Small – but perfectly formed
By Roy Gregory
Located in Northern Alsace, within spitting distance of the German border, B.audio is one of a small but growing number of companies leveraging modern technology, design approaches and distributed manufacturing to create powerful and versatile audio products. Compact, stylish and with more than a hint of CH Precision’s adaptable/expandable/upgradable ethos (if not their card-cage construction) B.audio’s components are elegant, capable and surprisingly affordable. Their range is expanding and their products have been gaining quite a reputation: all the more remarkable when you realise just how streamlined the B.audio operation is.
Founded in 2016 by brothers Cédric and Sébastien Bermann, with support and encouragement from their father, Gérard, B.audio operates out of a large house in the town of Saint Hippolyte. Cédric supplies the expertise in electronic design, software and signal processing, Sébastien brings experience in the testing and tuning of products, with a background including working at Mercedes-Benz. Facilities stretch to an office/listening room, R&D space and production workshop, all three combined creating a tiny footprint that at first sight seems at odds with the sophisticated elegance of the products. But look closer and things start to make a whole lot of sense…
With two existing ranges, each with six separate products, you might expect the range of parts and chassis components to fill a far larger space. That’s until you recognise the common casework shared by all of the products, their common circuitry and modular construction. The company’s original products were the Reference series, which in turn spawned the simplified One Series, similar in concept but with cost savings traded against performance. However, the range structure is perhaps most easily understood through those basic models.
If we look at the One Series products, you see an integrated amp, a stereo amp and four digital pieces. But those digital units comprise a straight DAC (the B.dac one), a DAC with network/streaming capability and an acoustic correction capability (the B.dac one EX) and then the same two units with an added control functionality and analogue inputs (the B.dpr one and B.dpr one EX). In other words, that’s the same DAC, with or without streaming connectivity and /or analogue inputs and variable output. Built into essentially the same chassis, the external differences are limited to the range of input socketry and whether or not the front panel sports the large, flush-mounted volume control. Internally, the motherboard can be layered with the additional streaming and analogue input boards. They all use the same chassis, the same flush-fitted display and all offer both single-ended/RCA and balanced connectivity. Not quite four products in one – but close. It’s a common basis that makes for efficient production and a strong brand identity, an identity that carries over to the more ambitious Reference line, where the DACs gain a rotary input selector and the control units a second rotary control. Otherwise, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the three available amplifiers, the B.dpr one controller, the B.dac or B.dac EX, at least at first glance.
