Is Burmester 232 worth the price?

Thanks for your input. I bought Burmester primarily on reputation. It sounded good when I auditioned it and the dealer said it would pair well with my Kanta 3s. Also , the burmester in my Mercedes sounds great. I like warm sound, big soundstage and punchy bass.

My primary concern is whether buying at retail was a smart move. Comparable Japanese brands go on sale on eBay. It will arrive tomorrow and I am sure it will sound great with my Kanta 3s. But then I doubt Burmester goes on sale much, right?

If their home audio is as good as their car audio (according to the dealer their home audio is better), I will be content.

I have a Burmester 218 and it is, to my ears, a superb amp. To my ears, it delivers a very natural, musical sound without being slow or soft. I checked out several good brands and landed on Burmester, but certainly no bad choices among the brands mentioned by @soix. Accuphase is warmer/softer to my ears-as @soix said, its a matter of personal taste, and that might be yours.

Burmester makes high quality, well engineered and well built products, but you should ignore anyone who tells you what you will like best or what is "better" between well regarded brands-only your ears can decide. @soix mentioned a number of great brands and some will say you can match any of them for a fraction of the cost-I don't think so-but each to their own. One thing is for sure, you will have a very well designed, well built product from a highly respected brand. Price is absolute, but value is inherently subjective, and only you can decide what represents value to you. If the sound brings you joy, don't look back.

Lots of folks have great luck buying on ebay-if I were buying used I'd want the comfort of buying from a dealer, but many have great success otherwise.

You are right, you won't see much Burmester stuff on the used market, which speaks to a satisfied customer base. 

Please let us know what you think after you listen. Congrats!

@kerrybh Glad to hear it. I did not purchase Burmester blindly. Listen to it every day in my Mercedes and love the sound. So I know what I am getting. Only question is whether it’s worth twice as much as comparable Japanese brands.

@madhusudan_ramaswamy we all look at that sort of thing differently. Value, and money are unnecessarily divisive in our hobby. There are folks who are happy to pay six figures for an amp if it’s what they want and then there are a lot of folks who enjoy listening to music on a $100 Bluetooth speaker and think spending anything more than that is wasteful. No right or wrong, each to their own.