why my Nagra and Esoteric preamps add a 0dB function just in case. With 24.5dB of gain, Backert Labs have opted for the opposite route. Now maximized useful range for their volume control becomes essential.

My Goldmund/Job225 amp's 35dB of gain or the Clones Audio monos' 30dB brought this to a point. With the Crayon's amp+passive pot concept I simply parked its attenuator 20dB down to 60 on the dial and presto. But my high-gain amps with fixed gain were barely useable. Even with my 10-watt FirstWatt SIT1 monos driving the 92.5dB soundkaos Wave 40 speakers above, the volume sat as shown. To be clear, raw gain isn't the issue. Not at all. Managing it with enough fine gradations is.

Bad boy. With that bit of housekeeping down, up to real business. If the Nagra is a space fiend and supremely refined aesthete, Mister B. felt like a vital slugger with his punch, potent bass and amplified dynamics. Whilst texturally coarser and rhythmically more rugged than the twice-priced fleet-footed swish Swiss—for rhymy/rheumy word games I'll introduce you to the Pushy Pussy and Molly the Mall Moll some other day—the Rhythm 1.1's reflexes and follow-though hit from the hip not shoulder. It really did behave a bit like a boxer and dynamic expander. That and the enhanced black values from very butch bass did something to perceived mass and physicality. Hence my chosen image of the vital slugger. Should you belabour hifi's propensity for mellowing, diluting and thinning out live music's energy and pure substance, this deck will move your system in the right direction.


If you thrive on twitchy voltage pulses and feisty assuredness for beats of all sorts, the justly named Rhythm 1.1 has your number. After his many Le Trio Joubran collaborations with his two brothers, stream Adnan Joubran's Borders Beyond solo album. It'll drive home these virile jumpy aspects. Those act a bit like hornspeaker or high-efficiency widebander reflexes. Yet they're blessedly free of the latter's tendencies for speed over substance which on the wrong amps can turn whitish and zippy. Rollicking, muscular and punchy are far more suitable descriptors for this deck's contributions. Some of this minor massiveness might tie directly to Mr. B's high gain. I've heard similar qualities from previous preamps with stout amplification factor. That's despite the obvious proviso that most or all their gain gets burnt up in resistive heat by their attenuators. Here Bob Backert feels that feedback and other measures to curtail the native gain of his chosen output tubes would be detrimental to tonal and dynamic accuracy. Or as Andy Tebbe put it, "the volume control implementation can be changed. If anyone with a reasonable setup like your SITs with their 1.13V sensitivity and normal gain plus 93dB speaker had complained to us earlier, we'd already have done so. Now that you have, we shall adjust." Bravo!

On paper excess gain seems foolish; the anti colour to green. Why produce it only to throw it away? Passive preamps are all most of us need, functionally speaking. That argument has solid economic and logical traction. Yet experience suggests that there's more to it on sound quality. When high gain isn't accompanied by higher noise, it can be beneficial to physicality and overall weight. Whether that factors here and to what extent versus other proprietary circuit aspects, I obviously couldn't say. In any event, the Backert is a full-blooded meatarian. It's no transcendental fruitarian with perfect skin but absentee grounding in materialism. If you object to such poetic descriptions, let's hit our audio drawer.


Most decisive perhaps is the absence of fuzz, blur, indecision, smearing and bloat. That's easily heard on percussion and string attacks. They're spiky, they bristle and they're not physically bigger than they should be. That's key. The next thing revisits the audiophile chestnut about the more powerful amp improving your sound. That has nothing to do with attainable SPL. Your far smaller amp already played louder than you ever needed to. If you've experienced how a more powerful amp increased heft, presence and dynamic grip (more power may also backfire when it sacrifices refinement and resolution, hence power alone is no guarantee for better sound), you'll have a good sense for what the Rhythm 1.1 can bring to the party. Combine dynamic expansion, taut timing, punchy powerful bass and high mass and you've got this machine's core appeal pegged. It's very much about a 'they're here' rather than 'I'm there' presentation. The presence is in your room versus you being elsewhere in a virtual venue. Finally there a strongly rendered tone colours. The audiophile term is saturation. It's what tubes are often very good at. This 12AU7 implementation harnesses it properly. If it didn't, you might as well go transistors. Not here. The little bottles are there for good reason.

Given the company's project brief, these findings could seem like a setup because they mirror their claims so well. Most of us are cynics well inured to claims. We might thus suspect near collusion when they and reviewer opinion overlap so perfectly. Yet the Rhythm 1.1 behaves exactly as its name and circuit descriptions predict. It isn't subtle or equivocal. Hence truth in advertising for once. Or as I'd prefer to put it, Bob Backert knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it. Which I found pleasantly reassuring. Anyone is free to disagree with the man's priorities but you couldn't fault him for having them nor nailing them so succinctly. Distinction in a sea of sameness is to be applauded!